RELATED: Coming to America Saved My Life: A People Editor’s Immigration Story
So what exactly are sanctuary cities?
Spread across the country in 27 different states, sanctuary cities are designated locations that refuse to help the national government and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s efforts to enforce the immigration law, the Center for Immigration Studies reports.
According to the Center, these cities are able to intervene by “refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers.”
States that offer this protection in some of their cities and counties include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington.
RELATED: George W. Bush Seemingly Takes a Dig at Donald Trump: ‘A Lot of People Are Concerned Right Now’
While many of these states have multiple counties/cities that are designated sanctuaries, there is only one city or county listed for Ohio, Nevada, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Louisiana.
In addition to more than 170 cities and counties listed, five states — including California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont — are also considered sanctuary states, the Immigration Studies Center reports.
This means the states have laws set in place limiting local police’s ability to help federal immigration agents, according to
While having stricter immigration laws may be intended to intimidate those committing crimes from doing so, nationwide sanctuary cities have proven to have their benefits, as some have suggested it makes the area safer.
According to a 2015 FBI crime data analysis report by Tom Wong, a professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego, sanctuary cities see 15 percent less crime than those deemed non-sanctuary cities.
The University of Chicago Assistant Professor Angela S. García echoed these findings in her recent report that stated only 1.6 percent of young, foreign-born males are incarcerated, while the number raises to 3.3 percent for native-born males.
America’s Voice also argued that by having these cities in place, police have the ability to focus on more pressing, serious crimes instead of spending their time arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants.