Parents voice frustration as SCUSD officials, teachers negotiate reopen date

by: Sonseeahray Tonsall

Posted: Mar 16, 2021 / 08:12 PM PDT / Updated: Mar 16, 2021 / 05:44 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — Some local parents are getting the chance to share their opinions about the changes they want to see as their kids return to school.

The deadline for parents to submit their ‘learning options’ survey in the Sacramento City Unified School District is Wednesday.

The district and its teachers have both proposed April 8 as the date kindergartners thru 3rd graders could return to the classroom as the coronavirus pandemic continues but no agreement has been struck.

More negotiations have been set for Wednesday about topics like new building ventilation standards.

District officials said that when kids return the district is ready with new integrated video, microphone and screen systems that will follow a teacher around the room for the students who want to learn in person and allow for kids still at home to interact with their peers without it being like Zoom in school.

Members of the Parents Advocating for Student Success Coalition spoke out Tuesday to SCUSD administrators sharing their concerns that neither the district nor the teachers union is focused enough on the students and doing enough to address their true needs.

PASS claims unresponsiveness to their worries was an issue even before the pandemic.

“I called the school to ask for help and was always transferred to someone, to another person without getting a solution to this,” explained SCUSD Parent and Sacramento ACT member Elvia Vasquez.

“Tensions between the teachers’ representation and the district have seriously eroded the district’s ability to meet the broad educational and developmental demands of 46,000 students,” explained President and CEO of the Sierra Health Foundation Chet Hewitt.

When asked about the concerns raised by PASS, SCUSD officials sent FOX40 the following statement:

We are grateful for the work of these community leaders and community-based organizations for helping to empower and engage our families through the PASS project. We welcome this advocacy effort on behalf of our families especially those who may not have an understanding of how to navigate our K-12 system. These families deserve a strong voice when it comes to the future of their students and our district.

SACRAMENTO CITY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

The district and its teachers will sit down for another round of reopening negotiations Wednesday.

St. Francis Student In Blackface Controversy No Longer Attending The School

SACRAMENTO (CBS 13) — Outrage and demands for justice persist at a Sacramento Catholic high school.

A student at St. Francis Catholic High School who was seen in a video using blackface to impersonate a fellow student is no longer at the school, a spokesperson confirms. School leaders called the photo “completely unacceptable.”

Activists are praising the quick action, but say the problem goes much deeper.

Students rallied at St. Francis High School Wednesday, Feb. 24.

A crowd of passionate students and community members gathered at the school on Wednesday to make clear that the conversation about race is just getting started.

“We understand the severity of racism. Now that we do, we need to hold zero tolerance type of provision in our schools and at work,” said Tecoy Porter, a pastor at Genesis Church.

Former students and parents at St. Francis high school spoke out last summer about deep-seated racism there. School leaders then launched a racial reconciliation program to train staff about racial bias.

But months later, the photo incident happened.

Pastor Porter said it’s a dehumanizing moment that can be a teaching moment.

“It’s the actions of it all, and to make sure people take this seriously because literally, lives are on the line,” he said.

Tere Flores with activist group Sacramento ACT said schools should teach more Black history in a way that’s culturally competent. She suggests more training for teachers.

“The conversation isn’t just about students showing up with blackface, it’s about a system that continues to perpetuate systematic racism,” Flores said.

It’s about turning a hurtful moment, into a hopeful conversation.

“In order for our world to be a better place, we have to learn to treat each other better,” Pastor Porter said.

CBS13 requested an interview with a St. Francis Catholic High School representative to explain their racial reconciliation plan in more detail but no one could be available in time for this story.

‘We must act now’: Black leaders demand better vaccine access in Sacramento County

BY ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS

FEBRUARY 19, 2021 05:00 AM

Prominent Black leaders in Sacramento are criticizing the county’s vaccine rollout effort, and demanding local health officials do more to improve access for Black residents.

In a letter sent Wednesday to county public health officials and elected leaders, the community advocates point out that Black residents have disproportionately borne the brunt of COVID-19, but have also received a low level of information about and access to vaccines thus far.

“It is clear that the first phase of the vaccine distribution effort has not been equitably distributed,” the letter stated. “This has to change, and we must act now.”

