United States Senator David Vitter (Republican - Louisiana)
spoke on the Senate floor urging his colleagues to support his
legislation, the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act,
which would withhold certain federal funding from sanctuary states
or cities that fail to comply with Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) issued detainer requests for illegal aliens. The bill would
redirect these funds to states and localities that follow the
law.
SEE HOW YOUR SENATORS VOTED ON SANCTUARY CITIES
Kelsey Harkness /
Senate Democrats blocked legislation that would
punish “sanctuary cities” in a 54-45 vote Monday afternoon.
The bill, called the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect
Americans Act, needed to overcome a 60-vote threshold. It would
withhold certain federal funding from states or cities that refuse
to comply with requests from federal immigration officials to turn
over immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., introduced the legislation, which
includes a provision known as Kate’s Law, named after 32-year-old
Kate Steinle, who was fatally shot in San Francisco on July 1. The
bill would impose a mandatory minimum jail sentence of five years
for illegal immigrants who are convicted of re-entering the United
States after being convicted of an aggravated felony or have three
strikes for trying to enter the country illegally.
“It’s maddening that the Democrats are encouraging sanctuary
cities like New Orleans that refuse to cooperate with federal
immigration enforcement and let dangerous criminal illegals free,”
Vitter said in a statement after the bill failed.
Vitter has been pushing to defund sanctuary cities since 2007,
when he served as chairman of the Border Security Caucus.
Sanctuary policies vary from state to state, but they generally
prevent local authorities from cooperating with federal immigration
officers, allowing those localities to protect undocumented
immigrants from deportation. There are currently 340 sanctuary
cities in the United States, according to the Center for
Immigration Studies.
The issue of sanctuary cities gained national attention when
Steinle was killed this summer by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an
illegal immigrant who had seven prior felony convictions in the
U.S. and had been deported to Mexico five separate times. He
was released from a San Francisco jail in April under a city law
barring the jail’s deputies from informing U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement of his release, despite the agency’s previous
notification request.
Opponents of the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans
Act question the taxpayer cost of implementing mandatory minimums
at a time when Congress is working to reform the criminal justice
system. Some, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
even mocked the legislation, calling it the “Donald Trump Act.”
“This Donald Trump Act was designed to demonize immigrants and
spread the myth that they are criminals and threats to the public,”
Reid
said on Monday.
During his bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, Trump
highlighted Steinle’s death as an example of why the country needs
stricter immigration policies.
In July, the White House issued a veto threat on similar
legislation that passed in the House,
saying the measure “undermines current administration efforts
to remove the most dangerous convicted criminals.”
A government report commissioned for Congress by the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement found that sanctuary cities
released more than 9,000 illegal immigrants whom federal
authorities were seeking to deport between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30,
2014. As of last year, 69 percent of those were still at large in
the United States.
Of those still at large, 1,377 had another criminal arrest that
resulted in the detainer. Of the 6,460 criminal aliens who were
still at large during the time period studied, 3,802 (58 percent)
had prior felonies or violent misdemeanors.
Machine Transcript
0:00
senator from louisiana Thank You mr.
president was present high rise again
0:04
today in strong support of the stop
sanctuary policies and protect Americans
0:10
will be voting on that later today I
was here on the floor yesterday laying out
0:16
the strong case in support of that
talking to many many colleagues before
0:21
this vote today as I have been for
the past several days and today I rise to
0:28
focus on some arguments from the
other side that are erroneous and misleading
0:32
quite frankly to debunk the so that
everyone has the whole the true the
0:38
clear picture of why this
legislation is so needed this president first I've
0:45
heard a few of my colleagues talked
about the need for federal and local
0:49
authorities to do a better job of
working together for instance Senator
0:55
Durbin and just left the floor said
quote federal and local authorities must
1:00
do a better job of communicating and
coordinating so that undocumented
1:05
immigrants with serious criminal
records are detained and deported
1:10
close quote some early senator
Feinstein said quote it is very clear to me that
1:17
we have to improve cooperation
between local state and federal law enforcement
1:23
close mister president let me say
that I completely agree with them and they are
1:31
laying out a strong case for this
legislation against it because we need
1:36
to do something about the cause of
the non-cooperation the obstacle between
1:42
that full cooperation that
absolutely needs to happen every day simply wishing
1:48
for a better outcome isn't gonna
make that happen
1:52
the fact of the matter is there are
dozens and dozens of sanctuary cities
1:57
jurisdictions that have those
policies that were co-operating in the past but
2:03
want to cooperate but they have
been
2:08
