Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
In the past several days, two regular contributors to the letters column have written in, expressing their views regarding undocumented immigrants and sanctuary city policies. The crux of their argument seems to be that sanctuary jurisdictions are a violation of the Constitution of the United States, and that any politician who supports them is violating his or her oath of office and should be removed.
Both of these writers are apparently lovers of big federal government, and enemies of states’ rights when it comes to deciding how local law enforcement will cooperate with requests from federal authorities when it comes to immigration policy. They place their focus on Sacramento and Governor Brown as the problem, and believe that Trump has the supreme authority to round up whomever he wants and deport them, and to punish local jurisdictions that do not yield to his will.
In fact, five states and 637 counties across the country have laws that limit how much local police can cooperate with federal immigration agents. Many local police agencies have limited manpower and resources, and do not want the additional burden of having to enforce federal immigration law.  Notwithstanding, none of the sanctuary city policies prevent local police from pursuing immigrants who commit crimes in their jurisdictions.
California taxpayers annually send more money to the federal government than we ever get back in goods and services. Most of our tax money goes to the ‘welfare’ states of the Deep South and the Rust Belt, some of which collect no income tax from their residents. The last time I checked, the federal government and the U.S Treasury Department were doing just fine. Why should small towns like Manteca or struggling counties in California be forced to spend their limited resources to do the job of federal immigration authorities who have a huge workforce of employees and comparatively limitless budgets? That just doesn’t make sense.
As for sanctuary jurisdictions being unconstitutional, a federal judge in Los Angeles recently ruled that the Department of Justice cannot require local law enforcement agencies to entangle themselves in immigration policy enforcement as a requirement to receive federal funding. Sanctuary jurisdictions are entirely legal, and Trump’s overreaching attempts to strip federal funding from them is not.

Stephen Breacain
Manteca