Speech #1140056351

Mr. President. the American people have demanded for years that the Federal Government faithfully enforce our Nations immigration laws. Americans are tired of seeing their laws flouted and their communities plagued by the horrible crimes that typically accompany illegal immigration. But for too long. the pleas of the American people on this issue have gone unheeded here in Washington. See. when it comes to the problem of illegal immigration. the political class and the business classour Nations elitesare of one mind. They promise robust enforcement at some point in the future but only on the condition that the American people accept a pathway to citizenship now for the millions of illegal immigrants who are already in this country. Not wanting to be swindled. the American people wisely rejected this deal. which the Washington class calls "comprehensive immigration reform." Of course. the elites dont like this one bit. So instead. they have taken matters into their own hands. They bend or ignore the law to make it more difficult for immigration enforcement officers to do their job. We have seen this repeatedly with the Obama administration. President Obama has illegally granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants with no statutory authorization whatsoever. even though. before his reelection. the President assured the American people he couldnt do so without an act of Congress. As President Obama said. when asked whether he could grant amnesty. "I am not an emperor." Well. I agree with President Obama. But yet. just a few months after saying he couldnt do this because he was not an emperor. apparently he discovered he was an emperor. because he did precisely what he acknowledged he lacked the constitutional authority to do. Although the administration today claims to be focusing its resources on deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records. it has adopted a policy where many illegal immigrants that the administration deems to be lowpriority criminals will not be detained and deported but will be released back into our communities. Remarkably. in the year 2013 the Obama administration released from detention roughly 36.000 convicted criminal aliens who were actually awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings. These criminal aliens were responsible for 193 homicide convictions. They were responsible for 426 sexual assault convictions. 303 kidnapping convictions. 1.075 aggravated assault convictions. and 16.070 drunk driving convictions. All of this was on top of the additional 68.000 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions that the Federal Government encountered in 2013 but never took into custody for deportation. Dwell on those numbers for a moment. In 1 year. the Obama administration releases over 104.000 criminal illegal aliens. people who have come into this country illegally who have additional criminal convictionsmurderers. rapists. thieves. drunk drivers. One wonders what the administration says to the mother of a child lost to a murderer released by the Obama administration because they will not enforce the laws. One wonders what the Obama administration says to the child of a man killed by a drunk driver released by the Obama administration because they will not enforce our immigration laws. While this administrations refusal to enforce the laws is bad enough. the scandalously poor enforcement of our immigration laws is made much. much worse by the lawless actions of the roughly 340 socalled sanctuary jurisdictions across the country. Although these jurisdictions are more than happyeager. evento take Federal taxpayer dollars. they go out of their way to obstruct and impede Federal immigration enforcement by adopting policies that prohibit their law enforcement officers from cooperating with Federal officers. Some of the jurisdictions even refuse to honor requests from the Federal Government to temporarily hold a criminal alien until Federal officers can take custody of the individual. Not only are these sanctuary policies an affront to the rule of law. but they are extremely dangerous. According to a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies. between January 1 and September 30. 2014just a 9month periodsanctuary jurisdictions released 9.295 alien offenders who the Federal Government was seeking to deport. That is roughly 1.000 offenders a month that sanctuary jurisdictions released to the people. Now. of those 9.295. 62 percent had prior criminal histories or other public safety issues. Amazingly. to underscore just how dangerous this is to the citizenry. 2.320 of those criminal offenders were rearrested within the 9month period for committing new crimes after they had already been released by the sanctuary jurisdiction. If that doesnt embody lawlessness. it is difficult to imagine what doesjurisdictions that are releasing over and over criminal illegal aliens. many of them violent criminal illegal aliens. and exposing the citizens who live at home to additional public safety risk. to additional terrorist risk. This same study found that the Federal Government was unable to reapprehend the vast majority of the alien offenders released by the sanctuary jurisdictions69 percent as of last year. Even Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has admitted that these sanctuary policies are "unacceptable." "It is counterproductive to public safety." he said. "to have this level of resistance to working with our immigration enforcement personnel." I am thrilled to hear the Secretary of Homeland Security say so out loud. I assume that means that the Obama administration will be supporting the legislation before this body. After all. the Secretary of Homeland Security says it is "unacceptable." and that "it is counterproductive to public safety." Yet. sadly. the Obama administration is not supporting the legislation before this body. Indeed. it has taken the tragic and terrible death of Kate Steinle to galvanize action here in Washington. Kate died in the arms of her father on a San Francisco pier after being fatally shot by an illegal alien who had several felony convictions and had been deported from the United States multiple times. Her death is heartbreaking. In the Senate Judiciary Committee we had the opportunity to hear from Kate Steinles family. The heartbreak is even more appalling because Kates killer had been released from custody and not turned over to the Federal Government to be deported because of San Franciscos sanctuary policy. The city of San Francisco is proudly a sanctuary city. They say to illegal immigrants across the country and across the world: Come to San Francisco. We will protect you from Federal immigration laws. We. the elected democratic leaders of this city. welcome illegal immigrants. including violent criminal illegal immigrants such as the murderer who took Kate Steinles life. These policies are inexcusable. They are a threat to the public safety of the American people. and they need to end.