In the wake of President Donald Trump’s inauguration and first week in office, it has been reported that Pittsburgh city officials are considering becoming a sanctuary city. A sanctuary city is a city that protects the rights of undocumented immigrants, something that is needed in the wake of Trump’s inauguration. While the term sanctuary city has no official legal meaning, it is generally used to refer to cities that will not detain undocumented immigrants for the crime of violating federal immigration laws.
On January 25, Trump signed an executive order that would withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities, or from cities that refuse to detain undocumented immigrants. It would allow the Attorney General and Homeland Security Secretary to withhold grants from sanctuary cities. Throughout the country, this will likely cost cities billions of dollars, but most of the areas already committed to being sanctuary cities will remain safe places, including many areas of Pennsylvania, such as Philadelphia.
In the wake of this executive order, it is unclear how Pittsburgh’s mayor, Bill Peduto, a Democrat, will choose to approach the issue. When asked by a local branch of CBS News, Peduto said that Pittsburgh is a “welcoming city” and that the city and its steel mills owe a lot to immigrants and that just as the city’s past was built by immigrants, the future will be as well.
This executive order is also considered to be unconstitutional by many, and there is a chance of it being challenged, just as Trump’s ban on immigrants from certain countries, even those with green cards, was. Because the executive order circumvents Congress in order to force cities and states to obey the president, it is not subject to the checks from other branches of the government that such an order normally would be.
It is currently unclear whether or not Pittsburgh will choose to become a sanctuary city, but to do so in the wake of Trump’s inauguration and first week in office would be sending a powerful message both to the White House and to those in Pittsburgh’s undocumented community: this city is one that cares about its people, and it will fight even the federal government to protect them.