Yes, Philadelphia is a sanctuary city − but that offers undocumented immigrants little protection from mass deportations
Published: December 18, 2024 8:20am EST
Author
Jennifer J. Lee
Associate Professor of Law, Temple University
Disclosure statement
I work with immigrant rights organizations that work on issues of ICE enforcement through my legal clinic class.
Partners
Temple University
Philadelphia is what’s known as a sanctuary city. While the term has no fixed definition, it usually refers to a city that has declared its refusal to cooperate – or even works at odds – with federal immigration enforcement.
Will living in a sanctuary city safeguard Philly’s roughly 50,000 undocumented immigrants and their families if President-elect Donald Trump delivers on his promise to deport a record number of immigrants?
As a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, where I supervise students who represent low-wage immigrant workers in the city, including on issues of immigration enforcement, I know that sanctuary policies are meaningful in that they throw a wrench into the federal immigration enforcement system.
But the bottom line is that federal immigration officers – usually U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – can still carry out deportations in a sanctuary city. Living in a sanctuary city such as Philadelphia does not mean that city residents are otherwise safe from ICE.
Philly’s sanctuary policies
https://theconversation.com/yes-philadelphia-is-a-sanctuary-city-but-that-offers-undocumented-immigrants-little-protection-from-mass-deportations-245129
