Chairman Goodlatte Floor Statement on H.R. 3009, the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act

Chairman Goodlatte: I support H.R. 3009, the “Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act” and commend Representative Hunter for introducing this legislation. It helps to address one of the main factors contributing to the collapse of immigration enforcement in the United States – “sanctuary cities” that prohibit their law enforcement officers from sharing information with federal immigration authorities to enable the removal of unlawful and criminal aliens.

Nearly 20 years ago, Congress realized that sanctuary cities were impeding the federal government from enforcing our immigration laws and jeopardizing the safety of their residents, immigrant and native-born alike.  Legislation co-written by former Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith, prohibited states and localities from becoming sanctuaries for unlawful aliens.  The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ensures that jurisdictions cannot prohibit or restrict government officials from sending to or receiving from federal immigration authorities information regarding the immigration status of any person.

Unfortunately, despite the proliferation of sanctuary jurisdictions, the Justice Department has never initiated a prosecution for violation of the 1996 Act.  If the Administration won’t act, Congress must.  And that is what Mr. Hunter’s bill does.  It withholds key federal law enforcement grants from sanctuary jurisdictions that violate the 1996 Act.  Enactment of Representative Hunter’s legislation will help persuade sanctuary jurisdictions to simply abide by current federal law and in so doing advance public safety.

Representative Hunter’s bill is an important first step.  But there is much more we will need to do to rebuild immigration enforcement in the United States.  Once jurisdictions notify DHS of arrested unlawful and criminal aliens, it is crucial that they hold these aliens for transfer so that DHS can launch removal proceedings.  The Center for Immigration Studies has revealed that in the first eight months of 2014, sanctuary cities refused to comply with DHS detainers for 8,145 aliens.  After releasing these aliens, in only an eight month period, 1,867 were arrested again for a criminal offense.  Most recently, San Francisco’s refusal to honor a DHS detainer resulted in the tragic death of Kathryn Steinle. 

This is why it is so important that jurisdictions honor DHS detainers.  In fact, just this morning we held a hearing in the Judiciary Committee where a representative from the Steinle family testified.  The conclusion of the witnesses was that we need to make crystal clear that compliance with ICE detainers is mandatory.  Yet, this Administration openly proclaims that detainers can be ignored and has chosen to dramatically scale back their issuance. 

This Administration has chosen to create enforcement free zones for millions of unlawful and criminal aliens.  It has turned the U.S. into a sanctuary nation.  That is the current reality.

Despite DHS’s pledge to prioritize the removal of serious criminal aliens, in the last year the number of administrative arrests of criminal aliens has fallen by a third.  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to release thousands of criminal aliens onto our streets – 30,558 in 2014, of which 1,423 have already been convicted of new crimes. 

There are almost 180,000 convicted criminal aliens currently in removal proceedings living in our neighborhoods 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.

We must prevent this or any other Administration from being able to turn off the switch on immigration enforcement.  Representative Gowdy, Chairman of the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee, has offered us a way forward – to ensure enforcement of our immigration laws despite the purposeful inaction of any Administration.  His legislation -- the ‘‘Michael Davis, Jr. and Danny Oliver in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement Act” -- allows states and localities to enact and enforce immigration laws of their own as long as they are consistent with federal law.  Jurisdictions could proactively take responsibility for protecting their communities and insuring the integrity of our immigration system. 

Today, we are making an important down payment on protecting our constituents, and I appreciate the Majority Leader’s commitment to me that we will take additional action to ensure compliance with our immigration laws in the future.  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3009, the “Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act.”