Rep. Calvert Votes to Enforce Immigration Laws
Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) joined a majority (241-179) of the House in approving the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act, H.R. 3009. Rep. Calvert is an original cosponsor of H.R. 3009, which will withhold federal law enforcement funding for states and localities that circumvent the federal government's efforts to enforce our immigration laws.
"Sanctuary cities make our immigration problems worse, not better, and Congress should take action to discourage them in any way it can," said Rep. Calvert. "The Obama administration's encouragement of sanctuary cities and failure to enforce our immigration laws is irresponsible and especially dangerous when it comes to the failure to deport criminal immigrants. It is my hope that the passage of this bill is only a start of Congressional action to strengthen the enforcement of our immigration laws."
Rep. Calvert spoke on the House floor in support of H.R. 3009. His full statement is below.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this bill and in support of American families.
This week we've heard powerful and heartbreaking stories from families who have lost a loved one at the hands of an illegal immigrant. Often times, these individuals were able to operate freely because of the sanctuary policies of certain U.S. cities – policies that ignore federal immigration law.
It is time this Congress put the lives and welfare of American citizens and legal residents first.
It is time to protect the innocent. This means not another Kate, Josh, Dennis, Danny, Grant, and countless others.
It is time to penalize cities that willfully ignore federal law to the detriment of citizens and legal residents.
I encourage my fellow Members to read the testimony from this week's Senate hearing. Read about the lives lost, the brutality of the crimes, the lack of remorse by the perpetrators, and the heartbreak of the families. Today we have a choice: protect fellow Americans or give sanctuary to criminal aliens. Thank you and I yield back my time.
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UPDATE: Rep. Calvert spoke in support of the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act, H.R. 3009, however, for unknown reasons the electronic vote device on the floor of the House failed to register his YES vote (which was made by inserting his voting card and pressing the yea button). Therefore, on the final vote tally, he is officially recorded as "Not Voting" even though he did in fact vote for the bill. Immediately prior to the vote on final passage, Rep. Calvert cast a vote against the Democratic Motion to Recommit. Rep. Calvert is recorded as voting on all the prior votes in the series.