City maintains its sanctuary city status

By Stephanie Butler

CAMBRIDGE – The conversations of residents overheard while walking around Kendall Square are all in English, except for one couple engaged in a heated argument in Spanish. While the city may not have a substantial number of immigrants, officials do want to protect the ones it does have.

When Congress was debating in 2006 an immigration bill that would have made it a felony with up to 20 years in prison for immigrants who enter the country illegally, the City Council unanimously issued an order at a meeting calling for the defeat of the bill.

While the City Council reaffirmed its status as a sanctuary city, where immigrants cannot be questioned about their immigration status, the joke was that no illegal immigrant could afford to live in a city as expensive as Cambridge.

City councilors first declared Cambridge a sanctuary city in 1985, in response to the FBI’s treatment of Central American illegal immigrants during the Reagan administration.

The sanctuary city status means that Cambridge officials cannot inquire about a person’s immigration status when providing government services.

Not everyone takes the City Council’s side though. Blogger Garrett Harding thinks supporting illegal immigrants will only harm legal, tax-paying residents.

“As a resident and tax payer of Massachusetts, I am absolutely against the position the Cambridge City Council is adopting. I have no desire to have my tax dollars going towards services for illegal immigrants,” Harding said.

In 1985 illegal immigrants could afford to live in the city. However, since the repeal of rent control in the late 90s, the cost of living has increased substantially, and is now 203 on the cost of living index, about 100 percent more expensive than the national average (100 on the index), according to a report by Yahoo Real Estate.

Councilor Craig Kelley acknowledged the disparity, saying that the resolution would be “irrelevant” if affordable housing is not made available for immigrants.

Cambridge Republican City Committee chairman Henry Irving thinks the resolution is irresponsible.

“It encourages illegal immigrants to stay undercover, postpones any resolution of their status and makes future citizenship improbable,” Irving said.

So while the City Council said that the “current U.S. immigration policy does not reflect our standards of what is just, humane and moral” and that it “affirms the basic human rights and dignity of every human being,” many saw the gesture as merely symbolic.

While more than a quarter of city residents declared themselves to be foreign born according to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are no figures for how many, if any, illegal immigrants reside in Cambridge.