Senate Democrats Vote to Preserve Sanctuary Cities
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
In a critical procedural vote on immigration reform today, Senate Democrats sent a message loud and clear to their constituents: the progressive agenda comes first, and the law is an afterthought.
Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a Republican-backed bill that would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities by threatening to withhold funds to local governments that don’t cooperate with federal immigration officials. The bill failed on a 54-45 vote. It needed 60 to advance.
The [Stop Sanctuary Cities Act] would have made it illegal for local governments to ignore immigration-related detainers — federal requests to notify them before releasing an illegal immigrant so they can take custody — and to bar local officials from sharing immigration information with federal agents. The bill called for withholding certain federal funding to any local governments that flout the policy.
Today the Senate will vote on legislation that would stop #SanctuaryCities and enforce our immigration laws. #S2146 pic.twitter.com/W78uiZXzQZ
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) October 20, 2015
If entire U.S. cities do not take our federal immigration laws seriously, why should illegal immigrants take our federal immigration laws seriously? Or any of our laws, for that matter?
As I have said before: We will never have a functioning immigration system until people have reason to actually believe there are consequences for breaking the laws of the land.