Are sanctuary cities good or bad?

Sanctuary cities keep illegal immigrants and citizens safe

Question: Are sanctuary cities good or bad?
Position1 of 2›: Sanctuary cities are good
Argument1 of 2›: Sanctuary cities keep illegal immigrants and citizens safe

Everyone has a right to safety; an illegal immigrant shouldn't have to sacrifice theirs.

The argument

Sanctuary cities allow illegal immigrants to report crimes done to them or that they have witnessed without fear of being deported, and that single change produces safety benefits that extend well beyond the immigrants themselves. The reason is that policing depends on information the public chooses to provide. Where any contact with the authorities carries the risk of deportation, the rational course for an immigrant is to avoid reporting anything at all — including crimes committed against them, and including crimes they have witnessed against other people. The crime still happened; it simply never enters the system. Sanctuary cities help build rapport among immigrants and the police force, allowing police to get more information that without immigrants would have been lost. The beneficiaries are everyone policed by that force, since an offender who is not reported remains at large regardless of whom he victimises next. The policies sanctuary cities uphold also help protect illegal immigrants from being deported on minor infractions, like driving without a license. Many of these minor infractions are unavoidable because of their unique situation — the same status that makes a licence difficult to obtain is the one that makes being caught without it catastrophic — so the penalty is triggered by the circumstance rather than by any choice to break the law. The consequences of the alternative are severe and fall on families rather than on individuals. Without the safe space that sanctuary cities create, immigrants are taken away from family and put back into a place they no longer recognize. Immigrants walk with fear, and that fear keeps them from contributing to the fullest in society and from finally becoming legal. A policy that produces silence, instability and withdrawal makes a city less safe, not more.

Premises

[P1]When immigrants do not fear deportation, they are more willing to report crimes and cooperate with police, improving public safety for everyone. [P2] Sanctuary city policies shield immigrants from deportation over minor, often unavoidable infractions, keeping families intact and allowing fuller participation in society. [C] Therefore, sanctuary cities are good because they keep both illegal immigrants and citizens safer.

Counter-arguments

Sanctuary Cities help to harbor criminals. They keep information from ICE that would help to deport illegal immigrants with a history of serious crime. Sanctuary Cities also undermine the immigration system that is in place to protect citizens from unnecessary threats, and undermines federal law that makes Sanctuary Cities illegal.

Rejecting the premises

[Regecting P1] Sanctuary Cities hide data on illegal Immigrants, making it hard to know if this information is accurate. [Regecting P2] Many have gone through the Immigration process before without illegally crossing over. [Regecting P3] Asylum Seekers are already protected under the law.