Proposed ‘sanctuary cities’ bill is a waste of Florida’s time | Letter to the editor

The “sanctuary cities” bill proposed by state Sen. Joe Gruters is a good example of Floridians being led astray to serve the purposes of corrupt politicians.

Whether it is passed or not, it harms rather than helps Florida and the people who these politicians are supposed to be representing. Florida has no “sanctuary cities,” and there is no community in Florida that would vote for and enact laws that give sanctuary to dangerous people. Florida will never have “sanctuary cities,” with or without this law.

Besides that, even if passed, it will be overturned by the courts. It flies in the face of constitutional law to force local law enforcement and communities to foot the bill for doing the job that the federal government should be doing and paying for. We don’t pay or local police departments pay for holding federal detainees at their whim. If passed, our communities would have to house and feed federal detainees indefinitely if they are requested to do so.



Gruters and the rest of the legislature should be spending their time finding solutions for Florida’s problems, not wasting our time and money on a stunt to promote the political gamesmanship of Gruters and his master, President Trump.

They might as well be writing laws to ban unicorns and zombies. You have as much of a chance of seeing one of them in Florida as you do a city or county that would vote to give sanctuary to dangerous criminals rather than protect us from them.

William Anderson

Bradenton

This story was originally published April 17, 2019 at 9:06 AM.