"There is no specific legal definition for what constitutes a sanctuary jurisdiction but the term is widely used to refer to American cities, counties or states that protect undocumented immigrants from deportation by limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Some decline to use city or state tax dollars to enforce federal immigration laws. "
In the last sentence quoted above, I was first confused with what it meant. My first interpretation was some jurisdictions refuse to spend their tax money aiming at enforcing federal immigration laws. But this contradicts with the context. So I read it again, and this time it came to me as some cities or states do not use their tax dollars to resist enforcing immigration laws.
And questions came to my mind:
1) What will be a better way to put this sentence not to confuse readers (am I alone in this?) I think "not to" would have been better than just "to" after "tax dollars"
2) With the verb "spend", when talking about spending money, there's a commonly accepted grammar of using a present participle after it, for example, "spent $10 buying a car".
If so, may I rearrange this sentence to "some cities don't spend tax dollars not enforcing immigration laws"?
source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/11/economist-explains-13
In the last sentence quoted above, I was first confused with what it meant. My first interpretation was some jurisdictions refuse to spend their tax money aiming at enforcing federal immigration laws. But this contradicts with the context. So I read it again, and this time it came to me as some cities or states do not use their tax dollars to resist enforcing immigration laws.
And questions came to my mind:
1) What will be a better way to put this sentence not to confuse readers (am I alone in this?) I think "not to" would have been better than just "to" after "tax dollars"
2) With the verb "spend", when talking about spending money, there's a commonly accepted grammar of using a present participle after it, for example, "spent $10 buying a car".
If so, may I rearrange this sentence to "some cities don't spend tax dollars not enforcing immigration laws"?
source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/11/economist-explains-13