It was one thing when Rep. Steve "Cantaloupe Calves" King started dictating immigration policy in the House, but now the supposedly saner Senate GOP caucus is heading down the same exact path. With Donald Trump using the tragic killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco allegedly by an undocumented immigrant to score political points, the Senate is now
taking aim at sanctuary cities like San Francisco that don't feed information to federal immigration agents.
Senate Republicans are planning a vote on a controversial immigration bill later this month punishing so-called sanctuary cities that give safe harbor to immigrants in the U.S. illegally — months after authorities say an undocumented immigrant shot and killed a young woman on a San Francisco pier.
The legislation from Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) would target sanctuary cities — localities where local law enforcement officials decline to cooperate with federal immigration authorities — by withholding key federal grants and increasing prison sentences for those who try to re-enter the United States after being deported.
The bill is so controversial that the GOP-led Judiciary Committee hasn't been able to reach consensus on it for three months. So heck, why not just bring it to the floor?
The new legislation getting fast-tracked to the Senate floor includes the five-year mandatory minimum provision for immigrants here illegally who have been convicted of re-entering the United States after being convicted of an aggravated felony, or if they had illegally re-entered the country for a third time.
Republican backers of the new bill include Grassley, Cruz, Cornyn, and Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, David Perdue and Johnny Isakson of Georgia, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Marco Rubio of Florida.
Whoa, Rubio—it's been a long way down from trying to be part of the solution to the immigration system in 2013. Now you're just Trump's water boy on the issue.
Targeting criminals who are hiding amongst 11 million undocumented immigrants is never going to work unless we can bring the undocumented out of the shadows. It's also not going to make those cities any safer either since immigrants will be more wary of sharing information about crimes with the authorities.