On the same day that the House is scheduled to vote on legislation that would cut federal funding to cities accused of providing a safe-haven to undocumented immigrants, a Judiciary subcommittee debated the same issue, prompting the top Democrat on the panel to accuse Republican leadership of running around standard procedure.
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) called it “unfortunate” that Thursday’s hearing, titled “Sanctuary Cities: a Threat to Public Safety,” was scheduled “only a few hours” ahead of votes on a Republican-backed bill that would require municipalities to verify their residents’ immigration statuses.
“The lack of Committee process and regular order breaks the commitment made to this body by the Majority Leader and will lead to a less informed debate on this critical topic,” Conyers added in prepared remarks ahead of the hearing.
The “Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act” cleared the House Rules Committee on Wednesday, which set up the possibility of a vote on Thursday.
The legislation, which would bar cities from receiving federal grants aimed at offsetting the costs of detaining undocumented immigrants, was introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) It has 44 Republican cosponsors. No Democrats have yet backed the legislation.
Conyers also attacked the title of the hearing, calling it “pejorative” and claimed that he disagreed with the notion that “sanctuary cities” are a threat to public safety.
Research indicates that resistance to heavy-handed immigration enforcement actually leads to safer communities, by building more public trust between police and immigrant communities—something that the law enforcement community is keenly aware of. A 2009 report by the Police Foundation concluded that “local police involvement in immigration enforcement could have a chilling effect on immigrant cooperation” which could lead to “difficulty apprehending and successfully prosecuting criminals, thereby reducing overall public safety for the larger community.”
“The police chiefs and sheriffs throughout the country are saying do not co-mingle immigration issues with local law enforcement,” Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said on CSPAN’s Washington Journal earlier this week, voicing his opposition to the bill. “If you do that, you’ll solve neither issue and you’ll make both worse.”
The White House also opposes the sanctuary cities legislation. The administration issued a veto threat Thursday, saying in a statement that bill “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.”
