Several sheriffs across the country have spoken out against the idea that sanctuary city policies give illegal aliens more confidence to work with local law enforcement. Sanctuary city advocates claim that many illegal aliens will not report crimes, even if they are the victims, because they are afraid their illegal status will be discovered and they will be deported.
Yesterday Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) introduced the Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act, H.R. 83, which would stop any federal funding to any jurisdictions who refuse to work with federal immigration officials. This is the third time Rep. Barletta has introduced this bill.
New Orleans altered its sanctuary city policy last week in response to increasing crime rates and to further comply with federal law. Under the new policy police can honor ICE detainer requests but are still prohibited from asking or checking a person’s immigration status.
This week Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department, wrote Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, and warned her that if she did not pull federal funding for sanctuary cities he would remove her ability to move money around within the department for the entire 2016 fiscal year.
San Francisco taxpayers have filed a lawsuit (Cynthia Cerietti v. Ross Mirkarimi) to end the sanctuary ordinance that prohibits the Sheriff’s Department in San Francisco County from notifying the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the immigration status of any inmate in the Sheriff Department’s custody.
It's been almost a year since the Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law that requires all businesses in the state to use E-Verify or face penalties up to and including the suspension of its business license. And on Wednesday, the state heads back to the nation's High Court to defend its immigration enforcement law, originally known as SB1070, that's come under fire from the Obama administration's Justice Department.
The City Council of Costa Mesa, California, has approved a resolution declaring it would not be a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. This is in stark contrast to Los Angeles, which has decided to boycott Arizona over it's illegal immigration enforcement law.
While executing a drug search warrant, Houston Police Officer Rick Salter was shot and critically wounded by an illegal alien with three prior drug arrests. The incident has the president of the Houston Police Officers Union Gary Blankinship urging the Mayor of Houston to change a policy that forbids officers from inquiring about a suspect's immigration status.
"San Francisco's immigrant sanctuary policies played a "substantial" role in the slayings of a father and two of his sons by allowing city officials to shield the alleged killer from deportation, despite his violent history, according to a legal claim filed Friday on behalf of the victims' family.
The claim is likely to be followed by a wrongful death lawsuit in which the family of Tony Bologna and his sons could seek millions of dollars from the city.
"[S]tarting at 6 a.m. Wednesday, two days after the Board of Aldermen overwhelmingly approved the identity card plan, federal agents swept into the largely Hispanic Fair Haven community and arrested some 31 people suspected of being illegal immigrants, many in their homes. Within hours, any sense of sanctuary that the city and advocates for immigrants advocates had developed over the years was turned upside down, replaced with fear..." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/nyregion/08haven.html
