Phoenix to End Its Sanctuary Status

This is a small but important victory in the battle for this country to get control of its borders. Phoenix, Arizona has announced that it is ending its policy as a sanctuary city. A sanctuary city doesn't ask for proof of legal status of any individual that its police force arrests. Thus, if an illegal alien is arrested, no one knows they are illegal and thus those illegals aren't deported after they serve their time.

The police in this city at the center of the immigration debate will soon ask all people arrested whether they are in the United States legally and will in certain cases report the information to the federal authorities, Mayor Phil Gordon announced on Friday.

People stopped for civil traffic violations like speeding will not be questioned, nor will crime victims or witnesses.

All those arrested on criminal charges like drunken driving and murder will be asked by officers whether they are in the United States legally.

The police may decide to recommend checking by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

While this is only one city, let's hope this becomes a trend and maybe one day soon my city, Chicago, will join Phoenix and end its own sanctuary city policy.

There is a school of thought that I subscribe to that the first order of business in getting control of the borders is identifying and rounding up the CRIMINAL illegal aliens among us. Whatever one's thought on the matter of illegal aliens, we should all be in favor of removing those with a criminal history. Sanctuary cities make that more difficult. By refusing to check the legal status of all those that are arrested and even convicted, the police don't identify those that are here illegally. Criminal illegal aliens are able to serve their time and walk out of jail to do more damage to our society. Criminals ranging from drunk drivers to murderers are counted among those that have taken advantage of many city's sanctuary policies to commit crimes with impugnity.

The most famous case is that of Jose Carranza who killed three college students execution style while he was out on bail after being charged with the rape of a five year old. Carranza was living in Newark, a sanctuary city.

This move by Phoenix is a welcomed step however what we really need is momentum to turn all sanctuary cities around. (There was incidentally last fall an amendment sponsored by Senator David Vitter that would have cut off public funding to sanctuary cities but it failed in a nearly party line vote with Democrats being against this amendment.)