(The Center Square) – The GOP-led House Judiciary immigration subcommittee held another hearing Tuesday on sanctuary jurisdictions, with subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock, R-Calif., saying lawmakers would get the chance to vote on his related bill before the full House of Representatives.
“The majority leader assured me last night that both sides will have that chance before the end of this session,” McClintock said.
Democrats argued, as they did at the committee’s last hearing on the topic two weeks ago, that their party isn’t the one that has prevented the legislation from advancing. Though the bill received no support from committee Democrats, the bill hasn’t advanced after Republicans passed it out of committee in March, despite Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. Democrats say there are reasons for that.
“Why have they not brought this bill to the floor for a vote?” asked Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. “I'll tell you. It’s because, despite having full control of the House, the Senate, and the White House, they won't be able to get the votes to pass that bill because it does not work, and the American people do not want their solution of mass deportations.”
McClintock’s Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act is one of dozens of bills introduced by Republicans challenging sanctuary policies in the past year-and-a-half, but one of only a handful that have passed out of committee.
The bill includes several provisions targeting sanctuary policies. It would override state and local restrictions on law enforcement cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and shift certain federal law enforcement grants away from sanctuary jurisdictions and toward those that cooperate with federal immigration authorities. McClintock has also said the legislation would shield officers who cooperate with federal immigration enforcement from legal retaliation and give victims of crimes committed by migrants a legal avenue to seek recourse.
Democrats like Jayapal have said that the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts have shifted money and manpower from other, worthier law enforcement responsibilities, to apprehending and deporting people who pose no real threat to Americans.
“For the first time this summer, the majority of people that DHS arrested were people who posed absolutely no threat to public safety, and the number of people with criminal convictions, who are arrested by ICE, actually decreased, not increased,” Jayapal said.
Jayapal argued that Congress should be holding hearings on how to “fix an immigration system that has not been modernized to meet the needs of our country in over 30 years” instead of holding hearings on tragedies that have occurred in sanctuary jurisdictions. Jayapal and other Democrats have previously said such reforms should include expanding legal pathways for immigrants to enter and remain in the United States, as well as pathways to American citizenship.
Two of the witnesses that spoke at Tuesday’s hearing were parents who had lost their children to car accidents caused by a migrant truck driver and a migrant drunk driver. One fatal crash happened in California and the other in Oregon, both states with laws that generally restrict state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In 2021, 19-year-old Anya Varfolomeev and her boyfriend were killed by a migrant driver who was drunk and high and traveling at nearly 100 miles an hour when he crashed into their car. The driver had already been deported twice but made it back into the country a third time, authorities say.
“After serving just a third of his sentence in that crash, California was about to release him back into our community until ICE arrested him. He’s now serving a longer prison sentence for illegal entry than he did for snuffing out these two young lives,” McClintock said.
William Micah Carter was 25 when he was killed by a migrant truck driver in Oregon, though the migrant had been issued a commercial driver’s license by California. Rajinder Kumar had entered the U.S. illegally in 2022, obtained work authorization in 2023 and was issued a CDL that same year, authorities allege.
After the accident, Kumar pleaded not guilty to five charges, including two felony counts of first-degree manslaughter. Although ICE had lodged a detainer, Oregon authorities released Kumar after he met his bail conditions. ICE subsequently arrested him.
Though her family weren’t witnesses at the hearing, McClintock opened the hearing with the story of Shalini Thakur, a young woman who was killed last week by an Indian national who had allegedly been stalking her.
“A simple call to ICE was all that was needed to remove this known and imminent danger to our community. Just a single phone call, perhaps a minute of the deputy’s time, but that call was never placed because California’s sanctuary law forbids it,” McClintock said.
Republicans have now held at least 10 congressional hearings on sanctuary policies since President Donald Trump entered office in January 2025. Several have featured victims or relatives of victims who were harmed by migrants. McClintock said Tuesday Republicans will keep pressing the issue until the bill is taken up by the House.
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