Make California Safe Again: Bill Introduced to Cut Sanctuary Cities’ Federal Funding

It is time for Congress to hold sanctuary cities accountable.

Sanctuary State California may be about to get a comeuppance: A proposed bill in the U.S. Senate would allow the victims of crimes committed by illegal alien to sue the sanctuary cities that facilitated that crime.

Sanctuary city and state policies are not supported by voters or residents, yet leftist politicians continue to push these dangerous and deadly policies. The recently signed Laken Riley Act which President Trump just signed into law January 29th. This law mandates the federal detention of illegal immigrants who are accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer, and any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury.

It’s time to Make California Safe Again.

U.S. Congressman Chuck Edwards (NC-11) re-introduced the Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act to provide justice for victims who are harmed by an illegal immigrant due to sanctuary city policies. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC),and nine other Republicans, is leading the Senate companion bill, S. 185, titled the “Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act,” Breitbart reported.

“Sanctuary cities have shielded many of the nearly 650,000 criminal illegal immigrants in the United States from facing the consequences for their violent crimes against innocent Americans for too many years. Sanctuary cities cannot continue to jeopardize Americans’ safety without being held accountable for their role in the illegal immigrant crime crisis we are facing today,” Congressman Edwards said. “The Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act that I’m re-introducing will finally hold these communities responsible when their harmful, illegal policies result in a crime against an American citizen, and will allow the victim to take legal action against counties, cities, or towns for the dangerous policies that directly led to their harm.”

“For far too long, we have watched local jurisdictions in North Carolina and across the country ignore the lawful notification and detainer requests made by ICE agents and instead release dangerous criminals back into their communities, putting innocent lives at risk,” Tillis said. “It is time for Congress to step in and hold sanctuary cities accountable.”

California still is home to the largest illegal-alien population in the country, initially with 35 sanctuary cities, morphing into the full state as a sanctuary, courtesy of California’s Democrat lawmakers.

How did California become a sanctuary state?

In 2017, opportunistic California Democrats authored bills to counter the immigration executive orders to protect Americans, of President Donald J. Trump – in violation of Trump’s constitutional authority.

Then-Senate President Pro Tem De León, D-Los Angeles, the author of Senate Bill 54, claimed that “immigrants are valuable and essential members of the California community” and all attempts to enforce immigration laws create fear of the police among “immigrant community members” who fear “approaching police when they are victims of, and witnesses to, crimes.”

SB 54 passed the California Legislature entirely along party lines, Gov. Jerry Brown signed it into law, and turned California into a sanctuary state.

According to De León, the purpose of his bill was “to protect the safety and well-being of all Californians by ensuring that state and local resources are not used to fuel mass deportations, separate families, and ultimately hurt California’s economy.”

SB 54 limits state and local law enforcement agencies involvement in immigration enforcement and ensures that eligible individuals are able to seek services from and engage with state agencies without regard to their immigration status. It also turned California into a sanctuary state.

SB 54 specifically prohibits almost all cooperation and communication with federal immigration authorities.

Sen. Pres. Pro Tem Kevin de León and California Democrats essentially blocked state and local resources from being used for illegal alien/immigration enforcement.

According to Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, “While there are many areas over which the states and the federal government share responsibility, immigration is not one of them.”

“Sanctuary cities are trying to prevent federal officials from finding out about criminal alien murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals that these cities would apparently rather release than have picked up and deported so they cannot further victimize Americans.”

But they do it anyway. However, the federal government can withhold federal grants and funds to cities/states that withhold information from ICE. And that is a big portion of Tillis’s bill – withholding federal funding from sanctuary cities: public works and economic development, planning and administrative expenses, training, research, and technical assistance, community development block grant made pursuant to title I of the Housing and Community Development Act.

It’s time to Make California Safe Again.