House bills do nothing but wave a bloody shirt
When we awaken from the nightmare of this presidential administration, one lesson will be clear: Donald Trump was a master at exploiting our worst fears.
Many Americans need a culprit to blame for the things they don’t like about their lives or about the ways society is changing, and for at least a century and a half, a favorite culprit has been immigrants.
Trump came to power as the man who would punish immigrants here illegally, and punish those who refused to punish those immigrants. And now the House of Representatives has joined him in this pointless crusade.
The House, by wide margins, quickly passed two bills that promise to crack down on criminals who are here illegally. The bills, known as Kate’s Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, may face tougher scrutiny in the Senate. But they represent an attempt to legislate what Trump has been unable to accomplish via executive order.
The sanctuary bill will yank federal money from so-called “sanctuary cities,” a term that applies to localities that limit their official involvement in immigration enforcement.
Kate’s Law is named for Kathryn Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who died after being shot in the back by a Mexican man here illegally and who had been deported at least five times. The bill seeks to increase penalties for people who re-enter after deportation.
We already have penalties for re-entry. And the bill does nothing to address a jurisdictional problem between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — one that may have something to do with Steinle’s alleged murderer being on the streets.
Local municipalities, federal rulings have held, are liable for damages when they hold people beyond the release date for the crime for which they were initially picked up. This might happen, say, if a person picked up for drunken driving is also suspected of an immigration violation and ICE asks that a person be held. If ICE is wrong, the municipality is on the hook for damages.
When ICE provides a warrant, not just a request, that’s another matter. Law enforcement, even in the places that call themselves “sanctuaries,” regularly comply.
Getting ICE to issue warrants seems like the rational way to deal with the problem, and yet Kate’s Law does nothing to address this.
One basic fact gets in the way of the narrative that often supports measures like the bills the House passed: U.S.born people are far more likely to be criminals than immigrants, even ones who are not here legally.
It is an affront to the Constitution to pass legislation that harms immigrants in general for the sins of the few. Go after the few. Sentence, convict and have them serve time for their crimes. Then deport.
Steinle’s murder was an outrage, and it’s difficult to imagine the grief her family must feel. However, it is unconscionable for politicians to exploit this grief to sell a broad and damaging law to America — and one that fails to propose a simple solution for keeping Americans safe.
Fixing immigration law is a matter of making better laws, not blood-andguts and witch hunts. But try telling that to our president.