Sanctuary—“Refuge or safety from pursuit, persecution, or other danger” . . . “protection or a safe place, especially for someone or something being chased or hunted.”

Jeff Sessions (above)—U. S. Attorney General and a key member of Donald Trump’s controversial cadre—tossed himself under the bus a while back, when he recused himself from participating in investigations of Moscow meddling in the 2016 election. But he found another way recently to sing for his supper.

According to one newspaper report, “Decrying the safety risk posed when cities don't cooperate with federal immigration authorities, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions repeated previous statements that the Trump administration would seek to deny so-called sanctuary cities some federal grant funds, but offered no new policies.”

Trump formerly said of illegal Mexican immigrants that “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists . . .” I happened to catch on TV part of Sessions’ March 27 news conference—when he was speaking of “rapes . . . murder” . . . the danger to women and children from illegal immigrants. I finally found his speech on the Internet and was surprised that it appeared to be less inflammatory than the version I’d heard a section of. Then I saw that it had been posted by his own Department of Justice. 

In the official version, nonetheless, he speaks of “DUIs, assaults, burglaries, drug crimes, gang crimes, rapes, crimes against children and murders.  Countless Americans would be alive today – and countless loved ones would not be grieving today – if the policies of these sanctuary jurisdictions were ended. . .  these policies endanger the lives of every American.” 

That’s a flagrant misrepresentation of reality.  

For several decades, Sessions has faced charges of everything from making improper racist statements to not protecting voting accessibility for black voters. . . even of being sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan. In his recent news conference he did detail a few crimes for which perpetrators turned out to be illegal immigrants. But considering the overall number of crimes throughout the U. S., those incidents come nowhere near constituting some major trend or alarming statistic.

It’s propaganda plain and simple as Sessions echoes Trump. The Trump legion is ever on the alert for such isolated incidents to exploit. 

Actually, several studies, over many years, have concluded that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States. And experts say the available evidence does not support the idea that undocumented immigrants commit a disproportionate share of crime. See:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/us/trump-illegal-immigrants-crime.html

“Analyses of census data from 1980 through 2010 show that among men ages 18 to 49, immigrants were one-half to one-fifth as likely to be incarcerated as those born in the United States. Across all ages and sexes, about 7 percent of the nation’s population are noncitizens, while figures from the Justice Department show that about 5 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons are noncitizens.” 

Yet, in one of Trump’s first executive orders upon taking office states that many people who enter the country illegally “present a significant threat to national security and public safety.” 

Well, apparently not quite the threat of the white guy next door. 

As for withholding of funds from declared “sanctuary” cities, the consensus opinion seems to be that the withholding of federal funding on that account would not stand up in court. It all seems to boil down to the matter of local law enforcement  cooperating with federal immigration officials and just exactly what the parameters  of that “cooperation” are is not  quite clear. “Sanctuary” itself has existed in various ways throughout human history—traditionally, but not exclusively involving holy places such as churches. 

However, if unable to twist the law to his advantage, Trump will find other ways to punish those who refuse to kowtow to the emanations of his colossal ego. Seattle’s a declared sanctuary city. Trump’s recently proposed federal budget calls for cutting funding for restoration of Puget Sound from $28 million to $2 million. 

Donald’s been called a lot of things, but “honorable” is not one of them.

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