Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, today the Senate is voting to achieve cloture on two bills that would improve the safety of our citizens and help ensure that foreign criminals convicted of a crime in the United States are no longer able to freely remain in our country.
This issue was brought to the Nation's attention with the tragic murder of Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed by Francisco Lopez- Sanchez as she walked along a San Francisco waterfront pier.
To be clear, this type of case is rare, but we should provide little lenience to convicted, repeat offenders that should not even be in the country.
This is not a debate about immigration reform. Francisco Lopez- Sanchez is not a representative of the immigrant community. He is a criminal and someone that should have been removed from the country when in the custody of the San Francisco's sheriff's department. For those that wish to defend this man or the policies that allowed him to stay here, I would recommend looking clearly at his criminal history and interactions with law enforcement while in the United States.
February 2, 1993: Lopez-Sanchez is convicted of felony heroin possession in Washington State criminal court and sentenced to 21 days in jail.
May 12, 1993: Lopez-Sanchez is convicted of felony narcotics manufacturing in Washington and sentenced to 9 months in jail.
November 2, 1993: Lopez-Sanchez is convicted of felony heroin possession in Pierce County, WA, and sentenced to 4 months in jail.
June 9, 1994: Lopez-Sanchez is convicted of misdemeanor imitation controlled substance in Multnomah, OR, and ordered to pay a fine.
June 10, 1994: Lopez-Sanchez is arrested by Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS, and convicted of a controlled substance violation and an aggravated felony. A Federal immigration judge orders him deported on June 20, and he is removed to Mexico.
July 14, 1994: Lopez-Sanchez illegally reenters the U.S. after his first deportation and falls into the hands of Arizona State authorities. His probation is revoked, and he is sentenced to 93 days in jail.
July 11, 1996: Lopez-Sanchez is arrested in Washington and convicted of felony heroin possession. He is sentenced to 12 months, plus 1 day in prison.
March 12, 1997: INS arrests Lopez-Sanchez on an order to show cause and charges him as a deportable alien because of his illegal reentry and his aggravated felony conviction. He is deported back to Mexico for the second time on April 4, 1997.
July 22, 1997: Lopez-Sanchez is arrested in Arizona for his first known act of violence on an assault and threatening/intimidation charge.
January 13, 1998: Lopez-Sanchez is arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents. Two days later, an immigration judge orders him removed, and he is deported for the third time on February 2 of that year.
February 8, 1998: Lopez-Sanchez illegally reenters the U.S. 6 days after his previous deportation, but is apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol.
September 3, 1998: He is convicted of felony reentry in U.S. District Court and sentenced to 63 months in prison.
February 20, 2003: Seemingly at the end of his prison sentence, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons hands Lopez-Sanchez over to INS. He is deported again to Mexico on March 6.
July 4, 2003: Lopez-Sanchez again illegally reenters the U.S. and is apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol, this time in Texas.
November 7, 2003: Lopez-Sanchez is convicted of two Federal charges: reentry after removal and violation of a supervised Federal release. He is sentenced to 51 months and 21 months for the charges, respectively.
June 29, 2009: After a lengthy prison sentence, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons hands Lopez-Sanchez over to ICE. He is immediately deported to Mexico.
September 20, 2009: Lopez-Sanchez again reenters the U.S. illegally. This time, he is arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Eagle Pass, TX.
October 14, 2009: A U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas files for a reindictment of Lopez-Sanchez for illegal reentry after removal. He is charged in September 2010 for violating Federal probation.
May 12, 2011: Lopez-Sanchez is sentenced to 46 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release for illegal reentry and probation violations. Two months later, ICE places a detainer request with the Bureau of Prisons upon his release from prison. In October 2013, ICE's Southern California Security Communities Support Center places a similar detainer request with the Bureau of Prisons.
March 26, 2015: After serving his sentence in Federal prison in Victorville, CA, Lopez-Sanchez is released and handed over directly to the San Francisco sheriff's department, which had a warrant out for felony sale of marijuana. The next day, ICE received an automatic electronic notification that Lopez-Sanchez had been placed into the custody of the San Francisco sheriff's department. ICE then placed a detainer request with the sheriff to be notified prior to Lopez- Sanchez's release.
April 15, 2015: The San Francisco sheriff's department releases Lopez-Sanchez from its custody without notifying ICE.
July 1, 2015: Lopez-Sanchez allegedly shoots Steinle on San Francisco's Pier 14 as she is walking with her father and a friend. Steinle dies. Lopez-Sanchez is arrested soon after.
As you can see, Lopez-Sanchez was apprehended and deported five times by Customs and Border Protection. The system failed Kate Steinle when San Francisco, a sanctuary city that refuses to cooperate with ICE, decided to release a convicted felon rather than contact DHS to have him deported to Mexico.
The bills we are voting on today would help prevent a similar tragedy from happening again. S. 2193 will provide a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence for any illegal immigrant who reenters the United States after having been convicted of an aggravated felony or after having been twice convicted of illegally reentering the United States. S. 3100 will withhold certain Federal funds from cities with sanctuary policies in an effort to convince these cities to allow their law enforcement to cooperate with Federal immigration officials.
I urge my colleagues to vote for cloture on these two bills to prevent a further tragedy like that suffered by the Steinle family.
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