The case of Elvira Arellano and other instances of illegal immigrants seeking sanctuary in various places in this country has brought up the trouble possibility of the return of a medieval concept: the city-state. Several cities in this country have declared themselves "sanctuary cities" for illegal immigrants. This is a violation of federal law.

The Constitution of the United States distributes certain powers to the federal government, reserving all other powers for the states. One of the duties of the federal government is to protect the people from foreign threats. One of the ways that it does this is by regulating the flow of people entering this country. In order to do this it relies on state and local law enforcement to keep it advised when they detain suspects that they believe might be here illegally.

After 9/11 security tightened everywhere around the country except at the borders, particularly the border with Mexico. Billions of dollars were given to state and local governments for the express purpose of “homeland security”. This security requires that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies cooperate in intelligence gathering and the apprehension of suspects. Unfortunately some cities refused to be a part of the United States instead preferring to declare themselves “sanctuary cities” for illegal aliens. This means that the police and other law enforcement agencies are not allowed to determine if a suspect—even of a violent crime—is an illegal or not.

These cities seem to have no problem taking federal funds for their social services, but when the feds need them it's just too bad. Since the Patriot Act and subsequent national security legislation were signed, cities have been wrangling for their share of the funding pie. Some of the larger cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco felt shorted because smaller communities were receiving nearly equal amounts of federal dollars. The larger cities demanded that the money be redistributed to them since, as they claimed, they were more likely targets.

The hypocrisy is that these same cities refuse to determine whether their residents are here legally. This strikes me as the antithesis of “security”. Considering how many illegals turn out to be guilty of other crimes in addition to their immigration violations, it concerns me that there are cities who are harboring criminals.