Elorza: ‘We are a sanctuary city’

PROVIDENCE MAYOR JORGE O. ELORZA has declared Providence to be a sanctuary city and is prepared to defend that status against potential losses of federal funding as directed by President Donald Trump. / PBN FILE PHOTO/STEPHANIE ALVAREZ EWENS
PROVIDENCE MAYOR JORGE O. ELORZA has declared Providence to be a sanctuary city and is prepared to defend that status against potential losses of federal funding as directed by President Donald Trump. / PBN FILE PHOTO/STEPHANIE ALVAREZ EWENS

PROVIDENCE – Ending the confusion, in a Monday interview with the Providence Business News, Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza announced the city has joined the coalition of sanctuary cities across the nation.

This distinction means the capital city’s police force will not ask the immigration status of those with which it interacts, essentially acting as a local arm of the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

While there is no universal definition for a sanctuary city used by either immigration think tanks or the government, Elorza said he made the decision based on the city’s history of welcoming immigrants, “documented or not.”

Elorza commented that checking the immigration status of every resident of Providence does not decrease crime in the capital city.

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“In fact, it makes it more much more difficult to keep us safe if police are asking about immigration statuses,” he said of the deterrent effect that carrying out this mandate will create.

Monday’s statement by the mayor is a change of direction from his previous identification of the city. In a PBN interview published earlier this month, which looked at how many of President Donald Trump’s policies would impact the state, Elorza said the city was not a sanctuary city but would also not detain illegal immigrants.

On Monday, Elorza said: “We are a sanctuary city and regardless of the threats we hear from President Trump, we’re not going to change.”

Elorza’s announcement comes almost a week after Trump signed an executive order that characterized illegal immigrants as posing “a significant threat to national security and public safety.”

The order outlines the hiring of 10,000 additional ICE agents to remove illegal immigrants who have been charged with a crime or are deemed by an ICE officer to “pose a threat.”

The executive order said sanctuary cities, which rebuke the legislation, “have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our republic” and would be subject to withholding of federal funds.

In addition, the order did not outline a definition for a sanctuary city, but empowered the secretary of homeland security, General John F. Kelly, to pick and choose which locations were in violation of the mandate.

Elorza added the city has spoken with local and national immigration lawyers and said, “if President Trump chooses to go forward, we will see him in court.”

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Mayor
    The city is in shambles and you have done zero since you’ve been in office. Is this your ploy to divert people and voters away from your dismal record? I wish you had this enthusiasm to fix your tax structure, schools, retirement plans, roads, and well, you get the point. I guess your plan is, if we can’t bring the Third World here, you can turn us in to the Third World. Great job Jorge!

  2. Mayor,
    Big mistake. Since when do you have the right to thwart federal law. Amazes me that in addition to being in a country illegally , you as Mayor support harboring them. If I committed a crime would I garner the same protection?

  3. This is just pandering to his constituency. Let me know how this works out for him come election time or when the citizens of Providence get their tax bills. That’s assuming the city doesn’t declare bankruptcy before then.

  4. ARROGANCE personified…something this incompetent has demonstrated since Day #1 of his arriving on the scene.

    He is living proof that Affirmative Action DOES NOT work because if it were not for it, based on what he has accomplished (not accomplished) he would not be where he is.

    He is also the Poster Boy for proving Dr. Lawrence Peter’s theory of those people that rise to the top, even though not qualified, in his widely acclaimed book: The Peter Principal!

    His inability to recognize the FACT that Providence is in the shape it is in because it is a Sanctuary City proves out all of what is being said about him and others of his ilk!