Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia, our
chairman, for his leadership on this, and I rise in strong support of
the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, which has been worked on by a whole
number of Members of the House. The adoption of dangerous sanctuary policies across the country makes
it more difficult to adequately enforce our immigration laws, which, in
turn, needlessly puts Americans' lives at risk. Unfortunately, sanctuary cities that fail to comply with Federal law
and deliberately refuse to cooperate with Federal authorities become
safe havens for undocumented criminal immigrants, because criminals
know they are less likely to be detained in those cities, which are, by
definition, sanctuary cities. Far too many innocent lives are put at risk when a criminal alien
convicted, for example, of drunk driving or charged with another
serious offense is not detained so they could be appropriately dealt
with and, if warranted, deported from our country according to the law. That is why it is essential that we pass this resolution, which will
strengthen our Nation's immigration laws, hold sanctuary cities
accountable, and enhance public safety by requiring detention of
criminal aliens. The bottom line is, if we expect our Federal immigration authorities
to enforce our Nation's immigration laws and protect the American
people, State and local officials need to cooperate, not defy Federal
immigration laws. And those local officials who refuse to do so and
instead give so-called sanctuary to those that have come to our country
illegally and then committed crimes here, they are putting the very
people who they were sworn to serve and to protect at risk. And
unfortunately, this has been happening all over the country, where
literally people come here illegally, commit crimes, and local entities
decide not to enforce the law.
Keywords matched
immigration undocumented immigrants deported sanctuary cities