Sanctuary Cities
Sanctuary policies directly violate Federal law. Section 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) provides that
Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.
However, neither DHS nor the Department of Justice (DOJ) has ever challenged a sanctuary policy.
Subsidizing Sanctuaries: The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program
By Russ Doubleday, Jessica Vaughan
November 2010
In 2010, the grant program, known as the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), doled out a total of roughly $400 million to about 850 cities, counties, and states.1 Among them were 27 jurisdictions widely considered to be sanctuary jurisdictions, which together received more than $62.6 million, or 15.6 percent of the total (see Table 1).
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of voters favor a cutoff of federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities. (Rasmussen, May, 2011)