HuffPo’s “Gotcha” Comes Up Way Short



The Huffington Post and a lot of sanctuary apologists have been struggling to defend policies that shield criminal aliens since the July 1 murder of Kathryn Steinle by an illegal alien felon that San Francisco chose to put back on the streets, rather than honor an ICE detainer request.

Momentum is building in Congress to strip sanctuary jurisdictions of certain federal funding if they continue to impede immigration enforcement. The idea of withholding federal dollars from sanctuary jurisdictions apparently does not sit well with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) who has offered an amendment to H.R. 3009, Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R-Calif.) bill designed to force local governments to comply with ICE detainer requests.

399px-Mark_Pocan,_official_portrait,_113th_CongressIn an effort to expose the “hypocrisy” of H.R. 3009 backers, Pocan’s amendment would also strip federal dollars from state and local governments that fail to comply with last month’s Supreme Court ruling upholding same sex marriage. FAIR takes no position on issues not related to immigration policy, but we agree that state and local governments have an obligation to abide by the Court’s decision on same sex marriage when it comes to state laws that conflict with the scope of that decision.

But Pocan’s grandstanding is, nonetheless, offensive. How many Americans have lost their lives because someone (however unjustly) was denied a marriage license? Zero. How many Americans have lost their lives because state or local policies resulted in deportable criminals being turned back out onto the streets? Far too many – with Kate Steinle being only the most recent egregious example.

There are plenty of ways for Rep. Pocan to point out the myriad examples of hypocrisy that occur each day in Washington without having to resort to invidious comparisons and pointless amendments to important legislation.

About Author

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Ira joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 1986 with experience as a journalist, professor of journalism, special assistant to Gov. Richard Lamm (Colorado), and press secretary of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. His columns have appeared in National Review, LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, and more. He is an experienced TV and radio commentator.

4 Comments

  1. avatar

    Like most demented Dems, Pocan has his head buried in that dark recess on his back side.

  2. avatar

    As far as I know the courts have come down hard on failure to cooperate since the Supreme Court decision. Just another attempt to trivialize the deaths of American citizens at the hands of illegals. And those deaths have been going on for years, but Trump had the fame to force the issue into the mainstream because the media has always chosen to look the other way. I saw some NBC reporter saying it would take billions to build a wall on the border. She didn’t mention the trillions in welfare costs we will put out over a lifetime for all the illegals with a sixth grade education and their five anchor babies.

    Apparently the Democrats have decided that there is no higher priority than the citizens of other countries. A large percentage of the homeless are veterans, but what is the priority of this administration? Making sure illegals will be eligible for three years of the earned income tax credit [a direct check of up toe 25, 000 in some cases]. People talk about the “jobs Americans won’t do”. How about the people out there holding signs on the sidewalk for businesses. Hot tedious work. I’m sure a lot would prefer better jobs but those go to illegals in many cases.

    Newly sworn citizens are now allowed to take the oath without saying the part about how they will defend the country. if they have a religious “conflict”. Great, you come here and accept the parts you like. Suppose a Muslim refuses to support a war against an Islamic nation, a quite likely scenario. Liberals babble on about the American melting pot, but that no longer exists. We have to cater to people whose allegiance is frequently to other nations and ideologies, all in the name of political correctness.