NPR

For Local Cops In Germany, No Talk Of 'Sanctuary Cities'

Establishing trust with the million-plus recently arrived migrants is a challenge for local police in Germany, whose duties include deporting people ruled ineligible to stay in the country.
Dave Schmidtke is a social worker with the NGO Saxony Refugee Advisory that seeks to help migrants stay in the country. He says deportations undermine newcomers' trust in police.

Three years after German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the country's borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants, the public mood toward those new arrivals has soured. In more conservative parts of the country, such as Bavaria, government officials are promising to be more "efficient" about processing migrants' asylum claims — and to deport those who are found not to qualify.

Unlike in the U.S., asylum claims in Germany are handled by state-level authorities — and when someone is ordered deported, enforcement usually falls to local police.

That can lead to chaotic scenes. In May, in the town of Ellwangen, forced them to

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