The group calls on the county to create an African American COVID-19 vaccine advisory committee, to open multiple vaccination distribution sites in areas where target residents can access them (with particular attention on access for homeless residents), and to provide oversight over how well healthcare systems and pharmacies are reaching out to Black residents, among other requests.

Among the signers are Sierra Health Foundation president and CEO Chet P. Hewitt, Greater Sacramento NAACP president Betty Williams, Rev. Dr. Joy Johnson of Sacramento Area Congregations Together and Sacramento Observer president and publisher Larry Lee.

Residents and health advocates have roundly complained that Sacramento’s current vaccine distribution network is not only difficult to navigate, but may be actively harming future inoculation efforts. Hospital are emailing and calling patients, seemingly at random, and appointments at pharmacies are never available. People hear about pop-up clinics — even ones in underserved neighborhoods — only after they’ve finished.

Faye Wilson Kennedy, one of the letter signers, is among the many who struggled to find a vaccine for weeks, even though she qualified. A member of both the Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign and the Sacramento Area Black Caucus, Kennedy said it was impossible to get an appointment with her regular healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente.

After lots of digging online and on social media, Kennedy and her husband were ultimately able to secure vaccines at a pop-up clinic on Saturday at Sacramento City College, in partnership with Dignity Health. But the makeup of patients she saw personally were concerning.

“The only Black folks I saw were workers,” she said. “When my husband and I looked around, we saw very few people of color.”

The letter demands the county publish and maintain a comprehensive, up-to-date listing of all vaccination sites, including dates, times and who is eligible.

Inequities in health access that existed long before the pandemic have been magnified in the last year. Black, Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native residents in the United States are dying from COVID-19 at roughly twice the rate of white residents, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate published Thursday. In Sacramento, Latino households have made up a disproportionate number of cases, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders have seen the highest case fatality rate of any racial group.

“Common sense would tell you if the majority of the people who are at-risk of contracting the virus and dying are Black and brown and Indigenous and Asian folks, if they’re the predominant group with underlying health conditions, you’d think they’d need access (to the vaccine) to survive,” Kennedy said. “It seems that is not necessarily being practiced.”

So far, Black and Latino residents are receiving far fewer doses than white residents in Sacramento County, according to new data released by state officials last week.

Health officials have warned that the data is incomplete, and chalk up disparities thus far to the racial demographics of the people linked to industries thus far prioritized for vaccines — healthcare workers, first responders, residents at longterm care facilities. Health advocates have said that alone isn’t sufficient to explain the gaps.

Of the more than 225,000 people who have received at least one dose in Sacramento County and whose race was recorded, about 37% were white, 12% were Asian, 12% were multiracial, 8% were Latino and 4% were Black. About twice as many white residents received a shot in Sacramento County as any other racial group.

“Local government has always been resistant to addressing the needs of poor people and people of color,” Kennedy said, but she hopes the letter will serve as an wake-up call.

She noted that previous calls-to-action have been effective. Last April, when there was a severe lack of testing in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, Black community leaders sent a similar letter to the public health department and elected officials. Soon after, several community-based testing sites opened, like at St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church in Oak Park.

“We want those policymakers and elected officials to begin to provide the information and collect the data so we know if the vaccine is really reaching those populations that are really impacted,” Kennedy said. “Without that, you’re going to see the deaths increase. It’s just not going to get any better, it’s just not.”

‘There were still so many that needed help’: Sacramento looking to expand rental assistance program

Tuesday night, The Sacramento City Council voted to allocate another $31.7 million to help people struggling to pay their rent during the pandemic.

Original Story Below

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — The Sacramento City Council is poised Tuesday night to extend a program that is expected to help several thousand tenants who are behind on their rent due to the pandemic.

Beginning last September, the city was able to gather around $5.6 million from different funding sources to give out rental grants to lower-income renters who had lost their jobs and couldn’t pay rent.

That money was dispersed to over 1,400 applicants by the end of the year.

“While that helped many families survive and keep them from being displaced and ending up unhoused on our streets, there were still so many that needed help,” said Councilman Eric Guerra.

That was shown by the response to a much smaller program run by the faith-based Sacramento Area Congregations Together.

“Within a few days, we had over 300 applications, so the need was tremendous,” Sacramento ACT spokeswoman Shireen Miles said.

