Senate to take up bill to punish 'sanctuary cities' that shield migrants

USAToday

By Erin Kelly

October 8, 2015

Senate to take up bill to punish 'sanctuary cities' that shield migrants 

The Senate will take up a bill the week of Oct. 19 to bar "sanctuary cities" from receiving law enforcement grants if they refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Thursday.

The House passed similar legislation in July, sparking a veto threat from President Obama. Democratic senators are expected to try to block the bill.

Republicans have pushed for the action in response to the murder of a 31-year-old woman who was allegedly shot to death by an undocumented immigrant and convicted felon on July 1 in San Francisco. Democrats said Republicans are using the tragedy to pander to right-wing voters and bolster the divisive rhetoric of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has referred to undocumented Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers.

Kate Steinle was killed while walking with her father on a pier. The man charged in the killing, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, had been deported back to Mexico five times and was a convicted felon.

A San Francisco city-county law dating back to 1989 bars local officials from helping federal agents with immigration investigations or arrests unless required by federal or state law or by a warrant. The policy makes San Francisco a "sanctuary city." Cities with similar policies include Los Angeles, New York, Knoxville, Tenn., and Manchester, N.H.

The Senate bill would withhold certain federal law enforcement grants from cities that fail to comply with requests by the Department of Homeland Security to detain an individual in jail for up to 48 hours so that they can be taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to face deportation.

Funds stripped from sanctuary cities would be given to cities that cooperate with federal authorities under the legislation, which was introduced in July by Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.

"In a time of limited federal resources and tough choices, is it fair to treat localities that cooperate with federal law enforcement or work hard to follow federal law no better than localities that refuse to help or actively flout the law?" McConnell said. "It isn't fair."

McConnell said senators will vote on whether to advance the bill when they return the week of Oct. 19 from a weeklong recess tied to Monday's Columbus Day holiday.

A spokesman for the AFL-CIO said Thursday that union leaders will work to defeat the bill.

"Senator Vitter’s bill does nothing to address our broken immigration system, and instead would undermine public safety, cut off funding for local policing, swell the coffers of for-profit detention facilities, and make it easier for abusive bosses to retaliate against hard-working people," said Bill Samuel, the group's director of government affairs. "The AFL-CIO will work with allies to defeat this bill and any similar legislation that scapegoats and criminalizes our immigrant communities."

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com