On Thursday, in a party lines vote, the U.S. House passed a measure cutting off federal funds from the U.S. Department of Justice to states and cities that refuse to enforce current immigration laws.
The “Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act” from U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr., R-Calif., passed the House on 241-179 votes. Six Democrats joined the Republican majority in supporting the measure while five Republicans voted against it.
Party lines held firm in the Florida delegation with one exception. U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., was one of the five Republicans who voted against the proposal. U.S. Rep. Curt Clawson, R-Fla., was one of 13 representatives who did not vote.
Curbelo told the media on Thursday that Hunter’s bill would not solve the problem.
“Had it been the law of the land before this terrible crime, it would not have prevented it,” Curbelo said. “This is not a solution. This may generate a headline but it’s not going to solve a problem.”
U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., expressed his support for Hunter’s bill on Thursday and pointed to the murder of Kate Steinle earlier this month as to why it was needed.
“I have long said that immigration policy in America is broken and needs to be fixed,” Yoho said. "The tragic death of Kate Steinle at the hands of undocumented immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez – who was previously deported five times – only confirms this and should infuriate the nation. Before her senseless death, the San Francisco Police Department was holding Lopez-Sanchez for criminal charges. However, since San Francisco is a ‘sanctuary city,’ it released him – ignoring repeated requests for cooperation from federal immigration officials.”
Yoho then turned his fire toward the White House.
“The Obama administration clearly has no intention of enforcing current immigration laws, securing our borders, or holding these sanctuary cities accountable,” Yoho said. “These cities, which blatantly refuse to recognize federal law, should not be allowed to receive taxpayer dollars. If the president will not hold them accountable then Congress will use the power of the purse to do so. This bill, which I am a proud original co-sponsor of, will do exactly that.”
But Yoho, who unsuccessfully tried to wrest the gavel from U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, also took aim at the congressional leadership.
“Congressional leadership of both parties needs to stop treating immigration reform like a third rail and address these issues head on,” Yoho said. “For too long we have heard, ‘now is not the right time.’ When is the right time? The more Congress sweeps immigration reform under the rug, the more our country’s national security, economy, and citizens suffer from government inaction.”
But, despite Yoho’s jab, the House leadership backed the bill with Boehner behind it and U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., the senior deputy majority whip, also on board.
“The tragic murder of Kate Steinle by a criminal alien in San Francisco, a sanctuary city, should loudly resonate a call to action within all of us,” Ross said on Thursday afternoon, after the vote. “Time and again, I have stated the first step to our country’s immigration reform is to secure our borders. Until that is done, my colleagues and I must continue taking swift action to protect the American people from preventable crimes committed by illegal aliens.
“Congress must consider multiple pieces of legislation that will lead us to conservative immigration reform, including the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act,” Ross added. “I was proud to vote for this bill today to ensure sanctuary cities and jurisdictions enforce immigration laws already on the books and do not prohibit or restrict their government officers and employees from abiding by these laws and communicating with immigration officials.”
Like Yoho, Ross took a shot at Obama‘s handling of immigration.
“Under the Obama administration’s policies, the U.S. is becoming a sanctuary nation,” Ross insisted. “The president must be stopped from unilaterally shutting down immigration enforcement.”
Despite being one of the leading Republicans supporting immigration reform, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., supported the measure.
“I wouldn’t have drafted this,” Diaz-Balart said, accoring to Politico but the Florida congressman always “insisted on ... zero tolerance to serious criminals ... and ... to adhere to the law, to the rule of law.”
Democrats mostly stood against the measure. U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., who leads the House Democratic Caucus, insisted Republicans were only reacting to businessman Donald Trump making a big deal of the matter as he continues his presidential bid.
“The man who killed Katherine Steinle should be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Becerra said on the House floor. “Perhaps more importantly, the officials who released the person who killed her, released this man from custody, dropped the ball. They should be held accountable. But this bill punishes the police in my city of Los Angeles, the police in the city of Knoxville, the police in Manchester, New Hampshire. It punishes police that had nothing to do with the crime that occurred in San Francisco. It takes away from money in the police department in Los Angeles, in Knoxville, in Manchester, when we need to put people and police on the streets to protect all of us. But this would deprive our cities of monies that we have earned because we paid our taxes.
“The proponents of this bill say that our cities are violating the law. If we are violating the law, name the law that we are violating. We are not violating any law,” Becerra insisted.
“Don’t take the Donald Trump bait,” Becerra said. “Don’t punish others for the crime of someone else. In our country, you go after the person who is criminally liable. Go after that individual and lock him up forever. But don’t tell the police in Los Angeles or in Manchester or in Knoxville, Tennessee, and all the other cities that are trying to have a working relationship between their police and their growing immigrant communities that they won’t be able to collaborate so we can go after the criminals. You’re taking money away from L.A., even though this crime did not happen in my city. And you’re telling my police department and the men and women in uniform in L.A. that they will have fewer officers by their side because you’re going to take money away. Go after the folks that are accountable.
“This is not the way we do justice in America,” Becerra closed. “And it is wrong. It is wrong for you to tell all these communities that have established a working relationship between their police officers and their growing immigrant communities that they’re going to now lose funds to hire more police officers. That’s the Donald Trump bait. Don’t take it. Let’s vote this down.”
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
