Speech #1140056139

Shortly after Kates death. Marilyn Pharis was brutally raped. tortured. and murdered in her home in Santa Maria. CA. by an undocumented immigrant who was released from custody because the county sheriff does not honor Federal enforcement detainers. A 2yearold girl was brutally beaten by an undocumented immigrant in San Luis Obispo County. CA. He was released from local custody despite a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer and an extensive criminal history. and he is still at large. Margaret Kostelnik was killed by an undocumented immigrant who allegedly attempted to rape a 14yearold girl and shoot a woman in a nearby park. He was released because Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to issue a detainer and take custody of that suspect. These are a very few of the stories that could be told on this Senate floor. There are many more families who are hurting today because of lax immigration policies and the lack of willingness by President Obamas administration to do something about sanctuary cities. But dont take it from just me. Even the Secretary of Homeland Security acknowledges that sanctuary cities are "counterproductive to public safety." He said these policies were "unacceptable." Yet this administration has not taken demonstrable action to address the unwillingness of sanctuary jurisdictions to work with Federal immigration authorities. More than 12.000 Federal detainer requests were ignored by State and local jurisdictions in 2014. Moreover. in June of this year. the administration rolled out a new program that reduces the enforcement priorities and announced it would not seek the custody of many criminals who are in the country illegally. This is called the Priority Enforcement Program. PEP for short. That program actually gives sanctuary jurisdictions permission to continue ignoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. PEP even discourages compliant jurisdictions from further cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement because it now only issues detainers for individuals who are already convicted of certain crimes deemed priorities by the Department of Homeland Security. Many local jurisdictions want to work with the Federal Government and protect their communities but are frustrated when the administration refuses to work with them. Think of Arizona trying to protect its own citizens from the crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in that State. The State legislature passes laws. The administration goes to court and gets those laws declared contrary to the Constitution or our only immigration laws. Why? Because under the Constitution. one of the 18 powers of Congress happens to be the enforcement or the writing of the immigration laws so they are uniform. So when this administration will not enforce immigration laws in Arizona. and Arizona decides under the Tenth Amendment. under the police powers of the State. to do it for the Federal Government. then it is wrong for that State to do it. But this administration will not take action against the sanctuary cities that are violating the same immigration laws. I want to continue with some examples where the administration refuses to work with local officials. Sheriff Cummings in Cape Cod. MA. recently explained his frustration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement when an immigrant who had overstayed his visa was arrested for battery with a dangerous weapon and child pornography. Sheriff Cummings said that when he learned that this individual who had a long criminal history was in the country illegally. he asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a Federal immigration detainer "so that if someone came up with a bail we could then turn him over to ICE and we wouldnt release him back into the community." So then what happened? ICEImmigration and Customs Enforcementnever issued the detainer. Sheriff Cummings noted that before PEP. immigration authorities would issue a detainer pretty quickly but not anymore. He commented: It just shows how theyve relaxed their policy so there are more criminal illegal aliens in our communities right now. Those are the ones Im concerned with. Im concerned with the individuals that have committed crimes.