PHILADELPHIA — Mayor Jim Kenney has released the following statement in response to House Bill 1885, authored by Martina White, which passed out of committee today.

“I sincerely hope that the Republican Party wrote this legislation to help Donald Trump win Pennsylvania because if Representative White actually wrote this bill with the intention of reducing crime then I have serious concerns about her understanding of the law, government and policing.

“In a year where we have already seen too much violence, this bill would make it even more difficult to solve and prevent crimes. Not only would it make undocumented residents far less likely to report or to act as a witness to a crime, this bill would weaken the trust between police and the communities they serve.

“Furthermore, and perhaps most hypocritically, this legislation would hurt the very people Rep White claims to be protecting. If the City failed to comply with this incredibly dangerous law, we would lose funding for thousands of our most vulnerable children. If Rep White wants to help those children, she needs to spend less time helping the Republican Party dog-whistle and more time working on school funding so that our children can actually have a safe, stable learning environment.”