With unemployment number still at record highs, groups that aid low-income families wholeheartedly support the expansion of the program.

Rent moratoriums put into place still require back rent to eventually be paid. The program helps both renters, as well as small landlords, who are under stress as the economy slowly recovers.

The city is looking at tweaking the criteria for the new set of rental assistance grants.

“Getting up to 80% of your rent, the past program had a cap of $4,000 maximum. That cap will no longer exist,” Guerra said. “We will be looking at what is the maximum that we can actually help with.”

The city will also be working with community groups to publicize the program among low-income renters.

Later in the month, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will be looking to add more money into the program.

People can find out about the rental assistance program by contacting the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency or through the city’s 311 assistance line.

Sistahs on The Frontline: Pastor Joy Johnson – A Community Healer

February 16, 2021 by Genoa Barrow

Social justice grounded in faith. As senior pastor of Higher Hope Christian Church and an activist in the wider community, Rev. Dr. Joy Johnson has dedicated her life to seeing prayer put into action.

She is founder and president of Dr. Joy Johnson Ministries and Life Matters, Inc. and also directs trauma healing and restoration programs for families and survivors of neighborhood violence and tragedy.

“That is the work I do now, much more than say your ‘traditional church work’ and though I consider this emerging church, we have to change our methods because of a changing society, and changing demand,” Dr. Johnson shared.

She hosts weekly healing circles in North Highlands and Del Paso Heights, where she does so in collaboration with the Neighborhood Wellness Foundation.

“It is very much like the church meetings of a very long time ago in that these are people who have experienced extreme trauma in their lives, primarily around violence —children who have been lost to violence, gun violence from gang activity, gun violence from police shootings,” Dr. Johnson said.

“Our people, we don’t have the resources often to get preventative care or just intervene on our own behalf, so we’re losing lives. We’re also losing our ability to mobilize around the community, to just do what normal people do — get up, go to work, whatever. There are significant constraints that are bringing us down and some of those traumas are long-standing and are a result of a childhood trauma,” she continued.

Many of the participants shy away from “traditional church” and through the sessions, Dr. Johnson has created spaces where women feel free to open up.

“Their stories are treated like sacred testimonies and from that experience of sharing stories, healing occurs,” she said.

Many of the participants have lost children to a local gang war that has turned former friends into mortal enemies. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Joy Johnson would lead her group of women to the sight of area shootings.

“These are mothers who when they get enough courage up, we’ll go with 30 women from the circle, we’ll go with them to the parks to try to pray and reclaim the territory in a peaceful way,” she said.

The shootings that were happening in broad daylight haven’t stopped altogether, but they’re less frequent, Dr. Johnson said.

“There are some adults, men at least, who are part of these gangs that do the shooting and encourage the shootings, and if we can get their voices on our side, I think it would be totally eliminated.

“Just like any preacher, just like any pastor, I have to keep stirring in their hearts the belief that if we keep on doing this, if we keep holding on to our faith, if we keep trusting God and we don’t waiver, it’s going to turn our neighborhoods around,” she said.

As immediate past president of Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Dr. Johnson sought to turn things around throughout the region.

“The central core of our work together is a work toward justice,” she said of the 60-plus faith-based organizations that make up Sacramento ACT.

In the wake of the shooting death of Stephon Clark in 2018 and the killing of George Floyd last year, Sacramento ACT members spoke out and took to the streets. Some were arrested while protesting the continued treatment of unarmed Black men.

“We stand on the belief that all life is so very important,” Dr. Johnson said. “Anything that is life-giving is godly. Anything that is taking life, that would not be godly, so that is why we take to the streets. When we take to the streets, we’re taking to the streets to fight evil,” she said.

In the wake of Floyd’s death, Dr. Johnson spoke during a women’s event in Cesar Chavez Park and in September, she led a mass march to the State Capitol to “lament” the lives lost during the pandemic.

“The people who were dying from this pandemic were all Black and poor and nobody was taking notice of it,” she said.

“If I had my way we’d probably have two to three days where ain’t nobody doing nothing in these here United States but praying and weeping over all the tragedies that have been man-made, that have been caused at our own very hands.”

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer

40 Under 40 honoree: Ryan McClinton

Nov 22, 2020, 7:42pm EST

Over the next few days, we're introducing you to this year's 40 Under 40 honorees. Meet more honorees here.

