Instead of focusing on an unfunded mandate that threatens public safety, Senate Republicans should work with Democrats to pass a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration bill like we did two years ago.
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The White House said the Obama administration’s policy is to focus on “the most significant public-safety threats”, but acknowledged that requires the active participation of state and local governments. David Vitter would punish jurisdictions that prohibit the collection of immigration information or don’t cooperate with federal requests, blocking them from receiving certain grants and funds. He needed to garner the 60 votes needed to override the promised veto, but was able to get only 54, with Senator Mark Steven Kirk, R.-Ill., joining Democrats in opposing the bill. The policy earned national scrutiny in July after an undocumented man, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, was charged with murdering 32-year-old Kate Steinle. Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey voted against the bill after Menendez accused Senate Republicans of jumping on “the GOP’s fear-mongering bandwagon”.
“In a few form” is not exactly reassuring when a few sanctuary cities defy ICE detainer requests for immigrants who are here illegally and have serious criminal records.
The Senate took up legislation to crack down on “sanctuary cities” that do not automatically turn over immigrants to federal authorities.
“Today, the Senate had an opportunity to send the message that defiance of our laws will no longer be tolerated”, Cruz said in a press release after the vote.
The shift came after outreach by federal immigration officials and several high-profile cases, including the one in San Francisco. “There’s just a series of coincidences that happened that people add up to saying that there was a causal relationship between our sanctuary city policies and Kate Steinle’s death and nothing is further from the truth”.
Senate Democrats blocked a bill Tuesday that would slow the flow of money to cities that seemingly shelter undocumented immigrants.
Houston, which for years has been trying to shed its label as a sanctuary city, would not have been impacted by the legislation because neither the city nor the county limit their cooperation with federal authorities when it comes to holding immigrants in jail who are sought for deportation.
According to The Hill, The White House threatened to veto the bill, quoting a statement by the Office of Management and Budget “The administration believes that these provisions would lead to mistrust between communities and State and local law enforcement”.
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Earlier in the day, Senate Republicans in Congress tried but failed to push through legislation punishing sanctuary cities. And indeed, the vote of confidence in our Sanctuary City designation was covered everywhere from the Chronicle to the New York Times to, yes, Fox – though that news outlet deployed AP coverage, perhaps after learning a lesson this summer when Scott Wiener gained praise for shaking off a Fox news crew. He offered another non-binding measure urging the sheriff to not cooperate with the latest federal program called the Priority Enforcement Program, or PEP.
