Forty Latino organizations have called on the U.S. Senate to oppose an anti-immigration bill that would cut many U.S. jurisdictions from federal grants and funds.

The 40 Latino organizations, together, form the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a coalition bringing Latino leaders to unite on establishing policy priorities that address and affect the Latino community. The NHLA opposes the Senate's "Stop Sanctuary Cities Act" (S. 1814), but the coalition noted a new version of the bill was "resurrected" as the "Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act" (S. 2146). Sen. David Vitter, R-La., introduced both Senate bills, which NHLA labeled as "anti-immigrant."

With S. 2146, select U.S. jurisdictions -- classified as "sanctuary cities" -- would be penalized for not complying with federal law enforcement in regards to an undocumented immigrant. The penalties include limiting or ineligibility of federal grant.

"This bill targets the Latino community and offers no viable solutions in addressing our broken immigration system or community safety. Instead, S. 2146 creates mistrust between the immigrant community and law enforcement. As I have stated many times, studies show that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans," said NHLA Chair Hector Sanchez, who also serves as the executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

"Immigrants, whether undocumented or not, live in peace and are contributing members of our society," said Sanchez. "It is time to act humanely and pass real immigration reform."

The topic of "sanctuary cities" reignited following the death of Kathryn Steinle by an undocumented immigrant. Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who was deported from the U.S. on five occasions due to drug-related felonies, allegedly shot Steinle in California.

According to Hispanic Federation President Jose Calderon, S. 2146 is the latest "appalling attempt" on criminalizing immigrants. Calderon said the Senate leadership has to reject the latest effort to separate immigrant families.

The NHLA also wrote a letter to Senate lawmakers and recommended a "no" vote on the bill. The NHLA wrote they will "closely monitor" the votes of Vitter's bill for the coalition's future congressional scorecards, which evaluates lawmakers on their support for the Latino community.

"Such legislation to mandate that states and localities comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests, despite their unconstitutionality, is misguided and scapegoats immigrants by making sweeping and false generalizations, particularly of Latino immigrants. Numerous studies have shown that immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans, less likely to commit crimes, and less likely to be repeat offenders," the letter read.

The NHLA said the current 114th Congress should resume the 113th Congress' work on comprehensive immigration reform. In 2013, the Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration legislation titled "Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act" (S.744). The Senate bill called for several hundred miles of fencing on the southern U.S. border, in addition to an employment verification system for immigrants, training for more than 38,400 full-time active duty U.S. Border Patrol agents and it would have allowed the U.S. Attorney General to increase the number of immigration court judges and reform the visa process.

Vitter's bill, introduced on Oct. 10, has also received cosponsor support from Republican presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Rubio was also a cosponsor in the Senate's 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill.

__

For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.