The House Appropriations Committee today marked up the DHS appropriations bill before taking a 30-22 party-line vote to pass it out of committee. Democratic amendments which were offered but voted down or withdrawn included provisions to cut CBP and ICE funding, to protect DACA, to prohibit ICE raids in sensitive locations, to prohibit the removal of immigrant parents with US citizen children, and more. The bill includes $1.6 billion for the construction of a border wall and $4.4 billion for increased immigration enforcement and detention — which mirror what Donald Trump wanted in his budget request.
In a statement during the markup, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) spoke strongly against the bill, criticizing the money it devotes to increased immigration enforcement, the total lack of discretion involved in targeting immigrants, and the decreased community safety that has come from immigrants being afraid of the police. She also spoke about how America is a country built on immigrants, described her own family history, and sought to give a lesson on prosecutorial discretion and why it’s important to focus deportation resources only on those who deserve to be removed. You can read her full statement here; excerpts follow below.
On how the appropriations bill would lead to increased immigration enforcement against communities and decreased public safety:
Because of the administration’s claim that it is a matter of national security, this bill recommends a $705 million increase for US interior immigration enforcement, supporting 44,000 detention beds – an increase of 10,000 above last year – and the hiring of one thousand additional ICE agents and officers to focus primarily on interior enforcement.
There is certainly no disagreement we should be removing dangerous individuals. However, ICE’s interior enforcement is targeting the parents of unaccompanied children seeking asylum. It is targeting people who have lived, worked, and paid taxes in this country for years or even decades, with no criminal infractions. As a result, ICE interior arrests of non-criminals are up 157 percent over last year.
These arrests are not required for our national security or public safety. And they are having tragic consequences for individuals, families, and communities all over our nation. Many in law enforcement tell us people are afraid to report serious crimes and are less willing to come forward as witnesses to crimes. Teachers tell me that immigrant and United States citizen children alike are afraid to go to school, or to go out and play, for fear their parents will be gone when they return home.
The trauma that is being inflicted on entire communities throughout our country cannot be overstated. The only solution to this problem is comprehensive immigration reform…
Being in this country illegally is a civil violation. We should not be spending excessive amounts of money for civil immigration enforcement at the expense of dangerous criminal and terrorist threats.
On how immigrants make America great and how Trump’s anti-immigrant policies are working against America:
Most of you in this room have family histories of immigrants who came here with little money and little more than the clothing on their backs. They lived with cousins or other relatives until they could find a job and eventually afford a place of their own. If the current administration’s policies were in place when most American families first came to this land, few would have been allowed to enter the United States, and many us would not be here today.
My family’s history is a little different. My father, Edward Roybal, served in this House for thirty years. He was a member of this committee, and a cardinal. He was born in 1916 to the Roybal family, which traces back its roots in this country eight generations. But the Roybals never came to the United States; rather, the United States came to the Roybals, when the part of Mexico they settled in became a US territory, and in 1912, the state of New Mexico. The US also came to my mother’s family – to the part of Mexico today known as San Diego, California.
But no matter how we became Americans, the fact is that most of our families came here from somewhere else. The contributions of past newcomers helped make our country the greatest nation in the world, and today’s immigrants keep America great.
On prosecutorial discretion and why the Trump Administration should use it to protect immigrants who have done nothing to deserve deportation:
[In the 1920s], discretion was given to immigration officials to suspend deportations in “meritorious” cases, and Congress created policies allowing many European immigrants in the US without proper authorization to legalize their status. These rules made it possible for millions of people to come to and remain in the United States and have the opportunity to realize the American Dream. Today’s immigrants deserve no less…
The administration has said, “The law is the law, and we must enforce it without discretion.” Mr. Chairman, just as was true nearly a century ago, our immigration policies are as much a moral question as they are a legal one. Just as other law enforcement agencies have discretion on how to enforce our laws, so do agencies like ICE in the Department of Homeland Security. And just as former members of Congress exercised discretion regarding policies impacting European immigrants, members of this committee have discretion in how to vote on policies impacting immigrants of today.
I am not making an argument for open borders or the elimination of immigration laws. What I am trying to convey is my hope that as we work together to find the right balance between the legal and moral aspects of immigration enforcement, we do so with the same compassion and guided by the same moral compass for today’s immigrants, many of whom are escaping the same kinds of tragic circumstances as those we welcomed in the past. How can we not take into consideration our impact on real people, who, but for different policies of the past or a different drawing of a border, could be you or me?
