The President of the U.S. Bishops conference thinks that laws cracking down on sanctuary cities puts too much demand on local law enforcement. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston said that local police officers shouldn’t be required to enforce immigration laws unless they are “violent criminal aliens.”
Local law enforcement and local jurisdictions should not be required to enforce federal immigration law, said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Local law enforcement officials “work long hours to protect our communities” and efforts to charge them with the responsibility of enforcing immigration law should be opposed, he said, because this “would fundamentally alter the relationship our local law enforcement officials maintain with local communities, especially immigrant communities.”
Local police can work with federal law enforcement in dealing with “violent criminal aliens,” Cardinal DiNardo said, but the “burden” of enforcing federal immigration law would be “taking away from their efforts to ensure public safety” while they are “pursuing those who are otherwise law-abiding.” He added, “It also makes immigrant communities reluctant to report crimes and to cooperate with the police.”