House GOP crafts nuclear option for sanctuary cities, letting victims sue local officials

Just the News ^ | 12 Oct, 2026 | John Solomon

[MtnClimber]

House Republicans are pushing ahead with sweeping legislation to obliterate sanctuary cities, setting up a post-election vote that would empower victims of illegal immigrants' crimes to sue the local officials who released them from custody.

The Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act passed through the House Judiciary Committee with little fanfare last month, creating a path for GOP lawmakers to impose the toughest crackdown yet on states and cities that refuse to turn over illegal immigrants under federal detainers or outright release migrants in their custody.

The bill’s most poignant weapon creates a right of private action for victims and families of victims to sue the municipalities and officials who released violent offenders, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Just the News.

"We got a good deal that we worked long and hard on": Jordan

The provision would strip some of the civil immunity that state and local officials enjoy. Currently, in some jurisdictions, those officials enjoy "absolute immunity," which is the broadest form of the doctrine.

“It allows people who've been harmed, where local political leaders tell the local law enforcement they can't work with federal law enforcement, detainers aren't honored … to go take that city, take that state to court, and say, 'look, this was ridiculous. What happened and was so wrong, so tragic,'" Jordan explained.

"So we got a good deal that we worked long and hard on. We just got to try to get it passed in the lame duck [period]," he added.

In addition to the lawsuit provision, the bill also:

- Reasserts federal supremacy over state and local laws that restrict cooperation with immigration enforcement with the Department of Homeland Security.

- Requires state and local authorities to honor DHS detainers for illegal immigrants arrested for criminal or motor vehicle offenses who are subject to deportation.

- Withholds some federal funding from sanctuary states and municipalities who don't comply and reallocate the monies to compliant jurisdictions.

The push by Jordan and his allies comes as it's claimed that the number of cases of released aliens causing harm or death continues to grow. The data is conflicting, but individual cases putting a human face on the issue raises public interest.

Just last month, Homeland Security decried a case where an illegal immigrant from India who was released during the Biden years stalked and killed a woman in California.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed last month that Rohit Rohit, the man accused of stalking 38-year-old Shalini Thakur for months before executing her in a Panera Bread parking lot in Sacramento, was in the country illegally.

"Sanctuary politicians must put an end to reckless policies that play Russian roulette with American lives," the DHS said.

Illegal immigrant involvement in felonies said to be still growing

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TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: leftism

[MtnClimber]

Let’s hope the midterm election result in a House and Senate that can pass this.

[Joe 6-pack]

It must be election season. Republicans are posturing as conservatives again.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Great news. Would the bastards in the Senate who would not pass the SAVE Act block this bill, too? I would have to say "yes."

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John Soloman is a great analyst, observer and writer. I'm surprised to see this slip through:

"The bill’s most poignant weapon..."

He obviously meant "potent."

[DPMD]

The enablers in the sanctuary cities should be likened in the lawsuits to the way leftists characterize firearms manufacturers as being liable for the crimes involving the use of their products, in this case the products being illegal aliens.

[MtnClimber]

The enablers in the sanctuary cities should be likened in the lawsuits to the way leftists characterize firearms manufacturers as being liable for the crimes involving the use of their products, in this case the products being illegal aliens.

I think it would be more like a manufacturer releasing a product with known defects that injures someone.

[Pete Dovgan]

There has to be responsibility. They give ‘sanctuary’ to any illegal immigrant, and someone is injured in any jurisdiction, then the people who voted for said sanctuary become directly responsible. The same principle applies if someone dies when your committing a crime, you are criminally liable. Thus, the areas that ignore federal law need to be financially responsible for any damages.

I absolutely support this legislation. They want the benefits of cheap labor, and don’t care who gets hurt. They can pay the penalties for their voting and decision making.

[pierrem15]

Wrong: the real "nuclear" option is to strip all Federal welfare benefits-- no SNAP, no Medicaid, no Section 8-- from states that do not honor ICE detainers or that do not afford protection from leftist mobs to Federal officials in the performance of their duties.

THIS would get their attention.

[No name given]

Agreed.

[fella]

No one is above the law. Governments should never have been allowed to take that privledge to themselves.

[bobbo666]

Typical of the GOP to wait implementing any sort of fix until it is waaaaay too late.

[Vaduz]

Sanctuary cities, training camps for the lefts army.

[DPMD]

Works for me: Product liability suits could follow.