Just this week, I met with actual police officers who asked me to do
what I could to defeat this unwise bill. They know, because they are
out on the front lines, that gangs are a real problem, and they told me
that bills like this, which could turn religious individuals, nuns,
cancer victims into targets, is just going to get in their way as
police officers. If we want to keep America safe and admit immigrants who do not have
a felony record, I would suggest that we consider the bipartisan Dream
Act, H.R. 3440. This bill would provide a path to legal permanent
residence for 800,000 young people who were raised in America, who
consider this to be their home, who represent the very best of our
country. Instead of debating whether we should allow ICE officers to target
religious workers, we should focus on what really makes this country
great. I would like to note that there has been much discussion about the
drafting of this bill, and at the Rules Committee just last night,
Republicans defended the bill by asserting that the broad provisions
would not be abused by ICE officers. Even if they could target the
nuns, they wouldn't do that. Even if they could target the cancer
victims or the teenagers smoking marijuana after school as gang
members, they wouldn't do that.
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