Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill. The bill is part of a larger mass deportation bill marked up by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. I think the message it is intended to convey is that this bill is needed to keep us safe. We have heard the sad story of the murder of Kate Steinle, which was not news to any of us in northern California. That was a horrible murder, and the fact is, this bill would not have prevented that murder. The offender had been deported multiple times. He had served 16 years in Federal prison, so the idea that the 10-year enhancement would have somehow fixed this is just misplaced. When we talk about the bill, it is as if we don't have harsh penalties now for misbehavior in the law. If you take a look at the enhancements, it expands criminal sentences for individuals who reenter the country after removal. We already have very strong penalties against that. To say that this bill will keep us safe because, for example, we have a 20-year--under current law, a 20-year sentence for a conviction for an aggravated felony, this would raise it to 25; I don't think that is going to fix this problem. If it were only that, we could have a discussion which, unfortunately, we never did on a bipartisan basis. The bill does other things that are very damaging.…”