House Bill May Save California from Sanctuary State Status

By Joe Guzzardi
June 2, 2014

Americans fearing the worst— that the devastating immigration reform bill which passed the Senate would become a reality this summer—got welcome good news last week. Millions fed up with the ceaseless immigration reform advocacy which shifted into high gear in June 2013 after the Senate passed its Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, S. 744, can breathe a little easier.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) introduced two amendments to the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Act, H.R. 4660, which includes Justice Department funding. King’s first amendment would reallocate $5 million from the Justice Department’s general fund and apply those monies toward an investigation into why ICE has set free more than 36,000 illegal aliens convicted of serious crimes including homicide, rape, kidnapping, aggravated assault and 16,000 drunk or drugged driving charges. ICE released most of the criminals on its own discretion; they were not required by law. Encouragingly, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson promised that he would comply with King’s amendment.

Rep. King’s second amendment would prevent the bill’s funding authority from reimbursing the hundreds of municipalities that provide sanctuary to illegal aliens. Both amendments passed. The first regarding the criminal investigation by 218-to-193 with five Democrats facing competitive November re-election bids joining Republicans. The second, on sanctuary cities, passed by 214-194. H.R. 4660 passed in the House, 321 – 87.

Despite White House bluster that the House would pass comprehensive amnesty if Speaker John Boehner would bring it for a floor vote, the strongly supported King amendments prove that House Republicans along with some concerned Democrats remain opposed to amnesty legislation.

Withholding funding from sanctuary cities would go a long way toward restoring immigration enforcement nationwide, especially in California where the practice has cost innocent people their lives. The most infamous case involved Salvadoran repeat offender and sanctuary-protected MS-13 gang member, Edwin Ramos’ 2008 murder of Tony Bolonga and his two sons near their downtown San Francisco home.  

Sanctuary describes cities, counties, or states that defy the 1996 federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act which requires local government to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

Instead, many cities have either officially (by passing their own laws or unofficially through sanctuary ordinances) stopped questioning criminal alien detainees’ immigration status. Most major cities are sanctuary cities including New York, Miami, Denver, Chicago, Houston, and Washington D.C.

In California, sanctuary policies protect thousands of illegal aliens. California holds the undesirable title of most sanctuary cities in an individual state, 36 and counting. Included are the aforementioned San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Diego, Santa Ana, Oakland, Fresno, Long Beach as well as Davis and Berkeley, two university towns.  

Recently, San Mateo and Alameda Counties announced they too would no longer detain aliens. San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, defending his decision, predicted that California is “gonna see a wildfire of other county sheriff’s departments issue a No-ICE detainer holds or severely limit them. It looks like California is going to become a no-ICE detainer state.”

California’s summer tourists should know what its residents learned long ago—that if they’re victimized in any of the state’s sanctuary cities, alien perpetrators’ considerations will be placed ahead of theirs.

Withholding federal funds from cities that blatantly disregard federal immigration laws and thereby encourage more illegal immigration might be incentive enough to bring municipal officials to their senses. If not, ICE might as well be disbanded. Having an agency whose directives no one respects or obeys would be pointless.

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Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow whose columns have been syndicated since 1987. Contact him at [email protected]