Ed Royce: “This is an amendment supported by Chairman Lamar Smith, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The reason he and I are in…”

“This is an amendment supported by Chairman Lamar Smith, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The reason he and I are in support of this is because this amendment reduces the Office of the Secretary and Executive Management account by $1 million and increases funding for immigration and customs enforcement by $1 million in order to facilitate new agreements under the 287(g) program. This bill, this amendment, will provide for better enforcement of our immigration laws. {time} 1700 287(g) has been very successful. It allows State and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security to enforce immigration law. It was enacted back in 1996, and Congress implemented this program to give local communities help with illegal immigration in their area. A couple of points I would like to make, Mr. Chairman. There are maybe 5,000, 6,000 ICE agents in the United States. There are 650,000 State and local law enforcement officers--650,000. So the 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the country are much more likely to come into contact with local law enforcement than they are with an ICE agent. And for local law enforcement, it's important that they be properly trained so that they don't profile, don't discriminate, but properly identify those here illegally who are breaking our laws. Now, there is a backlog of cities that want 287(g) agreements, and what this legislation does is assist in covering that problem.…”