Chapel Hill was once a “sanctuary city.” The town had policy to limit the power of authoritative institutions to discriminate against immigrants — sadly, this status was made illegal by the North Carolina General Assembly’s HB 318.
The bill was signed by Gov. Pat McCrory at the end of October and most of the bill is now law in North Carolina. In a recent interview, Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt expressed his disappointment over the bill and said that the town will be reviewing the law to consider its options.
While ideally nothing would change, it is important the newly elected mayor, Pam Hemminger, and the Chapel Hill Town Council make sure equitable policies are created and enacted to allow for immigrants to feel safe to move here. The town needs to maintain its reputation of being immigrant-friendly not only because it is noble, but also because immigrants contribute greatly to the community.
In the United States, one in 10 immigrants become entrepreneurs in their community and 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants. And with earnings of over one trillion dollars, immigrants are a large driver of both local and national economies.
With pushes from campus groups, town council members and even McCrory to make North Carolina a leader of industry and foster an entrepreneurial culture, it does not seem logical to so blatantly allow discrimination against a central driver of entrepreneurship.
Arguments of all kinds on the legality of immigrants and on immigration reforms are only relevant tangentially to this argument. The purpose of sanctuary cities is to ensure immigrants, regardless of legal standing, are not openly targeted without purpose. Even in San Francisco, one of the more well-known sanctuary cities, the authorities still report many undocumented citizens to Homeland Security.
It does not change immigration or civil law.
