Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Chairman, the committee strongly supports the gentleman's amendment. It is entirely important and vitally important that the Congress defund the administration's unilateral attempt to bypass the laws of the United States and implement an amnesty program by Executive order. It's unacceptable. It violates the law.

As all of us in Texas know--I had brought with me tonight for this debate, because it's so important to remember, that the first image on the first coin of the Republic of Mexico states, liberty and law. There is a wonderful image of the liberty cap over the scales of Justice. It points out quite correctly, the Republic of Mexico's, the first coin they ever minted, that there can be no liberty without law enforcement.

We strongly support the gentleman's amendment. How vitally important it is that we restore law and order to the border, that we enforce the immigration laws in this country in a way that is evenhanded and fair and just, because only when the border is secure, only when the immigration laws are enforced, will we be able to actually have a healthy commerce with Mexico, will we be able to actually have a guest worker program with Mexico and allow people to come here legally to work so we can actually restore the back and forth trade that has made Texas and all the border States so prosperous.

We strongly support the gentleman's amendment and urge its adoption.

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Mr. CULBERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This amendment is common sense. The city of San Francisco, for example, officially declared itself an illegal alien sanctuary city by the Board of Supervisors in 1989, and now lawmakers are taking that a huge step further by actually creating legislation to grant illegal aliens official city identification cards.

The head of the Public Information Office of the National Association of Chiefs of Police reports that in California, illegal aliens in San Francisco are being assured through costly Spanish language advertising campaigns that they will never be reported to Federal law enforcement agents such as ICE, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or Homeland Security investigation, or the U.S. Border Patrol, or any other Federal agency that could initiate the deportation process. That's a direct violation of the Federal law that the gentleman from Pennsylvania just read.

I'm proud to coauthor this amendment with my friend from Pennsylvania because he's exactly right. This amendment will save lives.

If a local law enforcement agency refuses to follow Federal law, they should not expect to be rewarded with Federal grant money, and that's what this amendment would do--cut off Federal grant money to sanctuary cities across America. I suspect you'll see them repeal their sanctuary city policy very rapidly when they discover they don't have access to Federal money.

Most recently, in the city of San Francisco, a renowned gang member, a member of the MS 13 gang, was just convicted for three first-degree murders in 2008. A father and two sons were murdered by this illegal alien who had multiple run-ins with law enforcement authorities in San Francisco. But because of the sanctuary city policy in San Francisco, he was not deported.

I urge the Members of the House to support the gentleman's amendment. This amendment will save lives.

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