Should California Declare itself a Sanctuary State? / Pro

The California senate has recently passed a bill called the “California Values Act,” which is intended to keep local and state law enforcement agencies from enforcing immigration laws or deporting undocumented immigrants. In other words, California could become what they are calling a “Sanctuary state”.

Much controversy surrounds the term “sanctuary” these days. However, this is not stopping local cities and schools from looking into becoming safe havens for undocumented immigrants, including Fresno City College.

Despite the controversy surrounding this topic, California has had some of the most active sanctuary cities, and should continue to hold its relationship of trust to its own immigration community.

The bill passed claims that almost one-third of Californians are foreign born and half the children in California have at least one immigrant parent. That would be one huge hassle to try and find all of the undocumented immigrants and deport them.

The fact remains that immigrants should be given the opportunity to come to the U.S., at least to obtain citizenship, and for those already here to be able to continue to live peacefully as long as they abide by the laws of our country.

There are approximately 3 million undocumented immigrants in California, according to the Migration Policy Institute, and they are more likely not rapists and murderers, like President Trump claims them to be than anyone else. These accusations seem petty, because crime is going to happen anyway, regardless of whether the criminal if undocumented or not.

More likely, these undocumented people have families who are just trying to live well in America, and it is inhumane to tear families apart just because of undocumented immigration. Making California into a sanctuary state would help solve this problem.

The New York Times reported in an April article by Jennifer Medina that in Mendota, a 42-year-old immigrant was on her way to church where she was stopped by cops because her windows were too tinted. Half an hour later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were knocking at her door. She feared deportation, so she did not return home.

A lot of immigrants come to America come to the U.S. to live better lives, either to escape war or other harsh living conditions. To be deported back to where they came from because of petty things like tinted windows is extremely unfair. California has a duty to protect its citizens, regardless of their citizenship status.

If the woman from Mendota was a student at FCC and this had happened, she would most likely not come to school out of fear that someone would turn her in.  She would be living in fear that the government is coming after her, and this problem would be affecting her right to an education. Neither scenario should be acceptable.

One of the biggest issues about this is President Trumps threats to defund anything that identifies as “sanctuary.” If California does become a sanctuary state, and FCC does start accepting students who are  undocumented immigrants, President Trump would have a difficult time cutting federal aid to us.

Congress has the ultimate power over federal spending, so the matter is not in his hands, and it seems highly unlikely that congress is going to cut federal aid to an entire state, let alone one of the most renowned community colleges in the nation.

Our right to declare ourselves a sanctuary state is protected by the tenth amendment, which clearly states that any power not delegated to the federal government becomes the state’s responsibility.

We can only hope that California, and public school like FCC can continue to try and support our citizens, and not try to get them out of the country, when they have a right to live here in the first place.