Is Philadelphia a Sanctuary City?
Parker doesn’t want to say so, she doesn’t want to poke the bear, meaning Trump, and bring more ICE to Philly. They operate here right now, but quietly.
As noted previously, Mayor Cherelle Parker has been extremely cagey when talking about illegal immigration to President Donald J. Trump, and his henchwomen running the Department of Justice (Pam Bondi) and the Department of Homeland Security (Kristi Noem).
The last thing Parker wants is a catfight.
She has studiously avoided — and has been criticized by the Left — talking about Philadelphia as a “sanctuary city.”
Which it is. And I will prove it in a minute.
The issue was revived by a story in the Inquirer, which used a Freedom of Information request to pry loose a letter from City Solicitor Renee Garcia to Attorney General Bondi.
In her letter, the attorney tightwalks a narrow linguistic passage, describing Philly as a “welcoming” city, but not a “sanctuary.” It’s progressive doubletalk.
Garcia writes about Philly being supportive to “our immigration communities and remaining a welcoming city.” You can read the letter here.
The government is not interested in “immigration communities.” It is interested in illegal immigrants, and you never see sanctuary entities use the word illegal. As in “No person is illegal.”
Like no person is a criminal?
Illegal immigration is illegal, and the usual punishment is deportation, carried out by ICE.
Yes, even the nitwit majority on City Council “welcomes” people who got here by breaking the law. As I have noted before, no one is “above the law,” unless you are an illegal.
Both sides have a tendency to ignore laws it doesn’t like.
You don’t have to apply the Socratic method to poke holes in Garcia’s dissertation.
She beats her chest about city cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, plus others.
What is not mentioned? Department of Homeland Security. Why? We are a sanctuary welcoming city.
She references, but does not quote from, the Jim Kenney executive order that created the sanctuary, which focused on detainers, but went much further than that.
Not only would the city not detain a prisoner beyond their sentence so ICE could take charge of a foreign offender, but the order demands the city not even inform ICE of “their pending release. . . Unless such person is being released after conviction for a first or second degree felony involving violence and the detainer is supported by a judicial warrant.”
For reasons that are not clear to me, ICE finds it very difficult to be granted a judicial warrant for someone already in custody. Which means the city can, and has, released illegals who have been convicted of violent felonies.
So are we a sanctuary city?
Parker doesn’t want to say so, she doesn’t want to poke the bear, meaning Trump, and bring more ICE to Philly. They operate here right now, but quietly.
But who does say we are a sanctuary city?
Why that strapper Jim Kenney, who danced a little dopey jig in his office after winning a court decision. “We are a sanctuary city,” he sang.
In case you forgot, here it is.
I know Parker would like to scrub that off the internet.
Yes, we are a sanctuary city, like it or not. And obfuscation by the city can’t change that fact.
