Oct 17 2007

Senate Rejects Amendment to Limit Funds to Sanctuary Cities

On October 16, the U.S. Senate rejected a proposed local immigration enforcement amendment that was introduced by Senator Vitter (R-La) as part of the Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill.

The amendment would have restricted the use of funds in the spending bill for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, a program that gives funds to local law enforcement agencies, to support ‘sanctuary cities,’ those cities that prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal agents in the search for illegal immigrants.

A motion to kill the amendment, which was introduced by Senator Mikulski (D-Md) was passed by the Senate with a vote of 52-42. Senator Mikulski also introduced an amendment to the Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill that would extend the ‘returning worker exemption’ of the H-2B visa program through Fiscal Year 2008. This measure was passed by unanimous consent by the Senate.

Another important amendment added to the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations measure on 10/16/07 was an amendment offered by Senator Mikulski (S.AMDT. 3311) that would extend the "returning worker exemption" in the H-2B program for fiscal year 2008. The amendment was passed by unanimous consent.