Evanston to Remain a 'Sanctuary City," Mayor Proclaims

EVANSTON, IL - Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl declared the city of Evanston will remain a "sanctuary city" welcoming to immigrants during a Monday night City Council meeting, Evanston Now reports.

Tisdahl made the declaration after the election of president-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of illegal immigrants and focus first on the ones with criminal records.

Tisdahl cited a resolution passed by the city more than eight years ago in reaffirming its sanctuary status.

Earlier in the day, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel also reaffirmed the city's status as a sanctuary city.

What Is a Sanctuary City?

Sanctuary cities across the United States are municipalities that have established policies that don't require local agencies to go after residents simply based on their status as U.S. citizens. Chicago was declared a sanctuary city in 1985 when Mayor Harold Washington issued an executive order, and Mayor Richard M. Daley renewed that status in a 1989 executive order.
This does not mean that Chicago police and other local law enforcement agencies will not investigate, arrest or prosecute undocumented immigrants for non-immigration crimes.

What Other Cities Claim This Status?

More than 30 U.S. cities consider themselves sanctuary cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Baltimore, Miami, Denver and New York City. In fact, New York had sanctuary city policies while adviser and potential Trump cabinet member Rudolph Giuliani was mayor, according to the Washington Post.

What Does This Mean for Evanston's Undocumented Immigrants?

Besides being a "safe haven" for immigrants without official U.S. citizenship, Chicago also provides guidance to those individuals.
In his statement released Sunday, Emanuel encouraged undocumented immigrants "to call 311 for information about legal resources, as well as other supportive services." Operators at that number also would help families with information about Chicago’s upcoming Municipal ID program, which will start providing city IDs in late 2017 so that all Chicagoans can have access to official identification.

How Could This Affect Evanston?

During his "60 Minutes" interview Sunday, Trump said he was shrinking the size of the net he wanted the federal government to cast over undocumented immigrants, focusing only on individuals with criminal records at first. But that still means his new administration was looking at deporting around 2 to 3 million people, he said in the interview.

RELATED: Watch Anti-Donald Trump Protesters March Through Downtown Chicago

Trump's 100-day "Contract With The American Voter" plan he released during the presidential race also targets sanctuary cities. One of the plan's "five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law" that Trump will implement on his first day in office is to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities.
Follow-through by Trump to punish Evanston and other U.S. cities for being safe havens for immigrants has some Illinois lawmakers worried.

"Am I concerned about it …? Absolutely," said U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat, during an interview on WLS-AM (890), according to the Chicago Tribune. "In the final analysis, though, I think if the president wants to do what he talks about, for example with a big infrastructure package, he's going to need support across the aisle. And if he says none for Chicago, he's not going to get any support from anybody in Chicago, frankly in the Chicagoland area."

Mayors in other sanctuary cities have pushed back on that threat since Trump's election. Along with Tisdahl and Emanuel, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti have reaffirmed those municipalities' sanctuary city status.

Patch Editor Joe Vince contributed to this report.

Patch file photo