It is not right to make criminals of those who worship with us in our churches. send their children to school with our own and love this great and free land as much as any of us. During the Judiciary Committee markup. I offered an amendment to strike the provision that would have criminalized undocumented immigrants. My amendment was approved by a strong bipartisan vote. and as a result that provision is not in the bill we are considering today. The original version of this bill also included a provision that would make it a crime for innocent Americans to provide humanitarian assistance to undocumented immigrants. This provision stated that it would constitute alien smuggling. an aggravated felony to "encourage or induce a person to ... remain in the United States. knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority." This language is so broad and vague that it could conceivably constitute an aggravated felony for a priest to counsel an undocumented mother to stay in the United States with her U.S. citizen children. rather than abandoning them to return to her home country. And a domestic violence shelter that takes in a battered immigrant spouse without asking whether or not she has a green card could be guilty of alien smuggling. Americans honor our heritage as a Nation of immigrants by welcoming and caring for new arrivals in our country. We should thank them for their service. not prosecute them. The original version of the bill included an exception for humanitarian assistance. but it was far too narrow.
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undocumented immigrant immigrants green card