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Ottawa city councillors are working on plans to declare the capital a “sanctuary city” for migrants caught up in President Donald Trump’s executive order banning people from certain countries from entering the United States.

“It is not enough for this city council to tweet out ‘thoughts and prayers’,” said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper.

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Just exactly what kind of sanctuary Ottawa might offer — well, that’s not clear. There’s no formal definition of a sanctuary city, no United Nations form with boxes to tick. It means what the city making the declaration wants it to mean.

Hundreds of U.S. municipalities have voted to call themselves sanctuary cities, going back decades, and usually it indicates that their employees won’t ask whether residents are in the United States legally when they use city services. Sometimes it’s more extreme. San Francisco, for instance, outright forbids police to co-operate with federal immigration authorities to enforce deportation orders most of the time. That’s a big deal in places close to the Mexican border — not just welcoming newcomers arriving legally, but explicitly protecting illegal immigrants from being deported.