Winning the Sanctuary City Debate Through Passage of a National Gang Prosecution Law

“Most Americans would be astonished to discover that, despite the devastating size, scope, and magnitude of gang crime, no federal statutory framework specifically designed to prosecute gangs exists.”

Throwing yet another gauntlet down in America’s sanctuary city saga, on September 6, 2018, Atlanta’s Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms reportedly signed an executive order declaring that the city will no longer hold United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency detainees in its jail. Mayor Bottoms’ justification for this prohibition was her described contention that ICE enforces federal policy that “inflicts misery on a vulnerable population without giving any thoughts to the horrific fallout.”

Anyone reading Mayor Bottoms’ comments could be easily left with the distinct impression ICE constitutes Atlanta’s—if not America’s—chief public safety menace. This imprint is projected even though ICE possesses a well-known, historic role in combatting gang crime.

Furthermore, Mayor Bottoms’ denunciations apparently came absent any coinciding acknowledgment of the devastation that gangs levy in Atlanta and across the nation. The State of Georgia, like the United States of America, is in a state of crisis due to gangs and gang crime. Even a cursory review of the attendant reports and studies confirms that gangs pose a pervasive, omnipresent, existential threat that decimates economies as well as public safety.

For instance, in 2018, the State of Georgia dropped five positions in CNBC’s annual ranking of “Top States for Business.” According to CNBC, this nosedive represented one of America’s most precipitous plummets. Significantly, CNBC attributed Georgia’s turbulently tumultuous tumble to rising violent crime rates.