Border Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Illegal Immigration

The Epicenter of Progressive Contempt for the Rule of Law

- Arnold Ahlert
Sunday, May 8, 2011

Of the many serious flaws that attach themselves to progressive ideology, perhaps the worst is the reality that the rule of law means nothing if it conflicts with the progressive worldview. In San Francisco, officials there have decided that federal immigration law will cast be cast aside to appease progressive sensibilities: they will defy cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and release arrested illegal aliens before they can be taken by ICE for possible deportation.

But it gets even more ridiculous. San Fran Sheriff Michael Hennessey told the San Francisco Examiner he will begin thumbing his nose at federal law enforcement officials on June 1st — to comply with San Francisco’s sanctuary city ordinance. For the far too many Americans who still don’t know what a sanctuary city is, it is yet another example of progressive contempt for the rule of law: police and other law enforcement officials in sanctuary cities are expressly forbidden to inquire about one’s immigration status in the course of making an arrest. In many sanctuary cities, it is even forbidden if the suspect is arrested for a felony.

Hennessy illuminates the Orwellain nature of his defiance, which amounts to breaking the law to enforce a statute which also breaks the law. “I’m trying to enforce San Francisco’s city of refuge law,â€