Watch Rep. Culberson’s floor remarks here.
Rep. Culberson: “If a local law enforcement agency refuses to follow federal law, they should not expect to be rewarded with federal grant money”
Washington, DC – Rep. John Culberson (TX-07) cosponsored an amendment to H.R. 5855, the FY2013 Homeland Security Appropriations bill that would prohibit funds from going to cities and towns that do not enforce federal immigration law. The Barletta-Walsh-Schweikert-Culberson-King Amendment passed the House by a voice vote.
Rep. Culberson offered the following remarks on the House floor:
“This amendment is common sense. The city of San Francisco, for example, officially declared itself an illegal alien sanctuary city by the Board of Supervisors in 1989, and now lawmakers are taking that a huge step further by actually creating legislation to grant illegal aliens official city identification cards.
“The head of the Public Information Office of the National Association of Chiefs of Police reports that in California, illegal aliens in San Francisco are being assured through costly Spanish language advertising campaigns that they will never be reported to federal law enforcement agents such as ICE, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or Homeland Security investigation, or the U.S. Border Patrol, or any other federal agency that could initiate the deportation process. That’s a direct violation of the federal law that the gentleman from Pennsylvania just read.
“I’m proud to coauthor this amendment with my friend from Pennsylvania because he’s exactly right. This amendment will save lives.
“If a local law enforcement agency refuses to follow federal law, they should not expect to be rewarded with federal grant money, and that’s what this amendment would do–cut off federal grant money to sanctuary cities across America. I suspect you’ll see them repeal their sanctuary city policy very rapidly when they discover they don’t have access to federal money.
“Most recently, in the city of San Francisco, a renowned gang member, a member of the MS 13 gang, was just convicted for three first-degree murders in 2008. A father and two sons were murdered by this illegal alien who had multiple run-ins with law enforcement authorities in San Francisco. But because of the sanctuary city policy in San Francisco, he was not deported.
“I urge the Members of the House to support the gentleman’s amendment. This amendment will save lives.”
