By Miriam Raftery
February 11, 2017 (San Diego) -- On Thursday, San Diego Congressman Duncan Hunter issued apress release announced that for Fiscal Year 2018, he will not submit any federal appropriations requests on behalf of states, cities, universities or other entities that have an ordinance, policy or practice in place that undermines the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
“Sanctuaries that defy federal immigration laws should be held accountable,” said Representative Hunter. “If a state or local entity prefers to violate the law and not cooperate on federal immigration matters, this should be an immediate disqualifier for federal funding.”
The state of California is considering a measure to declare California a sanctuary state. Cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles have passed sanctuary language to prevent authorities from cooperating in efforts to deport undocumented immigrants without criminal convictions, though no San Diego County cities have officially done so.
Yet San Diego has turned up on some lists of sanctuary cities. Homeland Security Chief John Kelly, when asked Friday by San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman how sanctuaries cities are being defined for purposes of enforcement, he admitted that he didn’t know.
Last Congress, Hunter’s legislation—H.R. 3009, the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act—was passed by the House on July 23, 2015, by a vote of 241-179 but did not become law. More recently, Hunter introduced the No Funding for Sanctuary Campuses Act, which denies Title IV funding to sanctuary campuses, which could include the University of California and California State University systems.
UC Chancellor Janet Napolitano on January 25th at a meeting of Regents affirmed intent to keep campuses “welcoming, safe and inclusive for all”; Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has urged both UC and CSU systems to officially adopt sanctuary policies to refuse cooperation with federal immigration officials.