‘Sanctuary’ Policies Pose Dangers to National Security

Localities with “sanctuary” policies in Virginia have grown, many butting up against vital military or national security instillations, posing potential threats, according to a former Homeland Security and immigration senior official.

Last month, immigration policy think tank the Center for Immigration Studies released an updated map of localities that have adopted sanctuary policies, which showed a surge in the commonwealth totaling 84.

Those localities include the counties of Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William, and multiple localities around the Hampton Roads region.

Virginia is home to the nation’s military infrastructure such as the Pentagon, Marine Corps headquarters at Quantico, and Norfolk Naval Base. In addition, the commonwealth houses the Central Intelligence Agency. All are surrounded by counties that have adopted some form of immigration sanctuary policies.

An attempted breach in May at Quantico Marine Base by Jordanians has highlighted concerns of migrants gaining access to military bases and national security areas of concern.

The Center for Immigration Studies says one of the men crossed the border illegally a month prior to the incident, while the other reportedly overstayed a student visa that had never been used. The men have since been released on bail and are due in court Sept. 17.

Ken Cuccinelli, a former attorney general of Virginia and deputy secretary of Homeland Security from November 2019 until January 2021, says the policies encourage more migrants to settle in areas with sanctuary policies, saying it allows for more criminal elements to hide.

“Anytime you implement sanctuary policies, you get exactly what you intend, and that is more illegal aliens residing in your jurisdiction than if you didn’t have those policies,” Cuccinelli told The Center Square. “That is kind of the point, then it does achieve that outcome. And the bigger your illegal population, the easier it is for threatening illegals to hide.

“And threatening can mean criminal threat, or it can mean a security threat, and those policies just make it a lot easier for larger and larger groups of illegal aliens with long term negative intentions directed to America, to hide and to be … near the Marine Corps base and other facilities that are in the area.”

He pointed to data centers, which are vital to national security as a potential concern as national security threats as they are nestled in localities with sanctuary policies.

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