No Safe Place

http://www.msnbc.com/specials/migrant-crisis/sanctuary-cities

The ruling had a large-scale ripple effect across the country. All told, there are now 364 counties and 39 cities that refuse to cooperate with ICE, according to data collected by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Police chiefs and sheriffs decided that it was no longer worth opening up their departments to lawsuits in order to simply do ICE a favor.

“This is not a bunch of left-wing radicals. These are sheriffs and police chiefs,” Fife said.

The shift was seldom sold as offering immigrants “sanctuary,” but rather, as a bid for improving public safety. Local cops couldn’t effectively do their jobs if immigrant communities refused, out of fear, to talk to them.

The result is a patchwork of sanctuary-type policies that look nothing like the original religious movement, but have evolved as a way for individual regions to cope with a sprawling and deeply broken federal immigration system. The laws are far from uniform.