Late last week, a court ruled that the sanctuary policies of East Chicago, Indiana, violated state law.
Judge Thomas Hallett of Indiana’s Lake County Superior Court issued the ruling, saying that the policy of the city violated Indiana’s 2011 law banning sanctuary jurisdictions.
Attorney James Bopp, Jr., who represented Lake County residents Greg Serbon and John Allen, said in a statement that “[W]e are pleased that, after extended litigation, the court has recognized the obvious fact that such ordinances are illegal in Indiana. There must be no more such ordinances in Indiana, and those in existence are clearly in violation of Indiana law.”
The effort by the city of East Chicago, called the "Welcoming City" ordinance, was intended to counter what they considered anti-immigrant rhetoric by the administration of former President Donald Trump.
Dale Wilcox, executive director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), which also represented the plaintiffs, also issued a statement, saying that “[S]heltering illegal aliens from immigration authorities not only flagrantly violates duly-enacted Indiana law, but represents a serious public safety and national security risk. When cities such as East Chicago insist on putting the interests of illegal aliens above those of their own citizenry, they have to be stopped, and we are pleased the court did just that.”
According to Breitbart, IRLI had originally helped craft the 2011 law, which banned sanctuary cities and requires cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from local law enforcement.
The city can now appeal the decision to the Indiana Court of Appeals, should it choose to do so.
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