A sanctuary law aimed to 'Trump-proof' California on immigration. What has it accomplished?

Cities with sanctuary policies, which grew out of the sanctuary movement of the 1980s, limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with immigration agents. Original sanctuary efforts led by churches and religious clergy helped protect more than 1,500 Central American refugees, and echoes of this movement can be seen in efforts to resist ICE operations today.

After using the federal SAVE tool to check its voter rolls for deceased voters and noncitizens, one Arizona county was able to expand ballot access for 255 people who previously did not have proof of citizenship allowing them to vote in both federal and state races. However, the tool has been shown to falsely identify some voters as noncitizens, raising concerns among voting rights advocates.

Sanctuary cities aim to protect undocumented residents through local ordinances and policies, typically by limiting cooperation with federal immigration officials and by not requesting information on the immigration status of residents who use municipal services. Research has shown that such policies have historically helped reduce the number of deportations of people without criminal backgrounds and that communities with sanctuary policies have not seen any increase in crime as a result, but data on the impacts of more recent sanctuary efforts are limited.

Congress created the U visa program in 2000 to encourage undocumented immigrants to report crimes to the police and cooperate with investigations and prosecutions. The visa legalizes an immigrant's status, if certified by a law enforcement agency and approved by the federal government. Some police departments, like Whitehall, Ohio's, routinely reject requests for certification because they want to avoid entanglements in immigration matters, or simply because they are anti-immigrant. No national rules require agencies to comply with the system, though some states do.

Seattle has taken a comprehensive approach to police reform, including forming a community police commission, the development of policies on appropriate weapon use, more oversight on police force, and the creation of a specialty unit that focuses on mental health. While there has been pushback from officers, the safety of officers hasn’t been compromised and the use of force has decreased by sixty percent. With some calling it a success, California seeks to implement similar reform at the state level.

One way that any ordinary citizen can lend a hand to the plight of those caught in the American immigration system is by being a court observer: someone who sits in immigration court and takes notes by hand. Several organizations are working to develop a standardized way of evaluating judges' treatment of migrants to put it in a central database so that the data can be used to evaluate the human impact by the system as a whole. People who participate testify to the job alleviating despair over the situation as they can mitigate any unfair practices going unnoticed.

Over 20 U.S. cities have passed municipal I.D. laws, which provide a form of identification to undocumented immigrants. “Municipal IDs are one of the most effective measures that cities can implement to protect and empower undocumented people.” Poughkeepsie, New York, is the latest city to pass such a law, and several others are in the process of doing so.

A group of activists in Waukesha, Wisconsin are honoring the role of immigrants in the community by mobilizing 10,000 people from rural and urban areas across the state to march for the "Day without Latinx & Immigrants." The group, called Voces De La Frontera, also uses the collective power immigrant workers have in the dairy state to influence policy and gain protections for migrants. Through inclusion and conversation, Voces now has 1,500 members, nine adult chapters, and 15 youth chapters in schools, all working together to support immigrants in Wisconsin.

There is much to be learned from The Chicago Police Department's failure to regulate moonlighting police officers. Boasting the nation's weakest oversight of documenting its officer's second-shift jobs, the department has seen repercussions both in shooting statistics and tax payer dollars. It's not what Chicago is doing that is a solution, but what others are doing that they should learn from.

In Lebanon, services for refugees are often misguided and ineffective. To address this issue, the country created a cash-debit card allowance for refugees, providing a more appropriate resource than the typical aid program.