Sanctuary City or Not? When Massachusetts Officials Say It Isn’t, You Can Bet It Is!

Officials in the suburban Boston town of Natick would like to reassure the public that their recent proposal to shield illegal aliens from law enforcement isn’t what it seems. “This has nothing to do with declaring Natick a sanctuary city,” Select Board Vice Chairman Bruce T. Evans said. “It is a misrepresentation of what’s actually happening here.” Then there’s Select Board Chairwoman, Kathryn M. Coughlin, who attempted to put her constituents at ease by advising them that, “the timing of the rollout of this policy post-election is utterly coincidental.”
They’re lies, of course, and reflect the ongoing contempt that mass immigration zealots have for their own voters – savvy citizens who can sort fact from fiction, distinguish right from wrong, and recognize special interests at play when it comes to immigration policies. If there’s any doubt, the November 5th national election results are proof positive.
Natick’s draft proposal is undeniably both a sanctuary policy and one specifically timed and designed to create a wall of resistance to the incoming administration’s plan to crack down on illegal immigration. If passed, the ordinance will require that “No employee of the Town shall perform the functions of an immigration officer, nor shall the Town use Town funds, resources, facilities, property, equipment or personnel to directly assist in the enforcement of federal civil immigration laws.”
Upon approval, Natick will join Boston, Somerville, Northampton, Amherst, Cambridge, Concord, Lawrence and Newton as the ninth sanctuary jurisdiction in a state that is itself a sanctuary for illegal aliens. In 2017 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Lunn v. Commonwealth that local law enforcement officials no longer have the authority, under state law, to detain a person based solely on a request from federal immigration authorities. More recently, illegal alien “residents” of the Bay State have been made eligible for driver’s licenses and Mass Health benefits. Given that Massachusetts already offers sweeping protection and benefits for illegal aliens, each new town enacting sanctuary policies represents a doubling down of defiance resulting in both state and local walls of resistance to any planned federal deportation efforts.
Although Natick officials claim their proposal isn’t a sanctuary policy, voters know otherwise. While the definition of a sanctuary city is open to interpretation (and exploitation by those who promote them), it generally refers to a municipality that refuses to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement efforts and/or one that extends various benefits to illegal aliens. The policies create a welcoming environment and one that shields those who break the law from legal consequences. Some are bills, ordinances and resolutions while some are just unpublished practices but in the end, it’s not what they’re called; it’s the policies they engage in that define them as sanctuaries. In Natick, as in all of Massachusetts, illegal aliens will be shielded from the consequences of their illegal actions.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
Natick officials are grasping at straws to defend their actions. Select Board Chairwoman Coughlin offers the absurd argument that Natick won’t be a sanctuary jurisdiction because — get this — they aren’t hiring a taxpayer supported immigration director whose job will involve fighting the new administration’s deportation efforts as is Somerville, another Massachusetts town. It’s like saying “our town’s 20 percent tax increase isn’t really an increase because the next town over had a 50 percent increase.”
Be wary of politicians who go out of their way to tell you what something isn’t; it’s usually their way of distracting attention from what something actually is.
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