Roll call: House votes down amendment to crack down on illegal immigrants

On June 24, by a vote of 102 to 322, the House voted down an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act (H.R. 2555) sponsored by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.). The amendment would have prohibited any Homeland Security funding tied to immigration enforcement from going to states and localities that refuse to enforce immigration laws.

Many cities have passed laws to protect illegal immigrants by restricting the information they will share with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs (formerly INS) regarding the citizenship or immigration status of those arrested. These localities were encouraged to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

In other words, this amendment was an attempt to hold these entities accountable for making all Americans less safe by unlawfully allowing illegal aliens to continue staying in America without proper status. It was thwarted by every House Democrat, 122 Republicans and one Independent.

Tancredo pointed out the fact that cities, counties and other entities apply for federal funds under the act and simultaneously pass legislation preventing their local law enforcement agencies from sharing or obtaining information from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R.-Md.) alluded to the fact that the mayor of San Francisco once instructed city police officers not to give information to INS, a clear violation of the law.

"No evil thing is going to happen to any city or any jurisdiction if they just follow the law," Bartlett said. "When you do not follow the law, you end up in jail if you are an ordinary citizen. All this amendment says is if they do not follow the law that has now been in effect for seven years, they are not going to get any money, and I think that is a very reasonable thing. I do not think there will be any violations of the law because they clearly want the money."

However, liberals like Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D.-III.) completely misconstrued the point of the amendment.

"The President acknowledged that we have to do something about undocumented workers in this country," Gutierrez said. "There are eight to 10 million undocumented workers, and this is an attempt to deny them and their children education and to deny the police to protect them. That is what this is really all about."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D.-N.Y.) weighed in heavily against the amendment.

"What this amendment does," he said, "is say that most large cities in the country will get no funds to use to protect themselves against the terrorists because they were not in compliance with a specific provision of the immigration law."

Of course, this problem could easily be avoided if those same large cities were to simply comply with the laws already in place.

A "yes" vote was a vote in favor of Rep. Tancredo's amendment to cut special Homeland Security funds tied to immigration enforcement for cities and other entities who refuse to reveal illegal immigrant information to the Bureau of Immigrations and Customs. A "no" vote was in opposition to the amendment and in favor of continuation of law infractions by these entities.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jul 21, 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved