Justice Department officials should stop providing federal grants to local “municipalities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration laws,” a senior Republican senator said yesterday in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Alabama senator Richard Shelby is calling on Lynch to withhold DOJ funding from so-called “sanctuary cities” following the murder of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle last week. Steinle’s alleged killer, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had previously been deported five times, was arrested in April but released — over the objections of federal immigration officials — because San Francisco has an ordinance barring city officials from helping to enforce federal immigration laws in most cases.
“Any violent crime is tragic, but the fact that the senseless death in San Francisco arose directly from a ‘sanctuary city’ deliberately obstructing policies to remove illegal immigrants who have committed crimes is appalling and inexcusable,” Shelby wrote in his letter to Lynch.
Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that holds jurisdiction over the Justice Department, suggested that Lynch should stop providing DOJ grants to San Francisco and cities with similar ordinances. “Municipalities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration laws simply should not receive the Department of Justice’s assistance funding,” he wrote. “The freedoms we enjoy — like strolling on a San Francisco pier with our children — are possible only when we are willing to enforce the federal laws that keep our families and our freedoms safe.”
Steinle’s murder has sparked a national debate about sanctuary cities, and prompted soul-searching in the City by the Bay.
“It was never contemplated that our sanctuary city would give protection to serious repeat felony offenders,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee told CBS.
— Joel Gehrke is a political reporter for National Review.