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In the Bible, under the Law of Moses, 40 cities were named as sanctuary cities..

they were not designated to be hideouts for criminals like illegal aliens...

They were “cities of refuge” that a man who had ACCIDENTLY killed someone could flee to so that the victims family could not take revenge on the “manslayer”..he stayed there until the death of the current high priest..

While the man was inside the walls/gates of that city, he was safe from retribution from the victims kkinfolk...to a point..

he could still be killed himself but if that happened then the family member who did so would be guilty of murder and put to death...and the rest of the family dishonored and disgraced..

However if the man left the city and was killed outside the walls then the victim’s family member who did the deed was not guilty of murder but could go free..

and if a man DELIBERATELY murdered someone and fled to one of these cities he would be arrested and sent back to his own city and sentenced to death...the city of refuge was not to be used to hide/protect a criminal..

consequently since this law was so sacred and honored there was few times it was ever broken..

from the Middle Ages and on the sanctuary law was misused as a way to have protection from enemies seeking to kill and harm the innocent Christians..

Monks and nuns pledged their lives to protect anyone under the roof of a church or monastery ...and the enemies, Christian and non-Christian alike were suppose to honor the situation of “sanctuary” ...and not “break through” to get to the “refugees”...

But it wasn’t suppose to be that way..that wasn’t real “sanctuary”...

Meanwhile getting back to the illegal aliens...

sanctuary cities were to protect the innocent who had not committed a crime but had accidently killed someone..

they were never meant to harbor criminals such as they are now...

they were meant to protect the manslayer from the revenge of the family, not to hide him from the law..he was under the protection of the local law because he accidently killed someone not because he was a law breaking illegal alien...

Numbers 35, Deuteronomy 19