Zoe Lofgren: “putting aside the fact that this amendment appears to be unconstitutional, and also putting aside--for discussion…”

“putting aside the fact that this amendment appears to be unconstitutional, and also putting aside--for discussion purposes--whether it is good for our country to have an entire class of people who are likely to live here their whole lives who are uneducated, I would just like to mention those in my county that opposed this provision when we had this discussion in California a few years back: our Republican sheriff opposed it, our Republican district attorney opposed it, the police chief opposed it, and the Chamber of Commerce opposed it. We know that most juvenile crime occurs between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., when kids are out of school and their parents are still at work. If we think we have trouble with juvenile crime now, try throwing several thousand kids out of school to hang around all day long and get into nothing but trouble. That is why our police chief opposes this. I urge Members to consider that aspect of this very ill-advised and, I would say, mean-spirited amendment.”