Portside

Along with efforts to guide readers to trustworthy information sources, many branches are working to make themselves `sanctuary spaces' for immigrants. 'Our nation's 120,000 public, academic, school and special libraries serve all community members, including people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities and the most vulnerable in our communities, offering services and...resources that transform communities, open minds, and promote inclusion and diversity,'

A moment of stinging clarity is now upon us. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to set in motion the process of building a wall along the US-Mexico border, stripping federal funding from sanctuary cities, increasing the size of US Border Patrol forces and increasing deportations. In response, we must plunge even more urgently into the hard local work of building sanctuary.

In 2012, President Obama passed DACA, a legislative policy to ensure that certain undocumented immigrants to the United States who entered the country before their 16th birthday and before June 2007 receive a renewable two-year work permit, a Social Security Number and exemption from deportation. Donald Trump has vowed to end DACA once he enters office, making hundreds of thousands of young people fearful of deportation and that their education could be in jeopardy.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, and several governors push back against the rising tide of anti-refugee sentiment. Governors Tom Wolf (PA), Kate Brown (OR), Jay Inslee (WA), Jerry Brown (CA), and John Hickenlooper (CO) have voiced their support for refugees from war, economic poverty and religious and political persecution.