Washington, D.C. - Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act, H.R. 3009, by a vote of 241-179. Following his vote for passage, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce released this statement:
"Our nation's immigration system is broken, no one can deny that," stated Pearce. "However, the failures and flaws in our system are no excuse to actively break the law. On July 1, Kate Steinle was murdered on a San Francisco pier by an individual who not only had seven prior felony convictions, but had been deported five times. The individual was in custody in April, but was allowed to go free. Three months later, he killed Kate. This Administration must not continue to pay cities to actively skirt around our laws. Passage of this legislation today simply prioritizes federal assistance for communities that follow federal law."
"We in New Mexico know firsthand the challenges of our broken and outdated immigration system. I will continue to advocate and push for commonsense and simple immigration reforms that will make our nation a stronger, safer, better place: from increasing border security, to modernizing our visa process to ensure the system supports and benefits only those who follow the rules.
"Yet while we work to make our immigration system stronger for the future, I believe the laws on our books must be followed. All levels of the government should be responsible to follow and enforce the laws of our nation."
Background from the House Judiciary Committee:
- Problem: There are almost 180,000 convicted criminal aliens currently in removal proceedings living in the U.S. and almost 170,000 convicted criminal aliens who have been ordered removed also living free. Under the Obama Administration, the total number of such convicted criminal aliens who are not being detained has jumped 28% since 2012.
- The Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act cuts off specific federal grants for jurisdictions that have policies in place that prohibit or restrict communication with the Department of Homeland Security regarding an individual's citizenship or immigration status. The bill also strips away certain federal grants from jurisdictions that prohibit state or local law enforcement officials from gathering information about an individual's citizenship or immigration status.
- The federal grants that will be unavailable to sanctuary jurisdictions include the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants, and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne-JAG).