New York City has been considered a safe place for immigrant communities for a long time, and lately, has taken on the name of a "Sanctuary City." However, the idea of "sanctuary" has mostly been a facade to the city's reality: a place that criminalizes Black, Brown, and Queer bodies through the continuation of unnecessary arrests for low-level offenses cannot be called a "sanctuary" space. Many of individuals who enter the system and are also immigrants and end up placed into a pipeline for deportation. This workshop will discuss the dichotomy of the term Sanctuary City and the current politics while also highlighting proactive solutions that New York City and New York State can take in order to become a real Sanctuary city/state.
