Inquirer Editorial: Trump keeps blowing smoke on immigration

There's so much fog surrounding President Trump's immigration policies that the issue is at risk of getting lost at sea.

Trump talks a hard line on immigration, but has done little other than to threaten so-called sanctuary cities like Philadelphia with the loss of federal funding.

It's as if the president has turned to threatening Americans to distract attention from the fact that the administration's Muslim travel ban is tied up in court, or that Mexico still isn't paying for a border wall.

Too much hyperbolic rhetoric has been flowing about sanctuary cities allowing undocumented immigrants accused of rapes and murders in their home countries to roam U.S. streets free as a bird. But only anecdotal evidence has been offered to substantiate that allegation.

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, and Highline College concluded that there was no evidence of higher crime rates in cities with sanctuary policies. "We find no statistically discernible difference in violent crime rate, rape, or property crime across the cities," the researchers said.

Mayor Kenney says he is willing to hold persons wanted by ICE when the agency produces a warrant. Since January 2016, ICE has obtained three warrants to take custody of Philadelphia detainees. The city turned over one person and the other two are serving sentences in jurisdictions outside the city.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last week that he would deny federal grants to communities that don't cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sessions said sanctuary cities are breaking federal law, but some legal experts say that has not been established.

A section of the U.S. Code says local governments may not restrict information provided to federal officers regarding the citizenship or immigration status of any individual. But there has been no determination that any city has violated the law, so on what basis would Sessions withhold funds?

The pressure on sanctuary cities to hold people for ICE ignores the costly legal liability those cities would face for violating a person's civil rights. U.S. courts have held that localities cannot hold an undocumented immigrant who has been arrested beyond his or her sentence. That's the law. The Trump administration should attack it, not Philadelphia.

Philadelphia officials say they don't ask arrested individuals for their immigration status, so the city has no information to withhold. Besides, anyone arrested by local authorities has his fingerprints and other information downloaded to the National Criminal Information Center, which ICE can access and determine if someone is in the country illegally.

The administration's attempt to bully cities into having local police act like ICE agents could make cities even less safe. Immigrant families living in fear of having a loved one deported are less likely to draw attention to themselves by reporting crimes to police when they are victims or witnesses.

Trump's fog machine stirs fear about freed rapists while doing little to formulate a comprehensive immigration policy that addresses not just border security but legal residency for those who may deserve that status.