Marsha Blackburn: “I thank the gentleman from Virginia for so consistently working on this issue of how we deal with the criminal illegal…”

“I thank the gentleman from Virginia for so consistently working on this issue of how we deal with the criminal illegal alien population and also with the sanctuary cities. I thank Mr. Hunter for the work that he has done on this bill. I chuckled when Congressman King and the gentleman from Iowa mentioned the second generation of Hunters because, yes, we do know that his father was very involved in this issue and focusing on making certain that we keep our cities safe. As we have this debate and as we look at these sanctuary city policies that certain counties and cities and State have exercised, we have come to realize that through the years, every State has become a border State and every town a border town because of the criminal illegal alien population that will gravitate to these sanctuary cities. Los Angeles was the first sanctuary city in 1979. We hear people say, Oh, this is an issue that has been around for a long time. Mr. Speaker, that does not mean you do not address the issue. It means you solve the problem; you bring forward solutions, and that is what we are doing here today. The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently released some data that I think is instructive to this debate. Illegal aliens accounted for almost 75 percent of Federal sentencing for drug possession and made up more than a third of all Federal sentences in 2014. That is why we are dealing with this issue.…”