Speech #CREC-2017-09-14-pt1-PgH7387-2_t57

If a nun, through her work, interacts with a potential gang member, she, by the context of this bill, could be a gang member. It is not accidental that the Catholic bishops and the nuns have written to oppose this bill. The harboring provisions are so sweeping, the religious workers who provide shelter, transportation, or support to undocumented immigrants could be found liable of criminal activity. And this is not transportation across the U.S. border. This is transportation to work or to English lesson classes. It is incredibly concerning that it would subject people who have never committed a crime, never been arrested, never been indicted, to deportation; and it would apply retroactively. Indeed, mere suspicion of involvement in harboring could classify individuals as gang members. So it is very obvious here that humanitarian exemption is needed, but that is not the only concern with this bill language. The overly broad definition would empower immigrant authorities to conduct dragnet sweeps of Latino communities and other communities of color. Media reports make it clear that law enforcement has recently relied on questionable and unreliable evidence to assert that Latino individuals are gang members, including wearing certain kinds of clothes or doodling in an area code from a Latin American country on a school notebook. Officers have alleged gang membership sometimes based on merely being seen with people who are alleged gang members or living in neighborhoods known to suffer gang activity.