The father of an American woman who was allegedly killed by an undocumented criminal immigrant testified at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday to criticize deportation policies that failed to protect his daughter. Jim Steinle, the father of Kathryn Steinle, who was shot dead three weeks ago in San Francisco, was also joined by other family members of Americans killed by undocumented immigrants.
The Senate hearing precedes a House committee hearing and floor vote later this week on a bill that aims to end so-called “sanctuary cities” — places that generally have large immigrant populations where local law enforcement officials do not detain individuals solely for immigration detention, instead ceding immigration enforcement to federal authorities.
Steinle and the other family members called for stronger immigration enforcement policies to prevent similar tragedies from occurring again. “We recently came across a statistic that says between 2010 and 2014, 121 unique criminal aliens who had an active deportation case at the time of release were subsequently charged with homicide related offenses,” Steinle said. “Think about that, 121 times over the past four years the administration has released an illegal immigrant with prior criminal convictions that later went on to be charged with a murder when they should have been deported. That’s 1 every 12 days.”
“Our family realizes the complexities of immigration laws; however, we feel strongly that some legislation should be discussed, enacted and/or changed to take these undocumented immigrant felons off our streets for good,” Steinle concluded.
Laura Wilkerson, the mother of a high school senior who was tortured and killed by an undocumented immigrant, thanked Donald Trump “for getting a message out,” referencing Trump’s campaign speech in which he portrayed Mexican immigrants as criminals. Wilkerson criticized both sanctuary cities and immigrants, stating, “They’re not afraid to trapeze across the border. […] They make a decision to come here. They’re not scared. They’re invited by sanctuary city policies. They’re not scared to stand in line for a handout that every citizen here has paid into the system for our children if need be.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced that he will introduce legislation requiring the executive branch “to withhold certain federal funding if states or local law enforcement refuse to cooperate with the federal government in holding or transferring criminal aliens,” his testimony read. States and localities that don’t cooperate would risk losing law enforcement-related grants distributed through the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. Grassley’s bill would also require mandatory five-year prison sentences for people who re-enter the country after they were deported.
Tensions and emotions continued to run high after the panel began to exit, as someone in the public seating area confronted and shouted at Rev. Gabriel Salguero, an immigrant advocate and pastor at The Lambs Church in New York City. Salguero testified in support of sanctuary cities, stating that such policies promote trust between community members and law enforcement because victims and witnesses would otherwise remain silent “due to their fear that they or the loved ones could face deportation for having sought protection from the police.”
Politico reporter Seung Min Kim identified the man as Don Rosenberg, whose son was killed by an unlicensed immigrant in 2010. Rosenberg was taken out by police, while Salguero was escorted out because of threats.
Immigrant advocates fear that the Senate hearing could spark “reactionary policy proposals” focused on enforcement-only approaches to overshadow bigger policies that seek to safeguard public safety.
Over 320 localities across the nation have limited their involvement in immigration enforcement in part because of concerns that it would undermine community trust in effective policing. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson had similar sentiments, testifying last week that “cooperative” policies are more effective than “federal legislation that will engender a lot more litigation.”
The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities also put out a letter on Monday stating, “It is our strong belief that effective policing cannot be achieved by forcing an unwanted role upon the police by threat of sanctions or withholding of law enforcement assistance funding as has been proposed.”
While the accounts from the family members who testified on Tuesday were emotional, their affirmations of a stereotype maligning immigrants aren’t borne out in the general immigrant population.
As Grace Huang, the Public Policy Program Coordinator of the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Steering Committee Member of the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, noted in her testimony, sanctuary cities work because they actually protect victims of violence. Huang pointed out that “when immigrants are afraid to come forward with information about a crime, the entire community is less safe.”
What’s more, officials enforcing immigration policies are most successful at driving out college educated immigrants into other parts of the United States, an indication that some enforcement policies are “missing their intended targets,” a report found last year.
A recent American Immigration Council report found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born population. In its report, AIC noted that the number of undocumented immigrants tripled between 1990 and 2013, but the violent crime rate fell 48 percent in the same period. The report also found that immigrants are less likely than the native-born to engage in criminal behavior and to be locked up.
If made into law, Grassley’s bill would also have the undue effect of imprisoning immigrants who reenter the country to be reunited with their families. A 2013 Human Rights Watch report found that 85,000 immigrants were prosecuted for illegal entry or re-entry in 2013, with the top three reasons being that they were seeking work, reuniting with family, or fleeing violence or persecution.