‘Sanctuary’ measures die in the House

Bills that would have limited the cooperation between Hawaii police departments and federal immigration authorities appear to be dead for the this legislative session.

House lawmakers declined to approve either Senate Bill 2290 or House Bill 1994, which were modeled after so-called sanctuary laws in California and other jurisdictions.

The measures would have generally prohibited local police from stopping, questioning or arresting anyone based solely on an immigration hold, or detainer, or an immigration warrant.

The Senate bill would have allowed local police to hold people for up to 48 hours at the request of immigration authorities only when the detainers are accompanied by federal arrest warrants, or when those being targeted have felony convictions or are believed to have engaged in terrorist activities.

The House version of the so-called Ho‘okipa Welcoming Policy Act would have allowed police to cooperate with immigration authorities in a wider range of cases, including some instances when the subject of a detainer is arrested for a felony, or when the person has been convicted of a misdemeanor in the past five years.

Federal law does not require local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

However, the U.S. Justice Department last month sued the state of California over three laws that federal officials claim “reflect a deliberate effort by California to obstruct the United States’ enforcement of federal immigration law.” The suit was widely seen as a warning to cities and states that approve “sanctuary” laws to protect illegal immigrants.

State Rep. Gene Ward (R, Kalama Valley-Queen’s Gate-Hawaii Kai) said he believes that if Hawaii were to antagonize President Donald Trump’s administration by approving a “sanctuary” law, it could affect the federal funding flowing into the state.

Ward said he thinks the Hawaii sanctuary bills died because leaders at the Legislature realize the state needs hundreds of millions of dollars more in federal funding for the city’s 20-mile rail project, and billions of dollars in other federal assistance to fund everything from highways to health care.

Ward said that “22 to 25 percent of our budget as a state is federal money, so poking our finger in the federal eyes just doesn’t weigh on the fiscal responsibility side of the equation.”

“There’s too much money at risk is, I think, the bottom line, and I think sometimes ‘follow the money’ is the way politics is understood best,” he said.

House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke said she declined to hold a hearing on HB 1994 because she had expected to receive a similar Senate bill that she could consider. However, SB 2290 never reached Luke’s committee because it never got a hearing the the House Public Safety Committee.

Public Safety Chairman Gregg Takayama said he never considered the Senate version of the sanctuary bill partly because the House version had already died, and it appeared there was little interest in the measure in the House.

Takayama said he also wanted to see how the federal lawsuit against California would play out before advancing a sanctuary proposal for Hawaii.