Speech #1100143282

My bill would also help ensure that Federal funds to local and State governments are not jeopardized because they provide Englishonly services. Moreover. proficiency in English should be encouraged. as it is required for citizenship and essential for maximizing opportunities in this country. My other bill. the Safe Roads Enhancement Act of 2008. would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to make a drunk driving conviction a deportable offense for illegal aliens. It also would classify a third drunk driving conviction as an aggravated felony and therefore a deportable offense for nationals of a foreign country. In my State of North Carolina. there have been a number of fatal automobile accidents caused by an intoxicated person who was in the United States illegally. In several of these incidents. the illegal alien has a record of DWI but has been caught and released. For families. the pain of losing a loved one is compounded by the knowledge that the person responsible for these fatalities was not even in this country legally. A tragic example occurred in Charlotte last spring when a man attempted to cross the street and was struck and killed by a drunk driver who then fled the scene. Fortunately. police were able to apprehend the driver. an illegal alien with a previous DWI conviction. before he could harm anyone else. Cases such as this are not isolated. and they are not specific to North Carolina. Across our Nation. similar senseless tragedies occur on roads and highways. My bill would help ensure that undocumented aliens who have selfidentified themselves by drunk driving are removed. Likewise. individuals who abuse their legal status in the United States by repeatedly breaking drunk driving laws would lose their privilege of living in our country. Sadly. as we have seen repeatedly. we sorely need to strengthen immigration laws with regard to drunk driving convictions. Furthermore. our Government urgently needs to be laserfocused on removing undocumented aliens who are selfidentifying themselves by committing other crimes. such as drug trafficking and gangrelated activities. Most of us can agree that criminal aliens who are obviously here for the wrong reasons should be removed. If we are not safe in our own communities and in our own homes. then what else is going to matter? I am very proud that as a result of my many months working with Federal officials and sheriffs across our 100 North Carolina counties. ours is the first State in the Nation to have a statewide partnership plan for sheriffs to coordinate with ICE. part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This plan will ensure that all North Carolina sheriffs can readily access. if they choose. the tools such as 287(g) to identify and help process undocumented aliens who have selfidentified themselves by committing crimes. This plan is being implemented by the steering committee of North Carolina sheriffs and adopts a regional approach to ensure statewide access to 287(g) databases and other resources to determine the immigration status of apprehended individuals. The State is being audited as we speak. I welcome the work of my colleagues from Georgia for their bill that recognizes that local law enforcement officers are on the front lines fighting crime in their communities. and it directs additional resources for these types of Federal partnerships that can help bring criminal alien problems under control. The No. 1 lesson learned from the Senates failed immigration bill is that Americans simply dont have confidence their Government is serious about securing our borders and enforeing our laws. Real action. real results on this front are long overdue. People dont want promises anymore. they want proof. We now have a chance to put the horse before the cart and enact the border security and enforcement policies that will bring about the political will and support to further address our broken immigration system. I urge my colleagues support of this commonsense approach. I yield the floor.