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Senate committee member urges hearing on immigrants' positive contributions, faults DHS 'sanctuary' list and presses idea of ICE liability
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Summary
A member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations asked colleagues to hold a hearing on immigrants' positive contributions, criticized a Department of Homeland Security list that misidentified Virginia localities as sanctuary jurisdictions, and suggested exploring legal liability for ICE when agents fail to pick up people the local government flags.
A member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday pressed colleagues to hold a hearing on the positive contributions of immigrants, criticized a Department of Homeland Security list that had mistakenly labeled Virginia localities as "sanctuary" jurisdictions, and proposed that lawmakers consider ways to hold federal immigration authorities liable when they fail to act.
The committee member said the committee has "never had that hearing" about immigrants' positive impacts and urged the panel to balance oversight of criminal activity with attention to the economic and civic contributions of lawful immigrants. "When we have hearings, it's about immigrants doing bad things rather than about the cost of immigrants," the member said.
The member cited Loudoun County as an example, saying the jurisdiction — which the speaker said had a population of about 420,000 at the last census and may now be approaching 450,000 — is "one of the safest jurisdictions in the United States" and "by recent count ... the wealthiest county in the United States," with immigrants comprising roughly 25% of the population. The member praised the Loudoun sheriff's office for professionalism, body‑camera use and visible community policing at events such as a Leesburg Halloween parade.
On federal enforcement, the member criticized a May Department of Homeland Security list that had named 34 Virginia localities as "sanctuary" communities, saying the list included mistaken entries (counties listed as cities and tiny places with virtually no immigrants). The member noted that the Department of Justice later revised its own list and indicated the number of Virginia "sanctuary" jurisdictions was zero, and asked to place DHS's original list into the committee record. The chair accepted that insertion "without objection." "I'd like to introduce DHS's bogus sanctuary cities list into the record," the member said.
The member also raised a separate legislative question about a bill assigned to the Judiciary Committee that would impose liability on local officials, asking whether the federal government should also be subject to suits when local authorities notify ICE or federal agencies and the agencies fail to pick people up. "So often ... ICE has this person in their purview ... and then letting them go," the member said, and asked whether people should be able to sue ICE when the agency does not act after being alerted.
The chair responded that he would be "glad to work with you," and that creating liability for federal actors in some circumstances "sounds like a pretty good idea." No formal vote on legislation occurred during the exchange.
The exchange concluded after both speakers agreed to explore the idea further; committee staff or Judiciary Committee members would handle any bill language and formal committee action, and no vote or markup was recorded in this transcript.
