Will President-elect Donald Trump go down in history as a champion of the American people who restored law and order to lawless sanctuary cities?

At Front Page Magazine Matthew Vadum writes,

Cheered on by the Left, sanctuary cities hinder immigration enforcement and shield illegal aliens from federal officials as a matter of policy.

There are hundreds of sanctuary jurisdictions – including a few states – across the country that hinder the federal government’s immigration law enforcement efforts. Some left-wingers use the dreadful euphemism "civil liberties safe zones" to describe them. The phrase blurs the distinction between citizens and non-citizens by implying illegal aliens somehow possess a civil right to be present in the U.S.

The nation got to this point after decades of concerted collusion by radical George Soros-funded groups like the ACLU to get localities to pledge to frustrate or violate laws that protect U.S. national security. Leftist agitation has so intimidated Americans that many refuse to say the phrase illegal alien, preferring to go with undocumented immigrant or other politically correct terms less likely to generate offense.

A spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) explained how sanctuary cities hurt America.

“Sanctuary policies undermine federal law,” he said.

While sanctuary policies vary in language, it is important to note that the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that state laws and policies are preempted when they conflict with federal law, as well as when they stand as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress. Congress has set priorities through the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act] to determine who may enter and remain in the United States. Sanctuary laws, ordinances, and policies shield aliens from the administration of federal law, thereby frustrating the execution of immigration law as Congress intended.

He continued:

Additionally, federal law at 8 U.S.C. § 1373 and 8 U.S.C. § 1644 prohibits policies that impede cooperation between federal, state, and local officials when it comes to the sending, requesting, maintaining, or exchanging of information regarding immigration status with ICE. Under those provisions, any federal, state, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from the federal government, information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.

There are a number of ways that the incoming administration could go after Emanuel and rogue mayors like him.

During Bobby Jindal’s brief run for the Republican presidential nod last year, the then-governor of Louisiana vowed to “criminalize” sanctuary cities by “making city officials that enact those policies as an accessory to the crimes committed by the illegal aliens those policies enabled.”

“Absolutely, I would hold them as an accomplice,” Jindal said on a radio show. “Make them criminally culpable. I’d also make them civilly liable so that families, victims’ families could sue. Especially if the prosecutor isn’t taking action or the mayor’s not changing their ways, I’d allow the families to go to court as well to recover damages.”

While Attorney General Loretta Lynch and her predecessor Eric Holder spent their time making up excuses for not acting to end the lawlessness, under Trump it seems likely a way could be found for sanctuary city-related prosecutions to move forward.

Lawyers caution that the First Amendment guarantees Americans very wide latitude in public discussions and that mere advocacy of something illegal at some indefinite time in the future is not necessarily a crime. So these city officials have to be nailed for specific acts of lawlessness.

...According to FAIR, “It is a violation of [federal] law for any person to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection in any place, including any building or means of transportation, any alien who is in the United States in violation of law.”

The FAIR summary continues:

Harboring means any conduct that tends to substantially facilitate an alien to remain in the U.S. illegally. The sheltering need not be clandestine, and harboring covers aliens arrested outdoors, as well as in a building. This provision includes harboring an alien who entered the U.S. legally, but has since lost his legal status.

Read more here.