Bill de Blasio: Not Asking People Documentation Status, That’s How We Actually Keep People Safe

CABRERA: “And joining us now is former New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio. Mayor, good to have you here. Lots of moving parts, obviously, on this issue of immigration. When you look at the build-up, the ramp-up to these mass deportations, how should Democratic local, state, federal leaders meet this moment?”
De Blasio: “Ana, I think we got to remember the Constitution is still fully in effect. And that means that states and localities have a lot of power in this equation. I think there’s been so much angst over the Trump Administration coming in in certain quarters, obviously among Democrats. There’s almost been a little amnesia about what we saw in the previous 4 years. I spent 4 years as mayor in New York City, often having to challenge Donald Trump. We went to court many times. We actually won on a regular basis. We had the independent power as locality to govern our own affairs. And this is a profoundly American reality. the Founders created a country where a lot of the power devolved down to states and localities. They did not want a national government that controlled everything. So, for example, if you have a city like New York that says, we’re not going to ask documentation status in our schools, hospitals, or with our police force, talking to people out in the streets, they’re not going to ask documentation status. Because that’s how we actually keep people safe. Talk to NYPD leaders and they’ll tell you, once you start asking people documentation status, no one’s going to talk to you if they happen to have an undocumented status. And that means you can’t protect the community.”