By Lisbeth Perez and Ashley Wolf

On Apr. 7, 2017 Mayor Svante Myrick of the City of Ithaca and City Attorney Ari Lavigne, along with cities such as Chicago filed a United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Mar. 31.

This Appeal opposes the Trump Administration’s Muslim ban. Myrick and Lavigne are ready to continue to ensure Ithaca plays a role in the Trump Muslim Travel Ban, calling it “offensive to American values” and “unconstitutional.”

This legal action comes after Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened to take away crucial Justice Department grants from sanctuary cities during a daily briefing on Mar. 27. These grants help to fund state and local law enforcement. Sessions argued sanctuary cities do not follow federal immigration laws and therefore, would be ineligible for the grants.

In January, President Trump gave Sessions the power to sanction any city that did not give the government information on undocumented immigrants.

Ithaca has been a sanctuary city since the 1980s and has held firm to their beliefs since Trump’s inauguration. Cynthia Brock, a 1st Ward Common Council member, said that the city will continue to be a sanctuary city and will take legal action if Sessions follows through with his threats.

There are communities that are literally sanctuaries, said Brock. Thats is the more traditional form of sanctuary. Being immigration officials is not their  job so they  leave it to the  immigration department to do and conduct their own investigations but Ithaca will not participate.

“If the federal government were to try and punish New York State or were to try and punish communities in New York that have put in place the legislation, we did we feel very strongly and the attorney general feels very strongly that they would lose in court,” she said.

George McGonigal, a member of the 1st Ward Common Council, said Myrick will do whatever it takes to ensure Ithaca stays a safe place for undocumented immigrants.

“We will not retract,” McGonigal said. “I don’t think he will mind me saying it, but he said to me personally that he will go to jail before backing out, that they will have to take him away in handcuffs. In fact, the city is already involved in pursuing the possibility of taking federal government to court about this.”

The way in which city officials respond to threats on sanctuary cities will show the level of importance Ithaca has to upholding the policies, said Patricia Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Politics and Latin American Studies Coordinator at Ithaca College.

“I think that if they really follow through with the threats and they cut funding, it depends on how city officials respond,” she said. “If they respond with a position that says that that is something that shouldn’t be happening, that they’re cutting funds because a city takes a position to defend the human rights of its residents and that they challenge it, especially the constitutionality of it, then I think that it will reinforce the fact that this is a sanctuary city.”