Apparently, the only thing better than logic is faulty logic. Nothing includes more faulty logic than a Republican-sponsored bill discouraging sanctuary cities.
This bill, authored by Rep. John Spiros, R-Marshfield, penalizes communities that block law enforcement from working with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deal with illegal immigrants. Communities that ignore this legislation and continue to shelter illegal immigrants from federal authorities could be fined between $500 and $5,000 a day, depending on the population of the sanctuary city.
There is absolutely no indication that this bill will affect a single Wisconsin community. This is not because there are no sanctuary cities in Wisconsin (Madison and Milwaukee County both have sanctuary practices) but because the bill has a line stating it wouldn’t apply to municipalities with existing sanctuary city policies.
What’s the point of having this legislation if it doesn’t apply across Wisconsin? The point of legislation is to cause change. This bill merely keeps the status quo. It doesn’t discourage Madison or Milwaukee County from withdrawing their policies, and there are no other municipalities across Wisconsin considering adopting the sanctuary policy.
The reasoning for this bill is also muddled. Spiros claims that its point is to get rid of illegal immigrants who commit a crime. The murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, where an illegal immigrant shot and killed Steinle in broad daylight, directly inspired the bill.
The story of Steinle’s death is tragic and rare. On July 1, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times and has seven prior felony convictions, shot and killed Steinle. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been searching for Lopez-Sanchez to deport him, but San Francisco chose to shelter him.
Having Lopez-Sanchez prove that all immigrants are murderers is like having Steven Avery from the Netflix series “Making a Murder” characterize Wisconsinites as potential murderers and rapists. Just looking at the Lopez-Sanchez case is not appropriate reasoning for the sanctuary cities bill, for it fails to look at the frequency and severity of illegal immigrants’ crimes. Instead, this reasoning plays off of the irrational fears of others.
Though certain Republican presidential candidates claim that illegal immigrants are all rapists and drug dealers, immigrants are less likely than native-born citizens to be incarcerated or commit a violent crime. Even among the group that is most likely to be incarcerated, young ethnic minorities, the incarceration rate of native-born citizens was five times higher than the incarceration rate of immigrants.
What’s the point of punishing immigrants who obey the laws of the United States better than the native-born population? There is no reason for illegal immigrants to cooperate with local law enforcement if they believe that doing so will cause them to be deported. Sanctuary policies are meant as a way to build trust between factions of a local population and the police.
At a time where trust between the community and police is low, there is no reason to advocate for a policy that breaks this fragile bond.
Aaron Reilly ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in comparative literature.
