“Sanctuary city policies needlessly endanger American lives by refusing to honor the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration laws,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said Thursday. “Unfortunately, the Obama Administration’s own foolish policies enable rogue local governments to defy federal immigration laws,” he added. “All too often, these reckless policies create preventable tragedies.”
Pelosi’s support for San Francisco as a sanctuary city comes as its policies are under fire for leading to Kathryn Steinle’s murder by an illegal immigrant with a long rap sheet who had been deported at least five times. Asked about the case and Republican calls for mandatory minimum sentences for illegal immigrants who reenter the U.S. after a prior deportation, Pelosi said she has not supported minimum sentences.
“While President Obama is visiting the federal prison in El Reno, I hope he will address the most pressing issue in criminal justice reform, which is the 347,000 convicted criminal immigrants living in our communities today largely due to the president’s lax immigration policies,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said in a statement.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials will begin visiting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries who received the illegal three-year work permits and have not yet returned them.
“Every day it seems there is more disturbing news about holes in our immigration system. There is no question that illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes should be entered into the Sex Offender Registry, but in reality they should be deported,” Barletta said in a statement to Breitbart News.
“You should understand that when Donald Trump said Mexican immigrants are criminals, what do I and other Puerto Ricans hear? I hear him saying all Puerto Ricans are criminals. And as far as Republicans are concerned, we all are,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez said. “And millions of others here, Hondurans and Dominicans. And it is clear to all of us what he is really saying is that all Latinos are suspect whether we were born here or not.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Republican Study Committee Chairman Bill Flores (R-TX), Sen Mike Lee (R-UT), House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and other conservatives pushed back against calls to bring the export-import bank — whose charter expired at the end of June — back to life.
CNN host John Walsh is highlighting that illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes have not been required to register as sex offenders.
CBP arrested Ignacio Luque Verdugo, a 31-year-old Mexican citizen, after he illegally entered the U.S. about three miles west of the Calexico, California port of entry on Friday morning. When CBP ran Luque’s information through law enforcement databases they discovered he was wanted, on an active felony warrant, for First Degree Murder in Colorado.
According to the Iowa lawmaker, the hearing will examine the breakdown of immigration enforcement under the Obama administration and the repercussions of lax immigration enforcement — specifically the impact on families victimized by illegal immigrant crime.
“Cities that refuse to comply with immigration officials and release dangerous criminals back into our communities put innocent American lives at risk,” Rep. Kevin Yoder says. “If these cities wish to continue to subvert the law they will do so without the support of American taxpayers. The heartbreaking tragedy in San Francisco was preventable and we must do everything we can to ensure that it never happens again,” he added.
Brooks pointed to estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center that American workers ceded 7.8 million jobs to illegal immigrants in 2009 and a 2013 Federation for American Immigration Reform estimate that illegals took 8.5 million jobs away from Americans. He added that studies point to wage suppression due to cheap illegal immigrant labor — pinning wages lost at about $800 a year for high school graduates and $2,300 lost in annual income for low-skilled labor.
“I’m sorry I do not know the answer to that question,” Johnson responded when asked by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) during a House Judiciary Committee hearing if the administration had reached out to Kathryn Steinle’s family. Chabot encouraged the administration to reach out to the Steinle family.
Gowdy sparred with the lone witness at the hearing, DHS Sec. Jeh Johnson over the release of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez — who later allegedly shot and killed Steinle — by the sanctuary city of San Francisco, pointing out that the multiple-felon, multiple-deportee illegal immigrant reveals a lack of control over the border.
In his opening statement during a House Judiciary Committee DHS oversight hearing Goodlatte revealed that from July 2012 to February 2015 the number of criminal immigrants — either in removal proceedings or with final orders of removals — on the streets has increased 28 percent. “Because of the failure by this and previous administrations to detain criminal aliens, and the failure to vigorously pursue fugitives, there are almost 180,000 convicted criminal aliens currently in removal proceedings who are living in our neighborhoods and almost 170,000 convicted criminal aliens who have been ordered removed yet are also living free.
According to new information provided to the Judiciary Committee by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and shared in advance of the hearing with Breitbart News, of the 30,558 criminal immigrants — convicted of 79,059 crimes — released last fiscal year, 1,423 went on to commute additional crimes after being released.
Johnson stressed that he is opposed to mandating detainer compliance. “I have said and I will say when I have to next testify before Congress on Tuesday that the best way to bring about what we want to do is through a cooperative relationship where we’re each agreeing to cooperate and partner with the other. I think that is the best and most effective way for us to do this.”
“If there are not ‘sanctuary cities’ then I suppose the multiple bills that have been introduced to cut off funding for sanctuary cities will be adopted unanimously?” Sen. Jeff Sessions spokesman Stephen Miller asked rhetorically in a statement to Breitbart News Monday.
ICE notes that the UACs who have been removed were under 18 at the time of their initial book-in but might have been under 18 at the time of removal. Further, the removal totals include those identified as UACs as far back as FY 2009 through 2014/2015. The numbers of UACs entering the U.S., however, dwarf those that have been removed.
A majority of likely voters say action should be taken against jurisdictions with sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey.
The Fifth Circuit is considering the Obama administration appeal of a district judge’s ruling halting the executive amnesty programs from moving forward — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).
CIS’ report, authored by Jessica Vaughan, reveals that 63 percent of the 8,145 released criminal immigrants — in 276 jurisdictions from January 1, 2014, to August 31, 2014 — had “serious prior criminal records” and a fourth had a prior felony charge or conviction.
According to data collected by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) in Fiscal Year 2009, 57,476 immigrants ICE sought to remove were allowed to stay. TRAC projects that by the end of FY 2015 the number of non-citizens allowed to stay despite ICE pushing for removal will be 100,012.
“President Obama’s executive amnesty program would prompt some of the most massive changes to national immigration law in history, all without any input from Congress or the American people. Federal lawyers today even acknowledged several times that this action constitutes a ‘significant policy enactment,’” Paxton, whose state of Texas is leading the coalition, said in a statement Friday.
The Obama administration’s lawyers are expected to face an uphill battle in arguing to allow the programs to move forward. The same panel of justices who heard an earlier emergency appeal to lift the lower court’s injunction are hearing Friday’s arguments on the totality of the lower court’s ruling.
