Nov 03, 2023

WASHINGTON –Today Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA) sent a letter to the Mayors of Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City after they requested an additional $5 billion to deal with the high number of “immigrants entering the United States via the Southwest border.” He further invited the mayors to support his legislation to end sanctuary policies nationwide.

Kiley’s letter to the Mayors states:

“Having directly interfered with federal immigration enforcement and invited illegal immigrants into your cities, without any apparent plan to deal with the predictable consequences, it takes some gall to now suggest my constituents and other American taxpayers should foot the bill – even as you keep your sanctuary policies in place.”

Click here to view Rep. Kiley’s letter in response to Mayors Mike Johnston of Denver, Eric Adams of New York, Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Brandon Johnson of Chicago, and Sylvester Turner of Houston.

Background: President Biden has requested $1.4 billion from Congress to help state and local governments deal with asylum seekers nationwide. In their letter, the five mayors requested $5 billion in federal funding to manage the number of asylum seekers in their jurisdictions.

Over 200 cities, counties, and states across America have defined their jurisdiction as a “sanctuary city” or “sanctuary state,” restricting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. These restrictions include preventing Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officials from detaining individuals who have been arrested and are believed to be deportable from the United States, even those who have committed violent crimes. The refusal of jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE has led to thousands of criminal aliens evading deportation – in Fiscal Year 2017, over 8,000 criminal aliens were released despite an ICE retainer due to sanctuary policies, and ICE was only able to apprehend and arrest 6% of those individuals.

Rep. Kiley’s No Sanctuary for Criminals Act of 2023 puts an end to sanctuary policies by prohibiting local and state jurisdictions from refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities through amending Section 642 of the Illegal Immigration and Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996.

Identical letters were individually sent to each of the Mayors.

###