Speech #1140041138

There is hopeful evidence about this. In a statement following the shooting. Hillary Clinton said that any city should listen to the Department of Homeland Security and fully cooperate with their law enforcement and deportation work. Even before the incident in a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Sarah Saldana described the adverse effects of sanctuary city policy. She said that a significant factor affecting efforts to deport illegal immigrants "has been the increase in state and local jurisdictions that are limiting their partnership. or wholly refusing to cooperate with ICE immigration enforcement efforts. . . . [I]n certain circumstances we believe such a lack of cooperation may increase the risk that dangerous criminals are returned to the streets. putting the public and our officers at greater risk." Well. yes. we saw the direct result of that dangerous. reckless sanctuary city policy in San Francisco recently. Right now there are nearly 170.000 convicted criminal aliens who have been ordered deported who remain at large in our country. The question for sanctuary cities is. Are they going to continue to protect those people or are they going to finally cooperate with immigration enforcement officials to do something about rounding up those people. not allowing them to roam on our streets? We need to change our stance that allows sanctuary cities to get away with being accessories to murder. Let me repeat that. They are getting away with being accessories to murder. and we need to put an end to that. My legislation. first introduced in 2009. would do that by putting real teeth in Federal law. which does not exist now. My amendment on this bill. which I will be filing today. would do that by putting real teeth into Federal law. which does not exist now. We need to take this up and we need to do something to shut down over 200 sanctuary cities around the country that are clearly endangering the lives and wellbeing of American citizens. I urge all of my colleagues to come together to support this commonsense policy. We need to act.