Speech #1100082324

I believe if is important to explain here and get on the record the substance of these amendments and why they are critical to securing our homeland. My first amendment (No. 14) would have tied funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to whether recipients are complying with the federal prohibition on sanctuary policies. Sanctuary cities have been prohibited under Federal law (8 U.S.C. 1373 and 1644) for more than 10 years. Yet. there is no enforcement mechanism and no penalty for those cities that choose to disobey the law. My amendment would have prohibited COPS funding from going to State or local governments that have sanctuary policies which prevent cooperation between local or state police and federal immigration authorities or prevent local or state police from enforcing immigration laws. Terrorists know all about sanctuary cities and the concealment that such cities provide. The 9/11 terrorists are a case in point. Two of the 19 hijackers on September 11. 2001. ran afoul of police months and days before the attack. Mohammed Atta was ticketed in Broward County Florida in the Spring of 2001 for driving without a license. Atta was in the U.S. on an expired Visa and was in the U.S. illegally. If the local or state police had looked into Attas immigration status. the leader of the 9/ 11 attacks would have been departed 5 months before the attacks took place. In addition. of the 48 Al Oaeda operatives who operated in the U.S. between 19932001. including the 9/11 hijackers. almost half were illegal aliens. Sadly. jurisdictions with sanctuary policies would not only prohibit their apprehension. it would also prohibit the police from informing federal officials of their immigration status so that they could commence deportation proceedings. Three of the Fort Dix Six--the men who tried to pull off a terrorist incident at Ft. Dix. NJwere pulled over by local police for traffic violations. Three of these individuals had runins with police 75 times. but no one ever checked their immigration status. They were all in the U.S. illegally. The jurisdiction in which they were charged supposedly had a sanctuary policy ... which explains why they were never reported to federal immigration officials.