Speech #1100060456

The fact of life is that everybody at every local government and in every locality throughout this country knows what the law is and knows how to react to that law. People are not withholding information from the Federal Government. What happens. however. on many occasions. is that local communities will make a statement. and basically it is a statement in many cases. in most cases. saying that that area is a sanctuary. meaning that they look at the immigration issue differently than you may in other parts of the country. But it doesnt mean that they flaunt the law. that they laugh at the law. that they will not participate. I assure you that in the case of New York City. where the scene of the crime took place on September 11. no one in that city government. no one in that State government. is interested in doing anything else but complying with every law that will help us secure our borders and protect our city. But we in that city look at immigration different than other people in other parts of the country. perhaps. We dont see immigrants as a problem to society that we have to somehow create a problem for them. So sanctuary movements. which incidentally are growing throughout churches of all denominations throughout the country in veryj conservative and In very liberal areas. those mrovements are simply statements by communities saying we see the immigration issue from a humane point of view. We see it differently than other people. We dont think these people are problems for the country. Lets work to resolve the problem in a proper way. This. again. is a classic case of coming to the House floor and saying. one. we are going to tell local governments what to do. something that side does not usually like to do. and in this case freedom of speech. Simply a statement by many communities that they see immigration in a different way and we should not be badgering them and creating issues where issues do not exist. Mr. Chairman.