SUNBURY – U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) is pushing for a vote today on his legislation regarding Sanctuary Cities. Campaigning on the newsline today, Toomey said he wants to strip Philadelphia and other sanctuary cities of millions in federal grant funding.
He explained why he is against sanctuary cities on WKOK’s On The Mark program, “The policy of sanctuary cities are explicitly laws that forbid the local police from even cooperating or sharing information with Department of Homeland Security and federal immigration officials. That puts us all at danger, that violent criminals, who are here illegally, get a special protection, that prevents us from apprehending these guys and prosecuting or deporting them. This is about public safety.”
Toomey said many police departments support his legislation, “The federal government does not have the power to tell the local police departments to cooperate. And so, if the local law, as is the case in the city of Philadelphia, forbids the police from cooperating, then they don’t have any choice. This is very frustrating, by the way, for a lot of police. They don’t want to turn these guys loose on the street. They don’t have any choice because they have to comply with the local law that governs them.”
Toomey says a person wrongly detained would not lose any rights, but the liability should be at the federal government level and not at the level of the city or the local police. You can hear more from Toomey from WKOK’s On The Mark program online at www.wkok.com. (Ali Stevens)
