http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/standing

http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2014/01/challenging-laws-3-levels-of-scrutiny-explained.html

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/chevron_deference

All of these are ambiguous and the major driver of “judge shopping”.

Does the Executive Branch of FedGov have standing to bring charges against the executives of “sanctuary cities”? Because it seems to me that charges of aiding and abetting criminal behavior, and acting as accessories after-the-fact (for knowingly providing illegals with drivers licenses, for example) should be a slam-dunk to prove. Also, if it can be shown they are inviting/ encouraging non-citizens to come here illegally, we could add charges of collusion &/or conspiracy – how about the RICO statutes? If these virtue-signaling mayors knew they were facing time in a Federal prison, not to mention being disqualified from ever running for public office again, perhaps they could be persuaded to at least pretend some respect for Rule-of-Law again.

(The many examples of the Left’s absolute disregard for our laws and for our long-established Constitutional processes leave me horrified and truly afraid for our nation’s future. How can we even *BE* “a nation” when half of our people don’t agree what the rules are?)

That wing of the GOP to which you refer is beholden to its large donors who have publicly made clear their support for amnesty and open borders.

NYT, July 30, 2013,

“More than 100 Republican donors – many of them prominent names in their party’s establishment – sent a letter to Republican members of Congress on Tuesday urging them to support an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.

The letter, which calls for “legal status” for the 11 million immigrants here illegally…”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/us/politics/big-name-gop-donors-urge-members-of-congress-to-back-immigration-overhaul.html

https://amgreatness.com/2017/03/27/immigration-still-operative-term/
“We’ve been asked by Democrats and some Republicans to live with massive waves of immigration. But at some point immigration doesn’t begin to describe what’s happening, both with illegal and legal immigration.

Let’s call it what it is. A variation of colonization that I call neo-colonization.”

https://amgreatness.com/2017/03/28/rape-bureaucracys-bedroom/

“In one of the wealthiest, most highly-educated counties in America, two illegal immigrants raped a 14 year-old girl during school hours. The crime occurred March 16 at Rockville High School, a few blocks from where I live in Montgomery County, Maryland.

The nationally reported crime cries out to have its true national significance exposed, in the supine mentality the locals have displayed. …Unfortunately for the sanctimonious, the Rockville horror took place just as sanctuary state legislation passed the overwhelmingly Democratic Assembly. The anti-Trump Republican Governor Larry Hogan vowed to veto the bill. Some plucky Chinese immigrants have had enough and lobbied against sanctuary status, pitting them against the Chinese-American establishment…”

On the face of it, a Congressional bill forcing Sanctuary Cities to make a similar choice would be a no-brainer. But quite a few of the Republicans in Congress seem to want to slip amnesty in whenever they think they can get away with it. When Boehner was Speaker, he pushed an amnesty bill, got yelled at by the public, and then pushed another one two years later. There’s a wing of the Republican party that appears to like having large numbers of unskilled immigrants in the country, and they might fight tooth and nail to keep Congress from doing anything about Sanctuary cities.

My county has provided a substantial (but not unlimited) amount of free healthcare for maybe a couple decades. It has occurred to me that all have to do is walk into the right clinic, tell them that my name is Jose Gonzales, and “no habla ingles,” and I could get free healthcare too. Of course, I would need to speak fluent Spanish also, which I don’t.

But it makes perfect sense. How can you put a value on a new voter that is automatically dependent on the welfare state?

I have been through a great many jury selection processes and until recently, the selection was taken entirely from the list of registered voter. During the voir dire about 25% of the prospective jurors say “no habla ingles” and are immediately dismissed.

As for turning them into martyrs… only among those supportive of open borders.

amr,

Some animals are more equal than others. Defined by whether the lawlessness supports the narrative or not. Thus any action that supports the narrative is above the law.

I agree with the comments that going after officials who defy federal law should be a cleaner option than withholding funds, but, doubt that it would not be because the courts would free them post-haste. Then they would be seen as martyrs by their constituents. Still it would be therapeutic to see the Mayor and other officials in SF doing a perp walk, So the option should be exercised just for the visual appeal; along with funding cuts as the best option in the long run.

I can’t blame it specifically on the Sanctuary movement, but there is an observable lack of respect for laws of all kinds. We see it all around us, from running red lights and stop signs, to blatant littering. And, of course, mob action disguised as protests. Society is eroding, and coddling illegality in one form contributes to it in others.l