Kenney's Sanctuary 1-2-3

Jim Kenney will keep Philadelphia a Sanctuary City after he is sworn in.

I think Sanctuary Cities are dangerous, but Kenney has three points in support of them.  Here they are, as passed along by his spokeswoman Lauren Hitt, with my point by point reply:

 He thinks [not being a Sanctuary]  makes the city less safe because undocumented immigrants don't feel safe reporting crimes or cooperating with the police in their neighborhood.

Under a previous compromise between the city and ICE, praised in a September 2011 Inquirer editorial, the names of the victims of crimes, and eye witnesses, were not provided to ICE, only the names of those arrested. So innocents can safely cooperate – if they want to. Any fear on their part is based in fiction and promoted by groups such as Juntos, which doesn't recognize "illegal" status.

First-generation immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than any other member of the population and so he thinks the idea that somehow removing all of them would somehow make our city more safe is inherently flawed.

There is no policy or even desire by the government (which is headed by President Obama) to remove "all of them." How can Kenney believe such tripe when Obama is using executive orders to prevent as many as 8 million of the undocumented from being deported? It is paranoia to believe the government is out to deport them and spreading such wild ideas is dishonest and destructive.

He thinks that the so-called undocumented criminals that do pose a threat to our safety can be addressed with the same crime-fighting tactics, like community policing, that we use to address the so-called legal criminals.

This is a red herring, but I'm glad to hear he admits there are undocumented criminals. The "crime-fighting tactics" are arrest and adjudication. Just like for the native born. The only difference? After they serve their time, they would be deported.

Kenney just ignores the reality that just being here without documents is against the law.

If anyone wants to come here to work and/or start new lives, all they have to do is sign up, wait their turn and check in at the border – just like every other immigrant group has done, including the Irish. (Kenney keeps referencing his Irish grandparents. His grandparents, and mine, entered legally and checked in at the port of arrival.)

In a bit of insanity, illegal enablers protesting at City Hall yesterday complained "our communities" are being "thrown under the bus."

That works only if you define "your" communities as criminals. No legal immigrant is being touched. There are no mass roundups. ICE focuses on people with previous felonies. Should felons be immune from deportation?

Nationally, in a crowning demonstration of chutzpah, United We Stay, a group supporting those here illegally, has a "Bill of Rights for Undocumented Americans."

They think just being here makes them Americans. It does not. Citizenship has responsibilities, adherence to our law being the first, which they reject. Some of the "rights" they demand are already granted by the Constitution, which they like only when it is convenient.

Then there are other demands, such as the "right" to be protected against deportation, a path to citizenship, access to public education and in-state tuition and medical care.

I read every one of the 1,306 words in the above document.

I read about their rights, feelings, fears, hardships.

Not a single word of apology or regret for breaking U.S. law.