John Rice Carter: “This amendment slashes immigration enforcement and will result in laying off many, many ICE agents and potentially…”

“This amendment slashes immigration enforcement and will result in laying off many, many ICE agents and potentially releasing dangerous criminal aliens from custody. Now, the gentleman's argument is interesting. His argument seems to be that if you fire the enforcing officers and legalize the criminals, you're not going to have a problem. Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, but that's not the way it operates. When you break the law, you have to face the consequences. And we need the enforcement officers to go out and assist us enforcing the law. Whether or not the immigration law is broken--I happen to agree that it is broken. We might not necessarily agree on how to fix it, but I agree that it is broken. Because I agree we have porous borders. But I believe the ICE people are doing the very best they can. Quite honestly, I'm shocked that the solution to a criminal problem is fire the law enforcement officers. And that's not good policy under anybody's thinking. Supposedly, those who object are not thinking straight. Well, I would argue the contrary is the case in this particular argument. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.”