It’s been over four decades since President Ronald Reagan sounded an alarm about America’s border problem.

“The simple truth is that we’ve lost control of our own borders,” he said, “and no nation can do that and survive.”

Twelve years ago, Hazleton entered the national debate over immigration reform when its city council approved a controversial ordinance that tightened how the city dealt with undocumented immigrants and those who offered them employment. Spearheading that action was Mayor Lou Barletta, who today is a leading voice in the U.S. Congress for tighter controls over illegal immigration.

Immigration is so polarizing and politicized that elected Republicans and Democrats as well as candidates for new office are constantly playing to their voter base. For President Donald Trump and the Republicans, a border wall is key to any immigration policy while sanctuary cities have been a key talking point for Democratic leaders and those in the resist Trump movement.

A good case in point is Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who is up for re-election this year. She’s been a consistent opponent to President Donald Trump, calling him a “bully-in-chief.”

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act requires local governments to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Yet city leaders, especially in California, are openly defying federal law.

Recently, Schaaf issued a media release that warned illegal immigrants in Oakland, a declared sanctuary city, of an impending raid from ICE, stating that Oakland police officers were being prohibited from participating in ICE activities. In a tweet, she stated that state law “prohibits business owners from assisting ICE agents in immigration enforcement and bars federal agents from accessing employee-only areas.”

ICE agents had been in the Bay Area conducting business audits to ensure local companies were hiring legal citizens. Last Thursday, ICE said in a statement that 232 people were arrested during their sweep of the Bay Area but ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan blamed Schaaf for helping hundreds more escape capture by agents.

He compared the mayor’s alert to “a gang lookout yelling ‘police.’ ”

While Mayor Schaaf is actively helping people break the law by avoiding law enforcement, she’s also doing it by using taxpayer resources.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it “outrageous that a mayor would circumvent federal authorities and put agents in danger. She told reporters last Thursday that Schaaf’s actions were “under review” by the Justice Department.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said enough is enough.

“We have seen too many examples of the threat to public safety represented by jurisdictions that actively thwart the federal government’s immigration enforcement,” Sessions said.

Legal experts, however, say it’s unlikely that Schaaf could be charged with obstruction of justice since her news release was vague and that proving a corrupt intent would be difficult.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has been at the center of the “resist” Trump movement and now many liberal city mayors have joined in their opposition by thumbing their noses at federal law. In the past 21 months, immigration authorities have issued more than 230,000 detainers, according to ICE. Since January 2014, law enforcement agencies around the country have failed to honor about 17,000 detainers and 61 percent of them have been in California.

Ten years ago, David Vitter, a Republican senator from Louisiana, told us that the sanctuary policies are a solid example of mayors and city councils directly oppose federal immigration law. He said the best way to hold liberal sanctuary city officials accountable is to withhold their funding.

It’s a simple solution to defying the law: Either follow current federal law or lose federal dollars for your city.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com