House Passes Anti-Sanctuary Cities Bill

National Journal

By Colby Bermel

July 23, 2015

House Passes Anti-Sanctuary Cities Bill 

Congressional Republicans continued to put a spotlight on illegal immigration Thursday, as the House along partisan lines passed a bill meant to punish so-called sanctuary cities by withholding federal funds.

The vote was 241-179, with only about a half-dozen members of each party crossing the aisle.

President Obama on Thursday pledged to veto the bill, which is also opposed by the Major County Sheriffs' Association and the Fraternal Order of Police.

The vote continues a week of Republican messaging on immigration and so-called sanctuary cities. Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard emotional testimony from the relatives of those killed by undocumented immigrants; a House Judiciary subpanel held its own hearing Thursday on the issue.

Sanctuary cities are jurisdictions that choose not to disclose to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies when undocumented immigrants are released from their custody, which critics say contributed to the death of Kate Steinle and others whose relatives testified before Congress this week.

Many of the top Republican voices on immigration attended the Thursday session chaired by Rep. Trey Gowdy, who came out swinging right away. "This system of laws failed Kate Steinle," Gowdy said of the San Francisco woman fatally shot earlier this month, allegedly by a Mexican man convicted of seven felonies and deported five times. "It is quite literally a matter of life and death. This is the real world."

Gowdy, chairman of the Immigration and Border Security subcommittee, also blasted liberals for their solutions to the immigration issue. "It almost sounds utopian," he said. "Refuge for whom? Safety for whom? A young woman walking up the pier with her father? Or a career criminal like Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez?"

Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte characterized current federal immigration policy as "wholesale and unprecedented shutdown of immigration enforcement," and called the House-passed bill "is a good first step." He added that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy intends for further legislation make it to the floor.

The Judiciary Committee has previously passed a bill that would mandate compliance with ICE detainers, and punish violating jurisdictions.

Rep. Steve King, along with Gowdy, also accused Democrats of supporting more comprehensive immigration reform "because of a political desire. … They are pandering to people who are lawbreakers."

Democrats said the sanctuary cities issue is a distraction from the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren said that there is a need to deal with criminal aliens, but warned her fellow members to not "get diverted by overall disagreements on immigration policy."

Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez delivered particularly forceful remarks. He said the suspect in Steinle's shooting should have been deported, but also said "If we're truly going to protect our nation, we're going to need a holistic approach" to immigration reform. Gutierrez was also very critical of one of the witnesses, Jessica Vaughn of the Center for Immigration Studies, saying that she should be engaged in different work to "put food on the table."

Steinle's father, Jim, testified at Thursday's hearing. While he supports legislation to "take these undocumented immigrant felons off our streets for good," he also suggested the idea of differentiating between types of felonies when dealing with criminal aliens.

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