Thursday, July 23, 2015

HOUSE PASSES BILL TO END SANCTUARY CITIES 241 to 179 (179 cowards)

Freedoms Call


House passes bill to punish sanctuary cities in wake of Steinle killing

Jim Steinle, second from left, father of Kathryn Steinle, in photograph, testifies next to Montgomery County (Md.) Police Department. Chief J. Thomas Manger, right, before a Senate Judiciary hearing to examine the Administration's immigration enforcement policies, in Washington, Tuesday, July 21, 2015. Kathryn Steinle was killed on a San Francisco pier, allegedly by a man previously deported several times. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Jim Steinle, second from left, father of Kathryn Steinle, in photograph, testifies next to Montgomery County (Md.) Police Department. Chief J. Thomas Manger, right, before a Senate Judiciary hearing to examine the Administration’s immigration enforcement policies, in Washington, Tuesday, July ... more >By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Thursday, July 23, 2015
House Republicans, moving swiftly after the July 1 murder of a San Francisco woman attributed to that city’s sanctuary policy, approved a bill Thursday to strip federal grants from jurisdictions that shield illegal immigrants from arrest by federal immigration authorities.
Democrats derided the measure as the “Donald Trump Act,” accusing the GOP of being led by the brash presidential hopeful who has drawn attention to illegal immigration with his controversial comments. The White House vowed to veto the legislation should it survive the Senate and reach his desk.

But Republicans brushed aside the threats and attacks and powered their bill through on a 241-179 vote, which broke almost entirely along party lines.

“If you can’t honor our detainers, you’re not going to get any more money,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican.
The vote underscored the complicated politics of immigration, and the murky situation of immigration law, as both parties sparred over who was to blame for the San Francisco murder, and whether the bill would have had any effect in trying to stop such killings.
Just hours before the vote Jim Steinle, the father of the 32-year woman whose murder ignited the debate, pleaded with Congress to approve legislation curbing sanctuary cities and imposing mandatory penalties on illegal immigrants who have been kicked out of the country and yet sneak back in.
“Our intent with ‘Kate’s Law’ is to get rid of or do something with violent felons,” he said.
The man accused of killing Steinle, Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, had been deported five times before and was still being sought by Ms. Saldana’s ICE agents — but the federal Bureau of Prisons had shipped him to San Francisco instead on a decades-old drug warrant.
San Francisco authorities decided not to pursue the drug case, but rather than turn Sanchez over to ICE, which had put a detainer request on him, the county sheriff’s department released Sanchez as per its sanctuary policy. Under that policy, the sheriff won’t even inform ICE when an illegal immigrant is about to be released, shielding them from being picked up by agents.
The sheriff’s department that released Sanchez has since come under fire, with a county supervisor urging him to drop his sanctuary policy and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a former mayor of the city, asking that it be changed.
House Democrats, though, defended the policy, saying sanctuary cities are trying to restore trust with immigrant communities, making them comfortable enough to report other crimes, which gets other criminals off the streets.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California Democrat, said the Steinle killing was a tragedy that stemmed more from lack of communication. She and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have fired a letter off to federal immigration and prison officials urging them to communicate and use discretion in the future to override a local community’s requests if they think it makes more sense to keep someone in federal custody for deportation.
“It has been said that this bill is a response to the tragic murder of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco, just up the road from my district. However, nothing in this bill would have prevented that outrageous murder of Ms. Steinle,” Ms. Lofgren said.
The White House also rose to the defense of sanctuary cities, vowing to veto any bill to punish them and saying the solution is to pass legislation instead that legalizes most illegal immigrants.
“This bill fails to offer comprehensive reforms needed to fix the nation’s broken immigration laws, undermines current administration efforts to remove the most dangerous convicted criminals and to work collaboratively with state and local law enforcement agencies, and threatens the civil rights of all Americans by authorizing state and local officials to collect information regarding any private citizen’s immigration status, at any time, for any reason, and without justification,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/23/house-passes-bill-punish-sanctuary-cities/#ixzz3gl9Jzq9q

No comments:

Post a Comment