Republicans lost the House on Tuesday. But they still run it until January, and a bill written by Tom McClintock is still waiting for a floor vote. It could get one in the lame-duck session.

The bill is called the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act. It would wipe out state and local laws that limit how much police work with ICE, and it would punish any place that doesn't go along by taking away its police money.

It cleared the House Judiciary Committee 22 to 11 on March 5 and has sat on the House calendar since.

What it would do

The San Francisco Inquirer walked through the bill text. Here's what's in it:

• It overrides local law. No state or city could stop its officers from working with federal immigration agents or asking about someone's immigration status.
• It cuts off police money. A place found out of line would lose Community Oriented Policing Services grants, Byrne Justice Assistance Grants and other Justice and Homeland Security law enforcement grants.
• The money moves. The funds would go to places that comply. The cutoff lasts at least a year.
• It lets people sue local governments. Victims of a felony, or their families if the victim died, could sue a city that released someone after turning down an ICE request to hold them.
• It protects those who comply. Local officers who go along with ICE requests would be shielded from money damages unless a court finds mistreatment, and the United States would stand in as the defendant.

Then there's the line that should stop any reader who cares about limits on power. The Homeland Security Secretary would decide each year who is in compliance, "in the Secretary's sole and unreviewable discretion."

So one political appointee would decide which towns lose police money, and the bill calls that choice unreviewable.

Why it matters past San Francisco

Courts have already stood in the way of this. In April 2025, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from withholding funds from San Francisco and other places over sanctuary policies, and the administration appealed. That case turned in part on whether the executive branch could set conditions Congress never approved. McClintock's bill would have Congress approve them.

It reaches well beyond one city. California's 2017 state law sets similar limits, so the bill would hit the state's policies too.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called it "a full-blown assault on the Tenth Amendment." He cited a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that the federal government can't force state and local officers to carry out federal programs, and he called the funding cutoff "a Godfather offer." Democrats offered five changes in committee. All five failed.

The committee's Republican majority says the bill "does not command law enforcement officers to do anything." Places that decline would only lose certain grants, it says. That is the offer Raskin was describing.

San Francisco's rule has a reason behind it. The city says its limits help keep "all residents, regardless of immigration status," comfortable calling the police and using public health services.

McClintock says the bill is about his sheriffs. "All of the local sheriffs in my district want desperately to cooperate with ICE," he said in March.

The committee asked the Congressional Budget Office what the bill would cost. Its report says the estimate had not arrived when the report was filed.

The Republicans behind it

Five Republicans have signed on as cosponsors: Ben Cline of Virginia, Troy Nehls of Texas, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Russell Fry of South Carolina and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin.

As chairman of the immigration subcommittee, McClintock has been pressing this fight for months. We reported on his demand for up to six years of records from Philadelphia's sheriff, including her correspondence with immigrant-rights groups, while refusing to meet his own constituents.

Even if the House passes it, the bill would still have to clear the Senate, where most legislation needs 60 votes, and Congress.gov lists no Senate version.

What we know

Rep. Tom McClintock's H.R. 7640 would override state and local limits on working with ICE and let the Homeland Security Secretary cut police grants from places that don't comply, in the Secretary's "sole and unreviewable discretion." It passed the House Judiciary Committee 22 to 11 in March, five Republicans have cosponsored it, and it could still reach the floor before this Congress ends in January. The cost estimate had not been received when the committee filed its report.

Source

McClintock bill to preempt sanctuary policies awaits a House vote, with San Francisco's police grants at stake, The San Francisco Inquirer.