Fifty-eight Tennessee House Republicans are named co-sponsors on the anti-sanctuary city bill HB2315.
Adding the bill's chief sponsor, State Rep. Jay Reedy (R-Erin), means that 80 percent of the House Republicans support strengthening and closing the loopholes in Tennessee's existing anti-sanctuary city statute. (Seventy-four of the 99 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives this session are Republicans, while 25 are Democrats.)
Tennessee's anti-sanctuary city law passed in 2009, only addresses written policies that prohibit local governments, officials and employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. This narrower definition of "sanctuary city" would likely not have applied to at least one of the sanctuary city ordinances proposed by the Metro Nashville Council last June.
The two ordinances proposed by the Metro Nashville Council would have made Nashville the most liberal sanctuary city in the country. One of the bills included a "don't ask so you don't have to know or tell" practice prohibiting Davidson County and Nashville employees, including law enforcement, from providing pertinent information to ICE regarding criminal aliens.
Reedy's bill expands the definition of sanctuary city to include practices that obstruct cooperation with federal immigration authorities and help shield illegal aliens who have also committed crimes. North Carolina and Georgia have included the expanded definition in their anti-sanctuary city laws.
The Metro ordinances, drafted with the assistance of the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, were withdrawn due to overwhelming grassroots opposition and pressure from state legislators.
State Sen. Mark Green's (R-Clarksville) Senate companion bill, HB2332, passed the Senate State and Local Government Committee last week on a 7 - 1 vote and is ready to be scheduled for a Senate floor vote.
Reedy's bill is scheduled to be heard in the House State Government Subcommittee on Wednesday. With 59 House members already co-sponsoring the bill, if it makes it to the House floor, it already has enough votes to pass.
In a February ad released by a PAC called Tennesseans for Good State Government, GOP gubernatorial candidate Speaker Beth Harwell takes credit for "outlaw[ing] sanctuary cities," most likely a reference to the narrow 2009 law which the Metro Nashville Council's ordinances would have bypassed and which Rep. Reedy's bill will fix.
Harwell is not yet listed as a co-sponsor of Reedy's bill.
Here is the list of 58 Republican co-sponsors of the bill, listed in alphabetical order:
Maybe California isn't quite as unified on that whole "sanctuary state" ideas as its Democratic leadership would have you believe. A town in Orange County is considering opting out of the state's laws that seek to protect illegal immigrants, including some with criminal records, citing their potential violation of the U.S. Constitution, which council members are sworn to support and defend.
On Monday, Los Alamitos' city council is voting on a new ordinance that would exempt the city from the state's controversial new "sanctuary" act, the "California Values Act" (SB54), which deliberately impedes federal authorities' ability to crack down on illegal immigration.
The proposed exemption argues that the California Values Act "may be in direct conflict with federal laws and the Constitution of the United States," thus making it "impossible" for the council members to uphold their oaths to abide by the U.S. Constitution. The Orange County Register reports:
Stating that council members have taken an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution, the ordinance says the council "finds that it is impossible to honor our oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States" and at the same time be in compliance with the new state law
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HB2315 is on the calendar of the State Government Subcommittee Wednesday. With grace and politeness, would you please let the members of this committee know that you support this important legislation
Criminals cut loose as California sanctuary laws pit police against feds: Border Patrol
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Wednesday, March 7, 2018
The Border Patrol says it's been forced to release a drunken driver back onto the streets, and nearly missed out on nabbing a fake UPS delivery van carrying 77 illegal immigrants - all because California's new sanctuary city laws have soured cooperation between police and federal authorities.
In the drunken driving case, a local police department said it couldn't respond to agents who'd pulled over the drunken driver, since it began as an immigration stop. They said it would violate the state's sanctuary law limiting their ability to work with border or interior agents, Rodney S. Scott, chief patrol agent of the Border Patrol's San Diego Sector, told a federal court.
In the other case the 77 illegal immigrants were likely only nabbed because an agent happened to stop to help a highway patrol officer who'd pulled over the fake truck, Agent Scott said. He said the highway patrol was salty that the Border Patrol had even gotten involved.
Those were some of the details to emerge Wednesday as all sides began to grapple with the Trump administration's new lawsuit challenging three of California's sanctuary city laws.