Ryan McClinton

Program manager, Public Health Advocates

As a community organizer at Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Ryan McClinton helped develop policy, cultivate nonprofits and develop resources to create a more just and fair community. With a focus on communities of color, McClinton tackled issues like gun violence, homelessness and food insecurity. He pushed local government to address systemic racism through governance and budgetary practices. He also successfully pushed for legislative policy to create more police accountability and helped develop a funding mechanism to support Black communities. After some four years with the organization, McClinton started a new job in October with Public Health Advocates, a nonprofit that helps communities pass laws, reform systems and establish norms that foster justice, equity and health. As a program manager, McClinton is working on a campaign focused on building advisory teams to help inform and innovate new approaches to emergency response systems.

Age: 35

Education: High school graduate with 60 units of college credits.

What is your biggest personal accomplishment? "Receiving a Men of Honor Award from the very community I was raised in."

What is your biggest takeaway from the Covid-19 pandemic? "That we can never lose sight of the richness humanity with one another holds."

How do you foresee your industry changing as a result of Covid-19? "More innovation into how we cultivate leaders and implement equitable change not just in the immediate but for generations to come."

What is your top priority for 2021? "Dismantling the cultures of white supremacy through every system we have that connects with people, be it education, public health, public safety, financially, economically and even on a relational level."

What is your favorite movie? "'Harlem Nights.' A classic example of what is possible when you bring some of the best in their field together to collaborate on a project. Still hilarious to this day."

Have you developed any new skills during the quarantine? "I've became an adequate gardener.”

Sacramento considers tax break for UC Davis project. Some worry it will fuel gentrification

BY THERESA CLIFT

OCTOBER 27, 2020 05:00 AM

The city of Sacramento is planning to give a $30 million tax break to the developers of a controversial UC Davis project that critics say will accelerate gentrification in the city’s Oak Park and Tahoe Park neighborhoods.

The proposal, which the City Council will consider Tuesday, would also include a $37 million plan to spark more affordable housing in the neighborhoods surrounding Aggie Square, said John Dangberg, a consultant for the city on the project.

The university is planning to break ground on four buildings next year, including classroom and research space, and 285 units of student housing that will rent for about $1,900 a month per unit, according to a July report.

The $1.1 billion first phase of the project is expected to bring 3,600 new jobs to the site at Stockton Boulevard and Second Avenue, not counting construction jobs. Many community members worry the new employees will flood the rental market, driving up prices and forcing current renters out.

Council members could Tuesday take the first step toward creating what’s called an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District. Under that mechanism, about $30 million in new property tax revenue that would normally go toward city coffers would be redirected toward helping the developer fund the project – paying for infrastructure such as roadways, storm water and sewer improvements – through 2069, Dangberg said.

The tax break would provide the developer with the final funding needed to build the project, said Doug Woodruff, of Baltimore-based Wexford Science and Technology, the developer for the project.

“If we get an EIFD commitment, we can just roll right into development,” Woodruff said.

The plan would also include an additional $37 million tax break. That money, which normally would have also gone to the city coffers, would be redirected toward efforts to spark new affordable housing in the area and cash to keep renters from being displaced. Those efforts have not yet been identified, but could include grants to affordable housing developers to help them build on vacant lots along Stockton Boulevard, rental assistance to current residents in the area, and other initiatives, Dangberg said.

COMMUNITY AGREEMENT FOR JOBS, HOUSING

The project will include a community benefits agreement, which will ease community fears about displacement and ensure that a significant number of the new jobs will be attainable for current residents, said City Councilman Jay Schenirer, who represents Oak Park.

“To me, there’s four partners here,” Schenirer said. “UC Davis, the developer, the city and the community. The potential here is enormous if we do this right. And doing it right means we have to do it together.”

Community advocates worry that even with a community benefits agreement, the project will greatly damage the neighborhood.

Rachel Iskow said she was glad the city was planning to fund affordable housing efforts, but that $37 million is just “a drop in the bucket” and will not go far enough to prevent displacement of longtime residents, many of whom are low-income families of color.

“It’s simply not enough money to build housing and provide rent supports,” Iskow said. “There are thousands of people in the city waiting for affordable housing.”

