{"id":2660,"date":"2026-06-24T05:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2660"},"modified":"2026-06-24T05:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:37:26","slug":"how-sanctuary-cities-revive-americas-oldest-constitutional-heresy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2660","title":{"rendered":"How sanctuary cities revive America\u2019s oldest constitutional heresy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>OPINION:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the weeks before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s arrest of Shayan Kahhal, a convicted illegal alien sex offender in Virginia, Gov. Abigail Spanberger issued an executive order ending state law enforcement cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2658\">America\u2019s AI gamble depends on more than capital<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ms. Spanberger\u2019s reckless action mirrors those of sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide that protect criminal illegal aliens from federal immigration authorities. These are aliens who are murdering, raping, assaulting and terrorizing the public.<\/p>\n<p>Sanctuary zealots claim to be \u201cprotecting\u201d their communities and preventing local officials from being commandeered to enforce federal law, but they are not being asked to enforce federal law. They are just being asked to cooperate and not frustrate immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Sanctuary jurisdictions are raising the cost of enforcement, imperiling federal officers and ensuring that dangerous, removable criminals are allowed to terrorize our communities.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, sanctuary jurisdictions are reviving America\u2019s oldest constitutional heresy: nullification.<\/p>\n<p>What they are doing echoes the 1832 Nullification Crisis, the constitutional showdown that foreshadowed the Civil War. In 1828, Congress adopted tariffs that South Carolina claimed hurt the South\u2019s agricultural economy. In response, John C. Calhoun claimed that states could \u201cnullify\u201d a federal law within their borders.<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina passed the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the federal tariffs void and threatening secession.<\/p>\n<p>President Jackson saw this as a direct assault on the Constitution. What Ms. Spanberger and other officials like her are doing today is no different and just as dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson warned that nullification was \u201cincompatible with the existence of the Union\u201d and \u201ccontradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution.\u201d Congress authorized him to use military force, if necessary, to enforce federal customs laws in South Carolina. The state capitulated and repealed its nullification ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s sanctuary jurisdictions are invoking nullification by obstructing federal enforcement and attempting to regulate how federal agents carry out their duties.<\/p>\n<p>Yet there is a difference between declining to be drafted into federal service and deliberately making federal enforcement harder, costlier and more dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>When states ban local authorities from voluntarily notifying ICE of a criminal alien\u2019s release, they are violating federal law: 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1373, which prohibits such bans. In 1999, in\u00a0City of New York v. United States, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said this statute did not violate the anti-commandeering doctrine.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2656\">RNC sues to stop Nebraska election law that allows nonresidents to vote<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Similarly, when states refuse to honor detainers that simply ask them to hold a criminal alien until federal agents can pick him up, that is not enforcing federal immigration law. When they attempt to regulate federal agents, they are not refusing to be commandeered; they are engaging in obstruction.<\/p>\n<p>Every crime committed by an illegal alien carries a double tragedy: the horror of the offense and the fact that it was preventable because the offender should not have been in the country.<\/p>\n<p>In sanctuary jurisdictions, that tragedy is compounded by local officials deliberately thwarting the federal process designed to remove dangerous criminals.<\/p>\n<p>What is the cost in human lives? How many Americans are victimized by these reckless policies? According to the Bureau of Prisons and 2025 U.S. Sentencing Commission reports, as of June, approximately 22,700 inmates \u2014 about 14.7% of all federal prisoners \u2014 are criminal illegal aliens.<\/p>\n<p>Yet illegal aliens are estimated to make up only about 3% to 4% of the overall U.S. population.<\/p>\n<p>Texas is one of the few states that tracks crimes committed by illegal aliens. Over the past 15 years, these criminals have been charged with more than 600,000 crimes (813,000 over the course of their entire criminal careers) in the state, including 1,128 homicides, 78,570 assaults, 1,530 kidnappings, 16,348 sexual assaults and other sexual offenses and 70,225 drug-related offenses.<\/p>\n<p>None of these crimes would have happened if these people had not been here.<\/p>\n<p>Need more? Just browse the Homeland Security Department\u2019s new \u201cWorst of the Worst\u201d website to find the 36,095 (and counting) criminal illegal aliens arrested by ICE since President Trump took office.<\/p>\n<p>The database includes criminal histories of homicide, rape, child sexual abuse, armed robbery and drug trafficking. In Virginia alone, ICE has arrested 731 \u201cworst of the worst\u201d criminal illegal aliens. Virginia\u2019s sanctuary policies spared these offenders at the expense of American victims.<\/p>\n<p>How many more Americans must be victimized before sanctuary jurisdictions wake up? How many more Laken Rileys and Iryna Zarutskas need to die before voters demand that sanctuaries end their obstruction of federal law?<\/p>\n<p>Americans will remain at risk until voters remove the irresponsible officials who place sanctuary policies above federal law and public safety.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 Hans von Spakovsky is a senior legal fellow. Daniel Mares is a legal intern in the Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law at Advancing American Freedom.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=2654\">Wizards pick BYU\u2019s Dybantsa with first No. 1 pick since 2010<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sanctuary jurisdictions are raising the cost of illegal alien enforcement, imperiling federal officers and ensuring that dangerous, removable criminals are allowed to terrorize our communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,30],"tags":[1720,1721],"class_list":["post-2660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-opinion","tag-abigail-spanberger","tag-shayan-kahhal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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