[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23904]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             SUPPORT THE CHARLIE NORWOOD CLEAR ACT OF 2007

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the Charlie 
Norwood CLEAR Act of 2007. Our late friend and colleague, 
Representative Charlie Norwood, introduced commonsense legislation to 
institute an efficient system, an efficient system, of identifying and 
detaining criminal aliens. Our good friend is gone, but his idea 
remains as viable today as it was the day that he first introduced it 
in the 108th Congress.
  There are 400,000 alien absconders in our country, with 285,000 
possessing criminal records. This bill targets those criminals by 
increasing Federal funds to local law enforcement agencies that need 
those funds, providing police that are on the beat with the resources 
they need and giving them the background, the information, to enforce 
immigration law.
  It also cuts funding to sanctuary cities which have enacted laws 
prohibiting local police from detaining and arresting criminal aliens. 
Most notably, it requires the Federal Government to take these criminal 
aliens into custody within 48 hours.
  Join me in supporting the Charlie Norwood CLEAR Act of 2007.

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