The typical apartment rent in Sacramento has increased 45% in the last seven years following the Great Recession.

Iskow and several other community advocates, who formed a coalition called Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, worry they will not have a seat at the table to ensure more longtime residents are not forced out.

“City officials, UC Davis and Wexford know there’s a coalition of reputable organizations that want to see the concerns of residents addressed and they have not brought us to the table in a meaningful way,” said Gabby Trejo, executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together, a coalition member.

The group also wants contractual measures to require the developers address air pollution in the high-traffic area, provide free legal service to renters and require UC Davis Medical Center to accept more Medi-Cal patients, Iskow said. The group is concerned the community will not be included as a negotiator and signatory on the community benefits agreement – a legally-enforceable contract.

It has not been decided whether the coalition will sign the agreement, but the city is open to discussing it, Schenirer said. The agreement will address issues regarding both housing and jobs, and will be done at the same time the tax break is finalized, he said.

“One should not go in front of the other,” Schenirer said. “They should be tied at the hip.”

The project also needs University of California Board of Regents approval. The board will consider it next month. If approved, construction on Aggie Square would start in early 2021 and it would open in 2023 or 2024, officials said.

The council meeting will take place at 5 p.m Tuesday. It will be live streamed on the city’s website.

The cost of being a sanctuary city under Trump administration

BY SHARYL ATTKISSON 

Today we dive into an election issue and a political flashpoint: Sanctuary Cities. You may recall the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal taxpayer funds from hundreds of American cities, counties and states that continue to shield illegal immigrants. What ever happened? You might be surprised by what we found when we followed the money.

Sharyl: Edwin Valdez is a U.S. citizen the son of illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Edwin Valdez: So me and my sisters were born here in the U.S. And my parents came to the U.S. from Mexico about 24, 25 years ago.

Today, he runs a hotline in California for a group called Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Sacramento ACT for illegal immigrant families that need help.

Sharyl: What's a typical call you might get relating to the issue that we're talking about?

Valdez: A typical call would be a family member that calls into the hotline and says, "Hey, my loved one just got picked up within a specific timeframe. What can you do for me? What can we do?”

As a sanctuary city, Sacramento protects some illegal immigrants from being deported by limiting cooperation with federal immigration officials or ice.

Valdez says his group aims to help the many hard working and deserving people who come to the U.S. for jobs and a better life—like his parents did, without going through the immigration system.

But not all illegal immigrants are peaceful. Josh Wilkerson was murdered by a high school classmate, an illegal immigrant with an arrest record. Josh’s mom recounts the horrible attack.

Laura Wilkerson (July 2016): He hit him so hard in the stomach that it made his spleen go into the spine and it sliced it in two. Then, he tortured him by strangling him then, he put him in a field and he set his body on fire.

In 2018, illegal immigrants accounted for 64% of all federal arrests. They make up an estimated 7% of the U.S. population but 15% of federal prosecutions for non-immigration crimes, and about one out of every four (24%) federal drug arrests, property arrests like theft and burglary (25%), and arrests involving fraud (28%).

Part of President Trump’s get-tough border policy was a pledge to withhold federal money from the places that won’t notify the feds before releasing illegal immigrant criminals back into society. Criminals who may be on the list for deportation.

President Donald Trump (December 2017): And we are throwing them the hell out of our country or we are putting them in prison. I don't want to give sanctuary cities money.

Michelle Steel is on the president’s side. She’s a first generation legal immigrant from South Korea and chairman of the board of supervisors in Orange County, California

Michelle Steel: So it's very dangerous that, you know, when you cannot trace these people and they commit another crime and coming back then public safety is in danger.

Steel at county board meeting (March 2018): And I raise the issue because government's first duty is public safety.

In 2018, Orange County voted to take a position against California’s sanctuary status.

Citizen of Orange County: It is absolutely shameful I oppose this resolution.

Citizen of Orange County: Lock 'em all up, are we a nation of laws or we are not?

Citizen of Orange County: If you vote NO on 14A, you are responsible for endangering human beings.

Orange County Board Member: Thank you for your comments. Alright, any opposed? Say none, that passes will all members present.

Sharyl: Can you guess what the impact might be if the Trump administration cuts off federal funds to California and cities and counties, for reasons that they are sanctuary cities, counties, and state?

