Immigration News Today: GOP Presidential Candidates Call for Sanctuary City Policy Change
Some of the top Republican presidential contenders for the White House called on local leaders to change "sanctuary city" policies in the wake of the murder of a San Francisco woman who was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant, CBS News reported.
San Francisco is among more than 200 jurisdictions that do not allow municipal funds or resources to be used to enforce federal immigration laws, a move aimed to support immigrants and provide assistance if they became involved with minor offenses, according to the Daily Signal.
Republican heavyweights, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said the practice should be reconsidered.
"We ought to eliminate sanctuary cities," Bush argued, adding that the federal government "should not provide law enforcement monies for cities like San Francisco until they change their policies," according to Politico.
Paul, a libertarian-leaning contender for the Republican nomination, similarly called for enforcement of existing immigration laws.
The rules are "flouted and basically laughed at by cities like San Francisco," he told conservative pundit Laura Ingraham on her radio show. "They're ought to be a revolution of folks saying, 'We want you to obey the law,' and making sure (President Barack Obama) hears them loud and clear."
Rubio, for his part, suggested a bipartisan approach to the issue, CBS News detailed.
"One of the things we've talked about in the past, and we've tried to get included with negotiations with Democrats in the past, is the idea of getting rid of the sanctuary city situation," said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants.
And while Hillary Clinton maintained her support for sanctuary cities, the Democratic presidential frontrunner agreed with her Republican colleagues that authorities in California had not properly dealt with Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, the man accused in the San Francisco murder.
"This man had already been deported five times," Clinton told CNN in an interview this week. "And he should have been deported at the request of the federal government."
Fellow Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley stated, "It's lamentable that the senseless and tragic act of violence that occurred in San Francisco is prompting a rush to judgment and finger pointing: we can and should do better. Local governments should not be blamed for the Federal Government's inability to fix our broken immigration system nor should they be held responsible for doing the Federal Government's job."
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