GOP bill would land sanctuary city officials in prison

A Republican congressman will introduce a bill Monday that would punish any elected official who shelters illegal immigrant criminals from deportation.

Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., will introduce the “Stopping Lawless Actions of Politicians (SLAP) Act,” a bill that would impose criminal penalties for elected officials who obstruct federal immigration enforcement officers. Anyone convicted under Rokita’s proposed law would be subject to a $1 million fine and up to five years of prison.

“The American people are rightfully infuriated watching politicians put their open-borders ideology before the rule of law, and the safety of the people they represent. Politicians don't get to pick and choose what laws to comply with. Americans are dying because politicians sworn to uphold the law refuse to do so,” Rokita said in an email press release. “It’s time the federal government gets serious about enforcing immigration laws and holding politicians accountable who conspire to break them.”

“This elitist mentality that everyone is not equal under the law must come to an end. These politicians want one set of rules for hard working Americans, but a different set of rules for illegal immigrants, and themselves,” the press release stated.

Rokita’s bill comes days after illegal immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was acquitted of murder charges in the 2015 killing of Kate Steinle. Prior to Steinle’s death, Zarate, who had been previously deported to Mexico five times, was released from jail by San Francisco officials despite a federal request to detain him for deportation.

San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy was directly responsible for putting Steinle’s killer on the streets. Rokita’s bill will target the local officials who created this lawless sanctuary city policy and others like them around the country.

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