Zoe Lofgren: “We have an immigration system that is badly broken. There are 11 million undocumented people in this country. Contrary…”

“We have an immigration system that is badly broken. There are 11 million undocumented people in this country. Contrary to what Donald Trump may think, the majority of these people are not rapists. They are hard-working people, spouses and parents of U.S. citizens, DREAMers, entrepreneurs who want an opportunity to come forward, submit to background checks, and become fully American. Faced with a broken system, State and local law enforcement have adopted policies to enhance public safety and maintain community trust. Because when people are afraid of the police, when they are afraid that the police might ask them or their family about their immigration status, they are afraid to report crimes, unlikely to cooperate with investigations, and then criminals thrive and the general public suffers. This bill puts an impossible choice between State and local law enforcement agencies. They can either abandon policies that work or they can lose the Federal funds they rely on to police their communities and protect them. The dangers posed by this bill are real. 144 national, State, and local advocacy organizations have written opposing this bill because of the detrimental impact it would have on public safety, big cities, but also little ones like Dayton, Ohio, a place that most people don't think of as a sanctuary city. In Dayton, police officers are told not to check immigration status of witnesses and victims, nor to ask about immigration during minor traffic stops.…”