A San Diego congressman on Thursday introduced a bill proposing to strip federal funding away from so-called “sanctuary cities” that maintain policies shielding undocumented immigrants suspected or convicted of committing crimes from deportation.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, submitted his “Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act” in direct response to last week’s fatal shooting of 32- year-old Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco. Convicted felon Juan Francisco Lopez- Sanchez, a Mexican national who reportedly had been deported multiple times, has been charged with murder for the apparently random attack.
Hunter has submitted bills in the past to penalize cities and states for preventing enforcement of federal immigration statutes, though none of the proposals have been signed into law. The current one is much broader, according to the congressman.
“States and cities that refuse to enforce federal immigration laws directly undermine enforcement efforts and — as recent events have shown — present a real danger to citizens,” Hunter said. “If a state or one of its cities wants to call itself a sanctuary and deliberately ignore the law, then Congress shouldn’t hesitate to withhold federal funding until there’s compliance.”
Under Hunter’s proposal, expected to be assigned a House of Representatives committee for vetting in the coming days, the federal Immigration and Nationality Act would be amended to freeze allocations to cities or states with “any law, policy or procedure” that undermines provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
The bill defines a sanctuary policy as anything that “prohibits state or local law enforcement officials from gathering information regarding the citizenship or immigration status … of any individual.”
San Francisco and Los Angeles both have specific policies against inquiring whether a suspect meets the federal definition of “illegal alien.”
Despite San Diego’s inclusion on the list of “sanctuary cities,” the mayor’s office said Wednesday that the city works cooperatively with federal agencies and there is nothing in the city’s municipal codes that would prevent police from working with immigration officials.
Critics have blasted the Bay Area’s de facto asylum for undocumented offenders as enabling crimes such as the one Lopez-Sanchez is charged with committing. San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee released a statement Monday saying the city’s policy “protects residents regardless of immigration status and is not intended to protect repeat, serious and violent felons.”
Duncan’s bill seeks to withhold reimbursements under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which mitigates the costs of incarcerating undocumented offenders. The proposal also would put the brakes on Byrne Justice Assistance Grant funding, as well as money doled out under the Clinton-era Community-Oriented Policing Services Program, better known as COPS.
“One way we show we’re serious is by hitting localities where it hurts — and that’s the purse,” Hunter said. “But there should be wide support for a response, such as this proposal, that exercises a constitutional prerogative of Congress in order to uphold the law.”
The 2015 allotments made available for SCAAP, Byrne and COPS totals nearly $800 million, according to Hunter’s office.
Earlier this year, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., submitted the Davis-Oliver bill, which would permit states, cities and counties to enact their own immigration enforcement measures, as long as they replicate what’s already in place at the federal level. The legislation was inspired by the October 2014 slayings of two Northern California law enforcement officers, Michael Davis and Danny Oliver, allegedly gunned down by Mexican national Luis Enrique Bracamonte, a convicted felon.
— City News Service