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ByTamiAbdollah The Associated Press LOS ANGELES A recent change in California law making certain drug and property crimes misde- meanors instead of felo- nies played "a significant role" in the rising crime rate in Los Angeles County and has taken away the in- centive for addicts to seek treatment, Sheriff Jim Mc- Donnell said Thursday. In an interview, McDon- nell also said legalizing marijuana for recreational use is a bad idea and that recent public backlash against police over use of force is having an impact on his agency, the largest sheriff's department in the country. Many in law enforce- ment have criticized Prop- osition 47, which voters passed last November. To ease overcrowding in the prison system, it reduced the penalties for shoplift- ing, forgery, fraud, petty theft and possession of small amounts of drugs — including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines. So far this year the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reports a 3.39 percent increase in violent crime and a 6.9 percent in- crease in property crime. "We had 10 years of crime reductions, we were at 50- year lows in many areas on crime statistics, and all of a sudden, right after Novem- ber when 47 kicked in that changed and fairly dramat- ically, very quickly," he said. McDonnell said the law prevents authorities from leveraging the threat of a felony charge to get addicts into treatment. As a result, county treatment rolls are down 60 percent. "People are no longer in- carcerated, they're not in treatment, they're out re- offending on the street," McDonnell said. Proposition 47 came af- ter California's 2011 prison realignment law, which pushed many criminals into county jails to decrease state prison populations. Jails previously housing only people awaiting trial or those sentenced to less than a year now also hold more hardened criminals serving longer terms. LAW ENFORCEMENT LosAngelessheriffsaysnewlaw plays 'significant' role in crime rise By Erica Werner The Associated Press WASHINGTON House Re- publicans approved legis- lation Thursday cracking down on "sanctuary cities" that shield residents from federal immigration author- ities. Angry Democrats ac- cused Republicans of align- ing themselves with Donald Trump and his anti-immi- grant views, and the White House threatened a veto. "The Donald Trump wing of the Republican Party is clearly ascendant here to- day," Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D- Texas, said in heated floor debate ahead of the largely party-line vote of 241-179. "This bill is not about grab- bing criminals; it's about grabbing headlines." Republicans countered that action was desperately needed in the wake of the July 1 shooting of Kath- ryn Steinle, allegedly by an immigrant in the coun- try illegally despite a long criminal record and multi- ple prior deportations. The man, Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, had been released by San Francisco authorities despite a request from fed- eral immigration authori- ties to keep him detained. "There are criminals motivated by malice and a conscious disregard for the lives of others, and there are cities more inter- ested in providing a sanc- tuary for those criminals than they are in providing a sanctuary for their law- abiding citizens," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. "This is more than an academic dis- cussion. ... It is quite liter- ally life and death." San Francisco and hun- dreds of other jurisdictions nationally have adopted policies of disregarding fed- eral immigration requests, or "detainers," which have been found invalid in court and which advocates say can unfairly target innocent immigrants and hurt rela- tions between immigrant communities and law en- forcement authorities. The House bill, by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., would punish jurisdictions that prohibit the collection of immigration information or don't cooperate with fed- eral requests, by blocking them from receiving certain law enforcement grants and funding. In its veto threat, the White House said the bill would threaten the civil rights of all Americans by allowing law enforcement officials to gather immigra- tion status information from any person at any time. The White House statement said such an approach would lead to mistrust between local communities and law en- forcement agencies. As debate unfolded on the House floor, Gowdy chaired a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing that included testimony from Kathryn Steinle's fa- ther, Jim Steinle, who was with his daughter when she was shot and killed. As he did earlier this week in an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Commit- tee, Steinle recounted his daughter's shooting as they strolled arm in arm, and her final words asking him for help. He told lawmak- ers that "hopefully some good will come from Kate's death," if laws could be changed to keep criminal immigrants off the street. Members of both parties endorsed Steinle's plea but offered dramatically differ- ent diagnoses of the prob- lem, with Republicans call- ing for more enforcement of the law and Democrats call- ing for a comprehensive im- migration overhaul, some- thing House Republicans have blocked for years. The comments echoed the years-long national debate over immigration, but this latest chapter comes at a mo- ment when immigration has becomeahot-buttonissueon the presidential campaign trail, thanks to Trump's pro- vocative claims about Mexi- can immigrants being "rap- ists" and "criminals." Trump traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday to continue his focus on the issue, to the dismay of many Republi- cans who fear his campaign risks further alienating La- tino voters from the Repub- lican Party. House Republi- cans rejected Democratic attempts to connect their legislation with Trump's in- cendiary campaign. "We have a horrible trag- edy that was preventable," said Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, when asked about the linkage. "Cities do not have the right to ignore fed- eral laws that require them to incarcerate people who have committed serious fel- onies." PIER SHOOTING Ho us e pa ss es b il l to c ra ck down on 'sanctuary cities' MOLLYRILEY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Jim Steinle, father of Kathryn Steinle, killed by a man previously deported several times, arrives to testify before a Senate Judiciary hearing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. 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