Political Quotes

“Mr. President, let me highlight the two biggest ones. The first one is that our legislation would somehow punish and make it more difficult for illegal persons to report crimes and cooperate with local law enforcement. That is a pure myth. What is the fact? Well, read the bill, as the American people suggest. Read the bill. Our bill, S. 2146, specifically provides that if a jurisdiction has a policy that local law enforcement will not inquire about the immigration status of crime victims or witnesses, such jurisdiction will not be deemed a sanctuary jurisdiction and it will not lose Federal funds over that. So that argument is simply a myth. The second argument often made is that somehow this legislation is requiring local law enforcement to carry out Federal immigration responsibilities. Again, that is a pure myth, a purely erroneous argument, and if we read the bill, S. 2146, we will see it is simply not true. The bill does not require local law enforcement ``to carry out Federal immigration responsibilities'' in any way, shape, or form. Removing illegal immigrants remains the exclusive province of the Federal Government. The bill simply withholds certain Federal funds from jurisdictions that prohibit exactly the cooperation that our opponents on the other side say is so necessary and correctly say is so necessary. So that, again, is the fact versus the myth that is being propagated.…”