House passes Kate’s Law, as
part of illegal immigrant crackdown, 6/29/17,
Fox
News
House Republicans took action Thursday
to crack down on illegal immigrants and the cities that shelter them.
One bill passed by the House would deny
federal grants to sanctuary cities and another, Kate’s Law, would increase the
penalties for deported aliens who try to return to the United States.
Kate's Law, which would increase
the penalties for deported aliens who try to return to the United States and
caught, passed with a vote of 257 to 157, with one Republican voting no and 24
Democrats voting yes.
Kate's Law is named for Kate Steinle, a
San Francisco woman killed by an illegal immigrant who was in the U.S. despite
multiple deportations. The two-year anniversary of her death is on
Saturday.
President Trump called the bill's
passage "good news" in a tweet, adding "House just passed
#KatesLaw. Hopefully Senate will follow."
“He should not have been here, and she should
not have died,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday, in a final push for
Kate’s Law, an earlier version of which was blocked in the Senate last year.
“Our job here is to make sure that those
professionals have the tools that they need and the resources that they need to
carry out their work and to protect our communities. That is what these
measures are all about,” added Ryan.
The other bill, which would deny federal
grants to sanctuary cities, passed with a vote of 228-195 with 3
Democrats voting yes and 7 Republicans voting no.
The brutal murder of Steinle catapulted
the issue of illegal criminal aliens into the national spotlight. Alleged
shooter Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez had been deported five times and had
seven felony convictions.
On Wednesday, President Trump highlighted
other cases during a White House meeting with more than a dozen families of
people who had been victimized by illegal immigrants, including Jamiel Shaw Sr.
Shaw’s 17-year-old son Jamiel was shot
and killed by an illegal immigrant in California in March 2008..“He was living
the dream," Shaw said during the meeting. "That was squashed out.”
The second measure, "No Sanctuary
for Criminals Act," would cut federal grants to states and “sanctuary
cities” that refuse to cooperate with law enforcement carrying out immigration
enforcement activities.
“The word 'sanctuary' calls to mind
someplace safe, but too often for families and victims affected by illegal
immigrant crime, sanctuary cities are anything but safe,” Homeland Security
Secretary John Kelly asserted in the pre-vote press conference.
“It is beyond my comprehension why
federal state and local officials ... would actively discourage or outright
prevent law enforcement agencies from upholding the laws of the United States,”
he added.
While gaining support in the Senate for
similar legislation will be a tough road, Trump called for Congress to act
quickly.
Trump called on the House and the Senate
to “to honor grieving American families” by approving a “package of truly key
immigration enforcement bills” so that he could sign them into law.
“I promise you, it will be done quickly.
You don't have to wait the mandatory period. It will be very
quick,” promised Trump.
Earlier on Wednesday, Immigration and
Customs
Enforcement Director Thomas D. Homan and
U.S. Attorney for Utah John W. Huber made their case for the bills during the
White House press briefing.
Huber said 40 percent of Utah’s current
felony caseload involves criminal alien prosecutions and the number is
increasing.
The bills, Huber asserted, would “advance the ball for law
enforcement in keeping our communities safe” and “would give officers and
prosecutors more tools to protect the public.
Many immigration rights groups have
characterized efforts to crack down on sanctuary cities as “anti-immigrant,”
but Attorney General Jeff Sessions says it is not sound policy to allow
sanctuary cities to flout federal immigration laws.
According to Homan, ICE already has
arrested nearly 66,000 individuals this year that were either known or
suspected to be in the country illegally. Of those arrested, 48,000 were
convicted criminal aliens.
“The practices of these jurisdictions
are not only contrary to sound policy; they’re contrary to the law enforcement
cooperation that is carried out every day in our country and is essential to
public safety,” Sessions wrote in
a Fox News op-ed backing the bills.
Fox News' Chad
Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Comments
Objections
from sanctuary city law enforcement don’t add up. If they can have ICE effectively take illegal
criminals off the streets and out of the neighborhoods, there will be fewer
criminals the neighbors will have to talk to law enforcement about.
The
Mayors and Councils in these sanctuary cities need to be replaced by people
with some common sense.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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