The San Francisco Bay Area is home to more than 7 million people.
Nearly a half million of them are undocumented immigrants.
It’s also home to several sanctuary cities,
which are meant to be safer places for undocumented people to live.
And that’s caught the eye of the federal government.
California better hold on tight. They’re about to see a lot more special agents,
a lot more deportation officers in the state of California.
President Trump is ramping up ICE raids and threatening to withhold federal funding from cities that don't
cooperate with ICE. In the face of these threats, officials from sanctuary cities
like San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose say they'll still protect undocumented immigrants.
At a time when local officials are defying the federal
government, just how safe is a sanctuary city under Trump?
At the start of this year, California became the first sanctuary state in the
country when it enacted a law to drastically limit state and local law
enforcement's cooperation with ICE. And here in Oakland, the City Council took things a step further.
In January, they passed a unanimous resolution banning
police from cooperating when ICE is trying to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants.
The move came not long after the Oakland Police Department received
backlash for an August 2017 raid in which they provided traffic support for ICE.
Now, cooperation with immigration officials in civil and criminal cases is
prohibited in Oakland. That's the first time this has ever happened in a U.S. city.
Oakland's mayor, Libby Schaaf, has even
said she'd go to jail to protect immigrants.
So you're ready to go to jail over this?
Yes. We are here to protect all of our residents, regardless of where they came from.
The issue of sanctuary cities is polarizing, thanks in part to
Trump's repeated claims that they're unsafe and hotbeds of crime. He's pointed
to a high-profile San Francisco case in which an undocumented man was charged –
and later acquitted – in the shooting death of Katie Steinle right here on this pier.
But the data shows that sanctuary cities are actually safer, with
significantly lower crime. On average, there are 35.5 fewer crimes committed
per 10,000 people in sanctuary counties compared to non-sanctuary counties.
Undocumented immigrants in the Bay Area are still getting deported, even from sanctuary cities.
Although they are safer jurisdictions, whether you get
turned over to ICE often comes down to decisions made by local police.
Take the case of Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno. He's an undocumented man from El Salvador who
was turned over to ICE after coming to this local police station to report a
stolen car. He then sued the city for violating its own sanctuary laws, and won a settlement.
But despite his legal victory, Pedro's still in deportation
proceedings. And although his settlement was surprising, how police handled the case is not.
Say you get pulled over for a busted taillight or an unpaid traffic
ticket. If police take you in, your name and fingerprints are automatically
entered into the system. If you're undocumented, ICE gets alerted.
Police can then hold you for up to 48 hours, which is enough time
for ICE to come get you. Or they could choose to let you go.
Since Trump took office, the number of undocumented people without criminal convictions who are
arrested by ICE nearly tripled compared to 2016.
Meanwhile, California's not only trying to shield 2.3 million people as a sanctuary state, it's also proposed
extending health care and financial aid to the undocumented.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions called California's new sanctuary state status "unconscionable."
And Trump threatened to cut the state's federal grant money, which the Democrats called "blackmail."
California is technically the sixth biggest economy in the world,
but that doesn't mean it can afford to lose federal help.
So, in August of 2017, state and San Francisco city officials sued the Trump administration, claiming
the president's threats to withhold funding were unconstitutional and violated residents' rights.
A federal judge agreed and blocked Trump's attempts, for now.
But despite all the efforts being taken by California, and specifically the Bay Area,
to protect undocumented people, they still can't stop ICE from conducting raids or deporting people.
Already this year, we've seen major sweeps of businesses in
Northern California – the largest such workplace raids since Trump took office.
And ICE acting director Thomas Holman has called for a "400 percent increase" in
workplace raids, making it clear that even sanctuary cities aren't safe.
California has shown it isn't backing down from its sanctuary fight with the federal government.
But for the people whose lives are at stake, the fear has
intensified as they wait to see how much sanctuary they'll actually receive.
Hey guys, it's Dena. We've done a lot of reporting on immigration this season.
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