[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 132 (Tuesday, December 5, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H8706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   URGING REFORM OF IMMIGRATION POLICY PERTAINING TO SANCTUARY CITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Sekula Gibbs) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SEKULA GIBBS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak regarding a 
subject that is very important to my constituents in Congressional 
District 22 of Texas and has great national interest as well. This 
consideration is regarding much needed reform on our Nation's 
immigration policies, especially those policies that regard such 
sanctuary cities, as they are known.
  As you are aware, my colleague from Texas, Congressman John 
Culberson, led a successful effort to place an amendment in a recent 
bill that passed the House of Representatives but has not come forward 
through the Senate, and this bill disallows Federal funding to those 
cities who do not provide information to Federal immigration officers 
regarding illegal aliens. Cities such as Houston, cities that operate 
under general orders such as that signed by a police chief, those 
orders that prevent police officers from asking about the immigration 
status of criminals who commit claim C misdemeanors. Such sanctuary 
policies have contributed to rising crime rates and to, unfortunately, 
deaths of police officers, such as the death of Police Officer Rodney 
Johnson in Houston, who was killed this year by an illegal immigrant, 
one who had been arrested three times and deported once but then 
subsequently returned to Texas.
  Americans are indeed saddened at the loss of our troops in the war in 
Iraq and also the war conducted across the world against terrorists. We 
have lost almost 2,900 troops in the war in Iraq. But this figure has 
to be placed into perspective. We have been given information by 
Representatives Steve King, Republican from Iowa, who used data from 
the Government Accountability Office, the Violent Crimes Institute of 
Atlanta, and AAA Foundation, that says that 12 Americans are murdered 
every day by illegal aliens and 13 Americans are estimated to be killed 
by illegal aliens who are driving while intoxicated. This gives us a 
total of almost 4,700 Americans who are murdered annually by illegal 
aliens. These statistics must not go unrecognized. They call out for 
action.
  Americans also are losing their property rights. Those rights are 
being trampled in favor of the rights of illegal aliens. Recently a 
jury awarded $210,000 in damages against a rancher who was attempting 
to protect his property against trespassing by individuals that he 
thought were illegal aliens but turned out not to be, but he was really 
attempting to defend his property. He will ultimately be required to 
pay $98,000 for trying to defend his property against trespassers. What 
about his rights? Ranchers have been put on notice that if they attempt 
to prevent armed trespassers from crossing their property, they could 
face financial ruin with charges of civil rights violations, especially 
if those trespassers happen to be illegal aliens.
  This is not right. Legal is legal and illegal is illegal. Illegal 
immigrants should not be accorded more rights than American citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a very important issue to the constituents in 
the congressional district in my part of Texas, Southeast Texas, 
District 22. Tackling the problem of illegal immigration will require 
full cooperation of all of our government resources, local, State, and 
Federal, and I call on this body to work diligently to help us solve 
this situation. We are all Americans and we must pull together to 
address difficult issues such as this. Taxpayers demand accountability 
from elected officials across our country, and they have made it clear 
that they will not tolerate uncooperative or inefficient use of 
government resources and their tax dollars.
  I would like to urge you to work hard to ensure that this important 
provision that deals with sanctuary city policies is included in any 
version of immigration bills that do progress into law through this 
body.

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