By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, October 20, 2015

The White House on Tuesday vowed to veto a bill designed to prevent sanctuary city deaths like the July killing of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco, saying the solution is to legalize illegal immigrants, not to force cities and counties to cooperate in deporting them.

In a state of policy, the Office of Management and Budget said if Congress won’t pass a bill legalizing illegal immigrants, it should butt out and let President Obama carry out his own policies, which include narrowing the number of illegal immigrants he deems worthy of deporting.

And he said trying to force local police to cooperate with his own federal authorities would create a rift between immigrants and police.

“The administration believes that these provisions would lead to mistrust between communities and state and local law enforcement agencies; undermine the ability of law enforcement to keep communities safe across the country; and impede our efforts to safely, fairly, and effectively enforce the nation’s immigration laws,” the OMB said.

The Senate was prepared to hold a test vote later Tuesday on the sanctuary city bill, which would strip some federal grant money from locales that refuse to cooperate with deportation agents. The bill would also clarify that local police can legally hold an illegal immigrant based on a request from a federal agent. Several court cases have called that into question.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ity-crackdown/