Ted Budd: “I appreciate my colleague's comments, and I believe them to be sincere. But let's not get lost in the swirl of eloquence…”

“I appreciate my colleague's comments, and I believe them to be sincere. But let's not get lost in the swirl of eloquence here. I believe my colleague once said that illegal immigrants are ``undocumented Americans''--a direct quote--and that they are ``the people we care about most''--another direct quote--but I would submit that if you illegally enter the United States and then beat up a police officer, you are most certainly not an American. And the only thing we should care about is that you are deported. Now, he said these laws can lead to deportation, but it is not necessary that they do particularly under this administration. I refer to my prior remarks: There have been a half million illegal immigrants--a half million--with criminal records that have come into the homeland, again, illegally. And it is no surprise that they can commit crimes against Americans. So this bill, which he seems to support--I am a little confused at the language. It seems like he might support this unanimous consent effort here because it is important because the current law does not cover all assaults against law enforcement. Deporting an illegal alien who assaults a law enforcement officer requires a complex legal analysis to prove that the illegal alien committed an aggravated felony or crime involving moral turpitude. It is not guaranteed that this process will even lead to deportation.…”