Steel: You know what? California has been always fighting Trump administration, you know, regarding the immigration issues. It seems like it was a, you know, a year or two years ago that Trump administration said that we're going to cut off, but I don't think anything's been cut off until yet. So I don't know.

Fight improper government surveillance. Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI over the government computer intrusions of Attkisson's work while she was a CBS News investigative correspondent. Visit the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund. Click here.

We set out to find: who has been cut off? And how much money is at stake?

The Department of Justice told us a lot of the public information we asked for is confidential or not being tracked.

What we do know is the biggest pot of federal money involved is called Byrne Justice Assistance grants. About $250 million dollars a year is divided among 900 cities, counties and states.

In 2017, the Trump administration imposed new conditions requiring any place that takes the money, to cooperate with ice. That forces sanctuary cities to give up the cash or change their ways. California gets the most money from the grant program, nearly $36 million dollars over the past two years. That’s on top of what its local governments get.

Sharyl (on camera): Now the big question is whether the threat of losing millions of dollars in federal taxpayer money is changing minds here on the ground in the sanctuary state of California, or its 20 sanctuary cities and counties.

Sharyl: Have you been in discussions or have you thought about the impact that could have and where we are with all of that?

Valdez: Yeah. We began to have those discussions with city and county officials because we realized that some cities and some counties do receive a good amount of money from the federal government. And so it puts them at risk of losing a lot of money. And really looking at the reality of things, we could be facing cuts to other resources that are very valuable to the community. That could be an unwanted backfire, basically.

State Senator Holly Mitchell: The state of California is going to continue to stand in the gap to protect our undocumented brothers and sisters, recognizing the role they play in contributing to our economy.

California State Senator Holly Mitchell represents mid-city Los Angeles.

Sharyl: What will be the impact if federal funds are cut off from these cities?

Mitchell: Well, we are of course going to fight that tooth and nail. Our attorney general here in California, I've lost track of the number of lawsuits he has now filed against the federal government, but it's something that we're going to continue to fight because A) we fundamentally believe in it. It reflects the values of California residents, and it's the right thing for the state government to do when the federal government turns their back on a major constituency that we all represent.

California and more than a dozen other locations sued to try to get the grant money without the strings attached. So far, most of them have won in lower courts. But earlier this year, a federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration in the one of the biggest cases: New York.

John Yoo: I think eventually it'll get settled by the Supreme Court.

Former Justice Department official John Yoo lives in the sanctuary city of San Francisco, which is also suing the Trump administration. He says he thinks he knows where all of this is headed.

John Yoo: The federal government can't commandeer or draft state governments and their police officers to carry out federal priorities. The Supreme Court has said that many times. They don't have to cooperate or help the federal government in any way. On the flip side, the federal government doesn't have to give California any money for policing or immigration either. And so that's what I think will happen in the end. And this is going to lead to some significant budget cuts for this city and for other cities in California, like San Diego and LA. But again, if my neighbors and I, we think we want to not cooperate with federal government and immigration, then we should really pay the cost for it, rather than trying to have our cake and eat it too. The last thing we should do is say, "Oh, let's symbolically have this great sanctuary policy, but we also want the federal government to give us as much money as possible."

As to the impact of President Trump’s strategy to punish sanctuary cities so far, the justice department told us “we don’t track whether individual sanctuary cities have changed their laws or practices to comply with grant conditions, but it is safe to infer that some cities and states have agreed to abandon sanctuary practices to continue participating in grant programs.”

Valdez told us the debate may be changing some minds or at least strategies here in Sacramento, California.

Sharyl: So what is the thought? That it's still worth it to keep the sanctuary city status, even if money is lost?

Valdez: We're still having those discussions. As of now, we haven't come to an answer of whether or not we should change, or how big of a threat it is. But there are cities that are considering laying back those restrictions or laying back those laws so that they could still protect and defend their community members without losing funding from the federal government.

The way things are going, it’s the Supreme Court that will have the final say on whether American cities and states have to choose between getting federal money and giving sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

While the challenges work their way through court, millions of dollars are being held in limbo.

Click on the link below to watch the video report on FullMeasure.news:

 http://fullmeasure.news/news/follow-the-money/sanctuary-payback