WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- New York City's top counter-terrorism official has slammed legislation that would block homeland security cash for states with sanctuary policies.
Richard Falkenrath, the deputy commissioner for counter-terrorism of the New York Police Department, told lawmakers Tuesday that the issue was "very divisive."
Sanctuary policies -- followed in many large cities and other diverse jurisdictions -- effectively ban state or local cops from questioning people about their immigration status. Supporters say that enforcing immigration law is a federal job and that to effectively police local ethnic communities -- especially Hispanic ones -- it is essential that people whose immigration status might be ambiguous or illegal are not deterred from coming forward if they are witnesses to or victims of a crime.
Opponents say that state and local police are an essential "force multiplier" for efforts to enforce immigration law and that sanctuary policies effectively encourage illegal immigration.
Legislation pending in the House would ban the distribution of federal homeland security grants to any jurisdictions with such policies.
"If the House bill became law," Falkenrath told a Senate panel, "by definition we would get no money. This would be a bad idea. It doesn't make any sense to hold the city hostage to a country's ongoing dispute about immigration."
