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Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act because we have got to stop the madness of not enforcing our laws.
In the last weeks, we have seen coverage of two terrible murders that occurred because our laws went unenforced. My thoughts, prayers, and condolences go out to the families of the victims. Sadly, these tragedies are but a representation of a larger, deeper, and more troubling problem.
While I wish today we were also considering legislation by Mr. Gowdy to address the administration's abysmal lack of respect for our immigration laws,
Chairman McCaul's bill to secure the borders, or Chairman Lamar Smith's bill to implement E-Verify to stop businesses from exploiting undocumented workers, this bill is a step in the right direction. It will stop the American people from subsidizing local law enforcement departments that refuse to do their jobs and enforce the law.
Let's take the emotion out of this. Let's take it out of the immigration and border security issue, which are emotionally charged. This is a fiscally responsible bill. If we were spending money for a defense contractor to develop a new weapons system and they weren't developing that weapons system, we would take the money back.
Well, here we are, giving money to law enforcement to work with ICE to deal with criminal aliens, and they are not doing it. Of course, we have got to take the money back. It would be foolish to do anything else.
Mr. Speaker, this horrible loss of life that we have seen is a result of the negligence and complete lack of respect for the rule of law that this administration and the mayors of sanctuary cities took an oath to uphold. It is appalling. Today, we are going to be able to deal with one part of that problem, and I am going to encourage all of my colleagues to vote with me to support H.R. 3009 and put our Nation back on the path to sanity.
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