NOTE TO STUDENTS: Many issues can be controversial. While you might not feel strongly about a certain topic, others around you might take a strong position on one side or the other. Learn to logically defend your position, and politely respect your neighbor’s point of view. And if your neighbor gets argumentative with you, remind each other that both sides need to be tolerant of the other’s point of view.

1. The first paragraph of a news article should answer the questions who, what, where and when. List the who, what, where and when of this news item. (NOTE: The remainder of a news article provides details on the why and/or how.)

2. Why might Gov. Abbott’s withholding of grant money not make any difference to Dallas county Sheriff Lupe Valdez?

3. What specifically is Sheriff Valdez refusing to do?

4. How did Sheriff Valdez respond to Gov. Abbott’s criticism of her decision to ignore federal law?

5. Sheriff Valdez is not upholding federal law. What do you think should be done about people who have come here illegally? Should law enforcement across the country do the same? Do we let everyone come, as Europe is doing? Do we regulate the number of people entering the country, screening them with background checks to weed out the criminals?

6. If people break the law to come into the country, what should be done about it? (Note: until recently, people in the country unlawfully were referred to as illegal immigrants. Liberals say that term has a negative connotation - that people should not be referred to as “illegal” and instead identify them as “undocumented” immigrants.

7. Those who insist that local law enforcement increase its vigilance point to the San Francisco murder in July of a woman by an immigrant in the U.S. unlawfully, who had been deported from the U.S. multiple times. There had been a federal request to hold him for immigration officials, but San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi ignored the request.
Mirkarimi is known nationally for his strident defense of sanctuary city policies. (He lost his re-election bid this week. He was the subject of national criticism after Mexican illegal immigrant Francisco Sanchez shot and killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle on San Francisco's waterfront July 1. Sanchez had been released from Mirkarimi's jail in March even though federal immigration officials had requested he be detained for possible deportation.

San Francisco declared itself a sanctuary city in 1989, passing an ordinance that bans city officials from enforcing immigration laws or asking about immigration status unless required by law or court order. A follow-up ordinance in 2013 allows detention only under a court order targeting violent felons. In October, San Francisco's board of supervisors unanimously approved a resolution to maintain the city's sanctuary status.
Apart from the horrific murder of Kate Steinle, do you think sanctuary cities are beneficial to the citizens of a city/state, to the "undocumented" immigrants, both, or neither? Explain your answer.