Sanctuary cities are a problem, but the solution is not simply getting rid of them.

Nick Rudnik, Valdosta Today Opinion Contributor

We’ve all heard the story of Kate Steinle which has broadcasted over the airwaves of every major news network. Kate, 32-years-old, was shot in the back and murdered by an illegal immigrant from Mexico, Francisco Sanchez, while visiting a San Francisco, California pier in July.

Steinle’s tragic death has led Congress to consider “sanctuary cities” legislation, dubbed “Kate’s law,” in an attempt to crack down on a growing trend in America’s urban cities which shield illegal immigrants from detention and deportation. These sanctuary cities turn illegal immigrants back onto the streets, rather than turning them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

This trend has increasingly frustrated many in Congress, and bureaucrats at ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. In the wake of Kate’s law failing to achieve the sixty vote procedural threshold in the Senate, many have become increasingly frustrated at the federal government’s inability to combat the growing trend of sanctuary cities—places some view not as sanctuaries for merely illegal immigrants, but illegal immigrant criminals.

But this view is telling only one side of the story.

Indeed, sanctuary cities represent a rather egregious breakdown of the federal system: the federal government has immigration laws and municipal law enforcement officials have sworn oaths to uphold the laws of their city, state, and nation. To that end, sanctuary cities are an affront to both due process and federalism. Although observers have long noted, despite scant statistics, that illegal immigrants do not commit more violent crimes relative to both legal immigrants and the general population, those assurances are of little comfort to Kate’s family and so many more who have suffered similar losses.

The real issue, however, is not sanctuary cities. Rather, it is Congress’s inability or unwillingness to address among the most significant issues of our time: the growing illegal immigration crisis, particularly at our southern border.

Sanctuary cities not only typify a fundamental breakdown in our federal system, but they also represent a dire symptom of the fundamental breakdown of democratic pluralism to address the illegal immigration crisis. Stated simply, because Congress has for so long failed to retool our nation’s broken immigration system, municipal governments, who often feel the greatest pressure to address these issues, have responded as best they can, even though their best may have deep-seated flaws.

So, while I may abhor those in Congress who voted against passage of Kate’s law, I also understand that Kate’s law is merely a band aid on a very serious, national wound. If we reform our nation’s immigration laws, if we document those who are in our nation illegally, this will lead to real improvement in our nation’s immigration system. If we know who has been in our nation illegally, we then can adopt more effective strategies to address immigrant crime, particularly in our highly-populated urban centers.

While sanctuary cities may be a deeply flawed, deeply contradictory paradox, we must not forget that they were born from inaction by federal lawmakers to address an equally flawed, contradictory immigration system. While Kate’s law may be a step in the right direction to combat an onslaught of illegal immigration, it cannot be the only action taken by Congress.

How many more Kate’s will there be until Congress finally acts to address our nation’s illegal immigration crisis? We must not forget that the true immigration problem only rests in one of our nation’s most prominent sanctuary cities, Washington, DC, with congressional lawmakers there who have failed to address illegal immigration in its entirety, not cherry-picking those issues which resonate with their narrow constituencies.

We should pass Kate’s law, but we should also pass comprehensive immigration reform.

And it seems that the voters in San Francisco agree as they have just yesterday taken to the polls and booted their sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi, who refused to release the Kate’s murderer to federal authorities when requested, out of office.

Congress would do well to listen or share the same fate.