Wednesday while discussing the Republican legislation proposing to halt federal funds to cities that use the so-called sanctuary cities policy, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) accused Republicans of trying to “exploit,” the murder of Kathryn Steinle “for political purposes.”
The legislation was brought forward to address cases like Kathryn Steinle who was fatally shot in broad daylight while walking on a pier in San Francisco allegedly by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant and multiple felon, who had been deported five times.
The senior Democrat of the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration and border security said, “With community policing, you need to make sure that the entire community is free to call the police, to serve as a witness, to be part of fighting crime. This bill would obviate that, and if you didn’t comply by becoming the immigration police you would lose all of the federal funding that helps you enforce the laws.”
She continued, “The sad thing is our colleges across the aisle would exploit this tragedy for political purposes. For and agenda that goes back to 1996 to change the immigration laws by making local police an arm of the federal government.”
“We ought to look at what will make the system work better, not use this tragedy as an excise for a political agenda,” she added.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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