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Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Tancredo blasts Democrats for dropping punishment for “sanctuary cities”
Rep. Tom Tancredo, a GOP presidential candidate, decried Democratic leaders Tuesday after lawmakers dropped a provision that would have punished so-called “sanctuary cities.”
The cities have policies that direct police and local officials not to check the immigration status of residents using city services.
The “sanctuary city” measure passed the House in June but was dropped this week as House and Senate negotiators reconciled two versions of a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
Tancredo and other supporters said the “sanctuary city” measure would have rightly punished cities for “aiding and abetting illegal immigration” by denying the cities certain homeland security funds.
“The Democrat leadership in this Congress have gift wrapped this misguided sanctuary policy for their pro-amnesty friends while giving the rest of the American people a lump of coal in their stockings,” Tancredo said, in a statement.
The way cities treat illegal immigrants has become a major theme in the Republican presidential race.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been attacked repeatedly for supporting such a “sanctuary city” policy while mayor of New York.
Giuliani inherited — and staunchly defended — a policy from his predecessor Ed Koch that barred city agencies from sharing information with the federal government on the immigration status of residents who use city services unless there was evidence of a crime.
Giuliani has said several times that the policy was necessary for public health and safety and that it helped reduce the crime rate in New York.
Giuliani’s campaign, in turn, has accused rival Mitt Romney of allowing two Massachusetts cities, Cambridge and Somerville, to give illegal immigrants the same protection while he was governor of that state.