Speech #1100106793

DURBIN. for helping me work this. The reason I am thanking him is this is a very important amendment. This isnt some throwaway amendment on how we can say we are being tough on illegal immigrants. First. every single Senator here opposes illegal immigration. We oppose illegal immigration. This is why we voted for strong measures when border enforcement came up. This is why we advocated comprehensive immigration reform. We are opposed to illegal immigration. But we are where we are. Lets talk about why municipalities have said "no" to enforcing immigration laws. Many municipalities. cities. towns. say they cannot afford to be the Federal cop on the beat. They know that enforcing immigration law takes a tremendous amount of training and takes a tremendous amount of money. and they simply cannot put their resources into that. The second is they have the right to decide how they best want to fight crime. Many municipalities have chosen not to ask their local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws exactly because they want to fight crime. What they would say is. if we go In and we are INS officers or ICE officers by proxy. we will never find a witness. and victims in many instances will not come forward. If you are a young girl and you have been gangraped by MS13. do you think you are going to come forward if you think that when you do. instead of getting the protection of the United States of America and getting justice done. you are going to be doubly brutalized and asked your immigration status. and you are the one who is punished? Do you think the witnesses to these brutal crimes that sometimes occur in communitiesnot Latino against Latino. but if someone were working in an office building and saw a burglary. would they say: Heck. I am not going to report that. even though I am an eyewitness. because they are going to ask my immigration status? Or if you are walking down the street. and you might be a day laborer. and you see someone mugged. you arent able to go report it. My time has expired. but I think we need to defeat the Vitter amendment.