Republican rep. wants officials harboring illegals put in jail

In the wake of the verdict in the Kate Steinle murder trial, which found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an illegal immigrant with a record who had been deported five times, not guilty, a Republican Congressman from Indiana introduced a bill that could send some officials in sanctuary cities to jail.

Rep. Todd Rokita introduced the ‘Stopping Lawless Actions of Politicians (SLAP)’ Act, which would impose fines and potentially lead to prison time for government officials accused of protecting illegal immigrant criminals, in an effort to end sanctuary cities.

Rokita told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney, “If you’re a local, state or elected official and you are ignoring federal law, constitutionally valid law, if you’re going to behave like a criminal yourself than you ought to be treated like a criminal. We ought to lock them up too.”

But Varney questioned whether new legislation was necessary to accomplish that.

“I believe so, yeah, especially in this case. I don’t see it on the books anywhere,” Rokita said on “Varney & Co.”

Rokita then responded to questions about whether sanctuary cities will still exist in a year.

“Well, we got to get this law passed, I need your viewers to call your congressmen and say, ‘hey, we got to pass the SLAP Act’ and we can give President [Donald] Trump and Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions the tools they need.”