A Congressman plans to introduce a bill threatening local officials with massive fines and jail time for sheltering illegal immigrants from deportation.
Rep. Todd Rokita, a Republican from Indiana, will introduce the ‘Stopping Lawless Actions of Politicians’ (SLAP) Act on Monday, threatening recalcitrant officials with $1million fines and five years in prison, Fox News reports.
The bill comes in response to Thursday’s not-guilty verdict in the Kate Steinle murder trial.
Shooter Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who had already been deported five times, was released by San Francisco authorities three months before the shooting in defiance of a federal immigration detainer.
Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.) will introduce the ‘Stopping Lawless Actions of Politicians’ (SLAP) Act on Monday, threatening recalcitrant officials with $1million fines and five years in prison
The The bill comes in response to Thursday’s not-guilty verdict in the Kate Steinle murder trial. Steinle (right) was walking with her father when Garcia Zarate (left) fired a bullet that killed her
‘Politicians don’t get to pick and choose what laws to comply with,’ Rokita told Fox. ‘Americans are dying because politicians sworn to uphold the law refuse to do so.’
His proposed legislation would criminally punish local officials for failing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, making it the most aggressive proposal to date in response to ‘sanctuary city’ policies.
‘It’s time the federal government gets serious about enforcing immigration laws and holding politicians accountable who conspire to break them,’ said Rokita.
The Steinle case, which President Donald Trump highlighted repeatedly while on the campaign trail, became a flashpoint in the national immigration debate following Thursday’s verdict.
Garcia Zarate, who fired the bullet that fatally struck Steinle while she was on a walk with her father, claimed he found the stolen weapon under a bench and it fired accidentally. He was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges by a San Francisco jury.
Trump on Friday called the verdict ‘a travesty of justice’ and renewed his push for a wall on the border with Mexico.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanded cities like San Francisco scrap immigration policies that limit cooperation with federal deportation efforts.
On Friday, federal officials unsealed an arrest warrant for Garcia Zarate
The warrant says he violated the conditions of his supervised release from federal custody by possessing the gun that killed Steinle. It was originally issued on July 14, 2015, weeks after the shooting, and was amended to reflect the recent not-guilty verdict.
Flowers and a portrait of Kate Steinle are seen at a memorial site on Pier 14 in San Francisco in the weeks after her July 1, 2015 death