Speech #CREC-2017-02-06-pt3-PgS873-2_t14

They will consider all of that. We will see what they say. There is considerable power in the executive branch and the Presidency for making rules related to immigration. There is considerable power to take actions related to national security, but the design of this suggests serious constitutional problems, and two very capable lawyers--one, the acting AG for the United States of America and, second, a district court judge--have found it fails the test. I would like for us to have a nominee for Attorney General who would have the courage and convictions to stand up to a President when the President goes off track in violating the Constitution, and I am concerned that our nominee wouldn't reach the same courageous point of view that Sally Yates found or James Robart found. Even while noting that the courts are yet to ultimately decide, there are certainly heavy concerns that should be weighed intensely in this consideration, and I am not sure that would happen. In 2015, Senator Sessions, my colleague, our nominee, authored a bill that would automatically cut off Federal funding to sanctuary cities that refused to have their police officers act as agents of our immigration force, as ICE agents. Just today, I had the sheriff of Multnomah County in Oregon come and speak to me. He was formerly the police chief of our largest city--the city of Portland. What he conveyed was that if you have police officers pursue each person they interact with on the basis of immigration, pretty soon people in the community will not work with you to solve crimes, and you actually create enormous public safety risks for the citizens in Multnomah County. Numerous mayors have pointed this out; that if you see your police force as one that is continuously trying to be an immigration agent rather than a police officer and you are pursuing folks with profiling--stopping everyone in the Hispanic community--that pretty soon the Hispanic community folks don't want to talk to you. They will not help you solve the crimes that occur. The community becomes less safe.