Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana and a Republican Party presidential candidate nomination, has joined the call to put an end to sanctuary cities, saying that elected officials who refuse to obey federal law enforcement should be held criminally accountable.
Jindal was referring to cities such as San Francisco that have earned the nickname sanctuary cities because they have stopped transferring undocumented immigrants held in detention to federal law officials. In an interview with Boston Herald Drive Jindal declared that the mayors of such jurisdictions should be placed under arrest if they continue to refuse to comply. “I would hold them [mayors] as an accomplice,” he says. “Make them criminally culpable.” Jindal went on to say that the mayors should also be made liable for civil damages when crimes are committed by undocumented immigrants.
Sanctuary cities hit the headlines following the murder of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco by an undocumented immigrant who had already been deported from the United States on drugs charges on no less than five separate occasions. Republicans in Congress responded by introducing legislation that would deny funding to local and state jurisdictions that continue to fail to report detained immigrants who are wanted by federal immigration agents.
The plan has left Richard Trumka, the president of AFL-CIO, unimpressed. “We should not allow shameless anti-immigrant politicians to frame our nation’s policy debate,” he insisted. “We reject this bill and any policies that further criminalize immigrants and communities of color.”