With the defeat of Tucson's Proposition 205, a legal showdown of sorts has been averted, for now, in Arizona.
Prop 205 would have prevented police from cooperating with federal authorities, particularly ICE, and cemented the town’s status as a sanctuary city.
But the central legal questions surrounding sanctuary cities remain – do local governments have the power to ignore federal policy?
State Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills)
State Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) wants to answer that question. He’s proposing to hold cities and elected officials liable for Sanctuary City policies. In particular – if policies prevent police or immigration officials from apprehending a convicted felon in the country illegally and that undocumented person goes on to commit another felony – the city is financially liable.
State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) says the proposal is intriguing and helps address a very real problem.
“Border security is national security. It’s that simple,” Finchem said.
He noted that the voters in Tuscon overwhelmingly shot down the measure with 71 percent of voters opposed to it. He said the law would have set a dangerous precedent, setting local laws against the Constitution, which is clearly superior in legal terms.
“If you were to use reason instead of emotion, apply reason to the argument should an elected official be held accountable for knowingly doing something that is in conflict with superior law, should there be a consequence?” Finchem asked. “I think it’s an interesting public policy question to propose.”
Going beyond the concept of accountability, Finchem said it would open up government to the same levels of liabilities private citizens and companies face.
“In civil contract law, you have this idea of ‘individually and severally’ that you can sue, for example, board members of corporations for using carbon fuels or producing carbon fuels. What they’re going after is the ability to individually and severally sue people for the decisions that they make,” Finchem said. “Why is it government always seems to try and exempt itself from the same level of accountability that non-government organizations are expected to fall under?”
He said people often have a deep distrust of the federal government.
“ICE is concerned, basically, with one thing -- getting the really bad guys out of this country so they don’t terrorize the community that they hide within,” he said.
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