Should santuary cities receives Federal Funding?

[RetiredGySgt]

Totally reasonable.



Understandable and sensible.



But this one here, Charles, you really gotta think about what you're saying with this one. This is basically a challenge to everything that the US is supposed to stand for. I mean, the US government has a history of doing this abroad, and by 'this' I mean punishing people for "voting the wrong way". Happened very directly in Guatemala in 1954 and again in Chile in 1973, not to mention Lebanon and Palestine in recent times. Granted, I imagine you're not calling for the absolutely brutal measures that the government and its proxies took in these cases, but it's still the same principle. How could the US truly be considered a democracy if it punishes its own citizens for "voting the wrong way". It just seems like a very dangerous precedent to set.

Those citizens support and vote for people that VIOLATE Federal Law. No two ways about it. Any money sent to those cities for ANY reason should be cut off. The elected officials that support VIOLATING the law should be given a set time to CHANGE the policy or face being arrested for Insurrection. If the people keep voting in people that vote that way, continue to block all funds and arrest all elected officials that support violating US Law.

 

[editec]

I am not at all sure that anyone really knows (at any level) what responsibility a state or local government has to enforce Federal laws.

We need some really good lawyers on this board.

Good lawyers defined as meaning those who actually think about the philosophical underpinnings of the law, rather than merely someone who is a good lawyer making a lot of money speciailzing on some specific aspect of the legal profession.

I'd love to be taken to school on this subject to be honest.

 

[dilloduck]

Can a state or city just refuse to comply with any federal law it doesn't agree with because they don't agree with it ? I don't think so. Do cities really want hundreds of feds running around their city enforcing federal law because city cops won't ?

 

[Ravi]

I am not at all sure that anyone really knows (at any level) what responsibility a state or local government has to enforce Federal laws.

We need some really good lawyers on this board.

Good lawyers defined as meaning those who actually think about the philosophical underpinnings of the law, rather than merely someone who is a good lawyer making a lot of money speciailzing on some specific aspect of the legal profession.

I'd love to be taken to school on this subject to be honest.

I found some pretty interesting information about this at the following link (it's a PDF):

http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2006,0912-crs.pdf

I haven't had time to read the entire thing, but there is information in there that says Congress cannot compel states to enforce Federal immigration law, and in fact since 9/11 Congress has been enacting laws to ALLOW (not compel) states the ability to play a supporting role in immigration matters to alleviate the Federal burden.

If I'm reading it correctly, the State is not required to enforce Federal law and in many cases is forbidden from doing so.

 

[editec]

Can a state or city just refuse to comply with any federal law it doesn't agree with because they don't agree with it ? I don't think so

True, but complying with the law is not always the same thing as enforcing it.

Do cities really want hundreds of feds running around their city enforcing federal law because city cops won't ?

They already have the Feds enforcing laws that the city cops seldom have a damned thing to do with.

There are overlaps, of course, but often the moment a local cop finds a violation in Federal laws (that the fed really give a crap about, I mean) that case is typically whisked out of their hands, unless a mechanisim is already in place to do a joint operation on it (and often your local cops are then working on a federal payroll, too, in those cases)

The Federalization of all local policing powers is happening, and has been happening since the early 1970s, folks.

And the mechanism/ justification most responsible for that had been the drug enfarcement laws, and RICO statutes.

Now that they've got this whole terrorism excuse, of course, that federalization of local policing is becoming even cozier.

Follow the money to see how that's being done, is my advise to those interested in seeing if this is really true.

I'm not about to do the online research to prove this to any of you, but believe me when I say it's happening (or not, as you choose) or check it out yourselves to see if I am right, if you care to.