PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross and the City’s Director of Emergency Management, Samantha Phillips, both expressed publicly their opposition to federal action which would seek to defund so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions. Both Ross and Phillips expressed their concern that such action would imperil public safety.

Phillips said, “I am very concerned that the President’s executive order could limit or reduce aid awarded to communities following disasters, namely the public assistance and hazard mitigation programs. These sources of economic support help communities rebuild more quickly and more resiliently post-disaster. Penalizing states or cities, for any reason, in their time of need after a disaster directly contradicts FEMA’s mission and fails to recognize the interconnectedness of states, local jurisdictions, and communities across the nation. Furthermore, reductions to preparedness and mitigation grants will reduce the nation’s readiness. Disasters don’t recognize political or jurisdictional boundaries. For this reason, we need programs that will help us all succeed in an environment where we know that threats, both natural and human-caused, are only growing in intensity and frequency.  The implementation of this policy could undo years of investments and progress in making the entire country better prepared and more resilient.”

Commissioner Ross expressed his support by joining fellow law enforcement leaders in a letter to U.S. Senators. An excerpt from the letter follows.

“As law enforcement leaders, our primary mission is to serve and protect our cities, counties and towns. In this respect, we are committed to a path to public safety – preserving the security of our communities and upholding the rule of law.

“Immigration enforcement is, first and foremost, a federal responsibility. We believe that making our communities safer means better defining roles and improving relationships between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. Local control has been a beneficial approach for law enforcement for decades – having the federal government compel state and local law enforcement to carry out new and sometimes problematic tasks undermines the delicate federal balance and will harm locally-based, community-oriented policing.

“The valuable expertise and resources of our officers and deputies should prioritize threats such as dangerous criminals and criminal organizations causing harm. We believe that state and local law enforcement must work together with federal authorities to protect our communities and that we can best serve our communities by leaving the enforcement of immigration laws to the federal government. Threatening the removal of valuable grant funding from jurisdictions that choose not to spend limited resources enforcing federal immigration law is extremely problematic. Removing these funds that contribute to the health and well-being of communities across the nation would not make our communities safer and would not fix any part of our broken immigration system.

“The issue of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions is a complex one. There is no set definition of what comprises a “sanctuary jurisdiction” and the term is often defined much too broadly. The term often sweeps in localities that engage in well-established community policing practices or follow federal court decisions that have found federal immigration detainers violate the constitution.”