Columbus lawmakers are pushing for legislation that could punish elected officials that declare their cities sanctuary cities in Ohio.
Sanctuary cities, which also include countries and states, hold policies that limit cooperation with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel and State Representative Candice Keller are backing the new law. This would mean that Ohio cities are no longer allowed to declare themselves “sanctuary cities.” If an undocumented immigrant commits a murder or physical assault, the elected official could face criminal sanctions and civil lawsuits.
Under this bill, mayors and any other elected officials would be charged with fourth-degree felony for crimes committed in their city by undocumented immigrants. This could include a fine of $5,000 and 18 months in prison. In a civil lawsuit, which is also part of the charges in the proposed bill, there could be a fine of up to $1 million.
Toward the end of 2016, Mandel announced his run for U.S. Senate, and justified the new bill by crimes committed across the country by undocumented immigrants and incidents of terrorism across the globe.
Currently Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton have policies that prevent local law enforcement to be used to take action against people based on immigration status. The mayors of both Cincinnati and Columbus declared their cities as “sanctuary cities.”
The announcement for the bill came a few days after Cincinnati welcomed immigrants after they became a sanctuary city. The bill will be voted on later this week. If it passes, Ohio could become the first state to impose criminal charges on sanctuary city officials.
In Keller's statement, her research showed there are more than 8,000 illegal immigrants with criminal histories living in the sanctuary cities.
Keller commented to the Dayton Daily News, “A lot of the culture and a lot of what we’re seeing come in, includes not only terrorism and crime but sexual assault, sexually transmitted diseases, child marriage, child rape. Six states have already reported rape and sexual assault. Refugees many times say this is sanctioned in their culture and religion and that they simply don’t wish to assimilate into our culture.”
States such as Alaska, Colorado and Maine have drawn up bills to advocate similar immigration laws and restrictions on cities. There are a total of 300 sanctuary cities in the United States while there are four states that consider themselves as a whole to be sanctuary for immigrants.
