Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Senators tell sanctuaries to obey the law, or pay for the wall

The Washington Examiner reports:
This week, two GOP senators, Luther Strange of Alabama and David Perdue of Georgia, introduced a bill that would cut funding under two massive federal infrastructure and transportation programs to any jurisdictions "that refuse to cooperate with the federal government on immigration matters or retaliate against border security contractors." Strange and Perdue propose to take the money that would have gone to sanctuary jurisdictions and use it to help pay for the wall.

The two programs are the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program, which has handed out more than $5 billion since its inception in the Obama administration, and the recently-created FASTLANE (Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies) program, which is slated to make more than $4.5 billion in grants in the next three years.

The idea of withholding federal infrastructure and transportation grants from sanctuary jurisdictions is an expansion on Attorney General Jeff Sessions' threat to withhold Justice Department grants to those who defy the law. But the bill's inclusion of sanctuary jurisdictions that threaten companies with retaliation is a new twist — as is the idea of using withheld federal funds toward the construction of the wall.

In an interview Tuesday, Strange said the idea came during a discussion with Sessions, his predecessor as senator from Alabama.
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.