Undocumented immigrants living in Wisconsin packed the state Capitol on Wednesday to oppose a bill that would take away state funding from so-called "sanctuary cities."

"They're against the more vulnerable people," said Milsa, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico living in Madison. "We think there are more important things they should be doing, like job creation — not chasing us."

The bill, introduced by Rep. John Spiros, R-Marshfield, in October, would ban a municipality or county from having a policy preventing officials from inquiring about the immigration status of arrestees or otherwise refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

If a community were to violate the law, a district attorney, sheriff or the attorney general could file a writ with the circuit court to require compliance. The court would be required to inform the state Department of Revenue, which would reduce the community's shared revenue payments in the next year by between $500 and $5,000, depending on its population, for each day of noncompliance.

Sanctuary cities emerged in the U.S. in the 1980s, but the debate surrounding them has reignited in the context of the 2016 presidential election, particularly after a woman was shot and killed by an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco, a sanctuary city, this summer.