Washington D.C. – As the Department of Justice goes to court today to block the implementation of Arizona’s immigration law, Congressman Hunter has introduced legislation to deny DOJ any funding to continue challenging the Arizona law until action is taken against sanctuary cities.  The legislation – the Sanctuary City Prevention Act – follows a recent report that DOJ is unwilling to force sanctuary cities into compliance with immigration law, despite filing a lawsuit against Arizona on the basis that the state law interferes with federal enforcement duties. 

“It’s ironic that the basis of the Obama Administration’s lawsuit against Arizona is that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, but it refuses to do anything about the sanctuary cities that actually impede effective enforcement,” said Congressman Hunter.  “In the case of Arizona, the state is simply enforcing the laws that the federal government refuses to enforce itself.  The preference of the Administration to challenge Arizona while ignoring sanctuary cities is blatantly hypocritical.

“If the Administration believes that Arizona is contributing to a patchwork of laws that will ultimately impede federal enforcement, then it needs to be consistent and address the multitude of challenges created by sanctuary cities – something it can already do under existing authority.”