Winston-Salem Journal - Illegal immigration bills die in U.S. Senate
News Article
By Bertrand M. Gutiérrez
Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday blocked two bills on illegal immigration that supporters say would help prevent such crimes as the fatal shooting of Kate Steinle in San Francisco last year and opponents say would scapegoat immigrants.
The two bills were always heading toward a dead end as President Barack Obama would likely have vetoed them. In part, they carry on a tradition of presidential election cycles: the dangling of illegal immigration as a red-meat issue.
"Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the aisle have failed to do anything sensible on immigration," said Forsyth County Sheriff Bill Schatzman, a Republican. "The political rhetoric in what I call silly season is not going to do anything. This is blather that both sides enter into -- it's for political consumption. That's what that's for."
Republican U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis of North Carolina supported both bills.
One of the bills, titled the Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act, introduced by U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., would restrict such cities from receiving grants under certain Economic Development Assistance programs and the Community Development Block Grant program.
Senate action
On the Senate floor, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., championed comprehensive immigration reform legislation to better deal with illegal immigration and said that sanctuary cities are important because they foster cooperation with police.
"The sanctuary-cities bill before us will increase crime," she said, and it will "undermine trust." In addition, she said, Toomey's bill would potentially cut grant funding that could be used by local law enforcement agencies to buy equipment, rehab a police station and finance anti-crime initiatives.
The Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington that opposes sanctuary cities, did not list any North Carolina localities as sanctuary cities in a comprehensive report.
"I have done extensive research on this question of whether sanctuary cities guard against racial profiling and build trust," said Jessica M. Vaughan, the director of Policy Studies at CIS.
"There is no evidence that they do; on the contrary, they create more public safety problems than they solve," she said.
"The so-called "chilling effect' on crime reporting and trust that results from cooperation between ICE and local authorities is a myth. There are several reputable studies that have concluded that no decline in crime reporting occurs when ICE and local agencies cooperate," she said.
Kate's law
The other bill, titled Kate's law, introduced by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was named after Steinle.
While walking with her father on a San Francisco pier, she was killed last year by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who had been convicted of seven felonies and deported five times. Kate's law would mandate a minimum sentence of five years for immigrants who re-enter the United States without authorization after having been convicted of an aggravated felony or after having been twice convicted of illegally re-entering the United States.
"These two bills are important for both those who care about the rule of law and those who care about keeping law-abiding Americans safe from repeat offender criminals," Burr said.
"Regardless of one's position on immigration, we should all be able to agree that illegal immigrants who are known violent criminals should not be allowed to roam free in the United States," he said.
A ballistics expert testified in court on Lopez-Sanchez's behalf that the shooting was accidental. The gun was pointing toward the ground and the bullet ricocheted before it hit Steinle 100 feet away. "You couldn't do this on purpose," James Norris, the former head of the San Francisco Police crime lab, said after the hearing.
Before the shooting, San Francisco authorities had released Lopez-Sanchez without notifying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
"I supported the Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act and Kate's Law because it would have cracked down on violent criminals here illegally, deterred dangerous illegal immigrants from reentering the country after being deported, and kept Americans safe," Tillis said.
Had Lopez-Sanchez been taken to the Forsyth County Detention Center, Schatzman said, his information would have been sent via an electronic fingerprint to several state and federal agencies, including the State Bureau of Investigations, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE.
"That shoots from us to SBI and DHS and under that, to DEA and ICE. If there is an interest in those fingerprints, then ICE will notify us of that," Schatzman said.
Everyone, regardless of immigration status, gets the same treatment, he said.
Winston-Salem and Forsyth County are not sanctuary jurisdictions, he said.
At the same time, city and county law enforcement agencies have tried to foster good relations with immigrant communities. For instance, the Winston-Salem Police Department and Forsyth County Sheriff's Office support the issuing of plastic ID cards to unauthorized immigrants by the nonprofit immigrant advocacy organization FaithAction House, based in Greensboro.
The ID card does not change immigration status, replace a driver's license or shield anyone from going to jail or being deported. It can't be used by government agencies other than law enforcement agencies. Its value, advocates say, rests on the notion that it can be used as a token of trust between those who bear the card and such groups as law enforcement agencies and medical centers.
State legislators tried to do away with them recently but Schatzman and other law enforcement officials lobbied against the initiative.
"Withhold funding for the use of ID cards -- it's crazy. There is so much more positive and forward thinking in that than negative. And to try to eliminate that ID card, which is a solid tool, is shortsighted. It's pandering to the loud noises of the right and left," Schatzman said.
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