Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020
Do ‘sanctuary’ policies and laws block all immigration enforcement?
Local "sanctuary" policies don't prevent federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents from acting inside the states, counties or cities that have adopted them.
Under the policies, some jurisdictions have directed their law-enforcement authorities to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The polices vary in extent and details, but have become more widespread as the Trump administration has sought to tighten U.S. immigration, asylum and refugee rules.
Immigrants not legally authorized to be in the U.S. are under federal law "removable aliens" and subject to deportation. In jurisdictions that do cooperate, local authorities may alert ICE to the detention for other reasons of someone also in violation of immigration law.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- National Conference of State Legislatures Sanctuary policy FAQ
- Center for Immigration Studies Map of sanctuary cities, counties and states
- Federation for American Immigration Reform State sanctuary policies
- US House of Representatives US Code on aliens and nationality, part IV—Inspection, apprehension, examination, exclusion and removal
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
See all fact briefs
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
Learn MoreLatest Fact Briefs
Is there a scientific consensus that life begins at conception?
Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022
Do countries around the world subsidize fossil fuels?
Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022
Is the repeal of Roe v. Wade expected to increase the maternal death rate?
Wednesday, Jul. 27, 2022