The Scapegoating of Sanctuary Cities
An undocumented immigrant named Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez allegedly shot and killed Kathryn Steinle on San Francisco's Embarcadero last Wednesday. And it turns out that the city's Sheriff's Department had released Lopez-Sanchez earlier this year after refusing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement request to detain him—all to comply with a city policy protecting everyday undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The political forecast of this case is, as you might guess, pretty stormy. It’s become an occasion to discuss America's "unsecured" borders and Mexicans' imaginary criminal proclivities, and to make cities into a convenient punching bag for conservatives, caricatures of out-of-touch liberal moral laxity toward dark-skinned criminal elements (if this sounds familiar, remember Baltimore).