It all began in the 1980s, when the Santa Cruz City Council began to speak out against immigration raids.
It all began in the 1980s, when the Santa Cruz City Council began to speak out against immigration raids. A few years later the council passed a resolution calling on federal immigration officers to stay out of the city and stop terrorizing Latino immigrants. This was reaffirmed in 2007, after an immigration raid led to the arrest of 107 people countywide. Santa Cruz is now a “sanctuary city,” a designation with no legal relevance. In practice, it means that the city does not inquire about the immigration status of its residents and local police do not participate in enforcing immigration laws.
But this is now being challenged in the wake of a perceived increase in gang-related violence throughout the city. One of the suspects in the death of 17-year-old Tyler Tenorio is believed to have fled back to Mexico after living in the U.S. illegally. This sparked outrage in Pat Kittle, a longtime immigration critic, who credits the county’s illegal population with an increase in gang violence. At a meeting of City Council, he called the current immigration policies “unsustainable.”
So far the police are defending their position, but the debate over sanctuary city status is an old one that has long festered beneath the surface. In 2008, State Assemblyman John Benoit (R-Riverside) called on the state to cut funding to cities that “look the other way” when it comes to illegal immigrants. With the current mood among some sectors in Santa Cruz what it is, the debate may soon start again. Read more at the ABC.