faced with lawsuits from the ACLU
and others
2:12
court decisions that local law
enforcement officials could be held
2:16
liable for violating an individual's
constitutional rights simply for
2:21
honoring a detainer requests from
ice now that's ridiculous
2:26
that's an abuse and our legislation
on the floor today is going to remove that
2:33
the stop sanctuary policies and
protect Americans Act allows for about
2:39
cooperation between local and
federal authorities to resume again because
2:43
section 4 of the bill will
facilitate state and local compliance with the ice
2:50
detainers and remove that owners and
unreasonable threat cooperation has been
2:57
stifled by lawsuits aimed at
bullying local law enforcement and this bill
3:02
would grant local law enforcement
the authority to clearly comply with ice
3:08
detainers without product liability
it'll protect them from that liability
3:13
for simply complying with ice
detainers and I'll remind my colleagues that will
3:18
do nothing to infringe on an
individual's civil or constitutional
3:22
rights they still have the same
ability to pursue those against tyson anyone
3:28
else they choose that's why this
legislation is supported by people who
3:34
know something about what needs to
happen for local and federal authorities
3:39
to cooperate whom I talking about
the Federal Law Enforcement Officers
3:44
Association they know what they're
talking about the International Union of
3:49
police associations they live it
every day
3:54
the National Association of police
organizations and the National Sheriff's
4:00
Association think they know what's
needed on the ground they do and because
4:06
they do they strongly support this
legislation now second
4:12
mister president some argument some
colleagues on the other side
4:16
argue that this bill won't do
anything instead we need so-called comprehensive
4:22
immigration reform like again have a
bill but mister president the gang of
4:28
eight bill that my colleagues are
portion twelve hundred pages long run it
4:34
past the senate it didn't do
anything to resolve this issue of sanctuary cities
4:40
it didn't do anything to change the
abusive lawsuits I'm talking about it
4:45
didn't do anything to encourage
federal and local authorities to cooperate in
4:52
real time
4:53
absolutely nothing and that's just
the fact of the matter once you reach the
4:57
twelve hundred pages all the gang of
a bill does is lead with a big amnesty and
5:06
Amnesty overnight to about 11
million illegal immigrants in our country today
5:11
so that comprehensive immigration
reform bill gang of a bill whatever you want to
5:18
call it does nothing in this area
that is so crucial to fix does nothing about
5:24
sanctuary cities does nothing to
remove these abusive lawsuits obstacles to the
5:31
clear and full cooperation between
federal state and local authorities but
5:36
even folks on the other side of the
bill at MIT needs to happen and is a problem
5:42
right now mister president there are
a lot of these myths about our bill versus
5:49
the facts and so with that in mind
this president has unanimous consent to
5:54
submit for the record a myth vs fact
sheet that lays out clearly the Mets
6:01
arguments made against this
legislation and the real facts of the stop
6:06
sanctuaries policies act s
21:46
6:11
without objection thank you let me
highlight the two biggest ones and the
6:18
first one is that our legislation
would somehow
6:23
punish and make it more difficult
for illegal persons to report crimes and
6:30
cooperate with local law enforcement
that is a pure and what's the fact of
6:35
the matter
6:36
well read the bill as I'm hurting
people suggest read the bill are bill us 2146
6:43
specifically provides that if a
jurisdiction has a policy that local law
6:48
enforcement will not inquire about
the immigration status of crime victims or
6:53
witnesses that jurisdiction will not
be deemed as a sanctuary jurisdiction it
6:59
will not lose federal funds over
that so that argument is simply omit the second
7:05
argument often made is that somehow
this legislation is requiring local law
7:10
enforcement to carry out federal
immigration responsibilities again a
7:17
Purim in a purely erroneous argument
that if you read the bill as 2146 you'll
7:25
see is simply not the bill does not
require local law enforcement quote to
7:31
carry out federal immigration
responsibilities close quote in any way
7:35
shape or form
7:36
removing illegal immigrants remains
the exclusive province of the federal
7:42
government the bill simply withhold
certain federal funds from jurisdictions
7:47
that prohibit exactly the
cooperation that our opponents on the other side say
7:52
is so necessary incorrectly say it's
necessary so that again is the fact of
7:59
the matter versus the myth that's
being propagated again we have several miss vs
8:05
facts as part of the record and I
urge everyone search starting with our
8:09
colleagues democrats and republicans
the study that careful mister president this
8:15
is an important issue
8:17
sanctuary cities are in real problem
and we need to fix that problem to move
8:24
forward so I urge my colleagues to
look carefully at this issue what's driving
8:30
the sanctuary cities policy or
legislation
8:35
will take up his drivers as
obstacles will solve those problems will result in
8:42
the cooperation at all levels of law
enforcement that we desperately need so
8:48
I urge my colleagues to the yes
later today so we can push forward with this
8:53
important and critical legislation
and mister president would suggest the
8:58
absence of a quorum
About the Podcast
The voice of American exceptionalism and Exposing the Liberal LIES 🔥
Highlighting the hatred for Donald Trump - i.e. Never Trumpers. And outing the Liberal Democrats and their neverending lies. ✨
Subscribe on your device for easy on-demand playback.
I appreciate your visit, John Hames