Weak border bill threatens to undermine GOP’s wall promises

Article author: 
Daniel Horowitz, Nate Madden
Article publisher: 
Conservative Review
Article date: 
19 May 2017
Article category: 
National News
Medium
Article Body: 
The GOP-controlled Congress took a step forward in keeping its immigration promises to the American people with broader interior enforcement. However, it needs to catch up to the same level of strength when it comes to border security. 

Moreover, they need to demonstrate that, unlike during last Congress, they are actually serious about getting bicameral support and not just allow it to die in committee. 

The Davis-Oliver Act, introduced in the current session by Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is a game-changer for empowering law enforcement to protect our sovereignty. An identical bill passed the House Judiciary Committee during last Congress, and passed again this Thursday.

Long decried as a “mass deportation” measure by its detractors, the bill is focused on interior enforcement of America’s immigration laws.

It does such things as strip the ability of the president to get around immigration enforcement, beefs up ICE’s detention and deportation powers, deputizes states to enforce immigration laws, bolsters expedited deportations, expands requirements to deport criminal aliens, defunds sanctuary cities, and imposes measures to better prevent and address visa overstays...

“The Davis-Oliver Act is a meaningful interior enforcement bill that gives federal, state, and local law enforcement the tools they need to remove illegal aliens from the interior of the country,” Dave Ray, communications director for Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), tells Conservative Review.

“If this bill becomes law, it will prevent future administrations from creating the lawless environment that was rampant under the Obama administration where meaningful interior enforcement was gutted and tens of thousands of criminal aliens freely roamed the streets of our nation.”...

Among some of the other provisions of the Davis-Oliver bill:

  • Overturns the Zadvydas v. Davis Supreme Court case that Obama has used as an excuse to release criminal aliens after six months of detention 
  • Explicitly deputizes the states to enforce federal immigration law
  • Eliminates sanctuary cities by cutting off DHS and DOJ law enforcement grants
  • Expedites deportation of gang members
  • Applies the ramifications of treating illegal aliens as criminal aliens to those convicted of drunk driving
  • Clamps down on loopholes that allow legal immigrants who commit crimes to continue on the path to citizenship instead of getting deported...
 
Meanwhile, things aren’t looking so good for the GOP’s imminent border bill — at least for now. Reports say Texas Republicans Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Mike McCaul have been working on border security legislation in recent days, drawing fire from immigration hawks.
 
It’s “the same stuff they’ve been peddling for a long time, which doesn’t have any teeth in it,” FAIR spokesman Ira Melhman told Breitbart News. “This was what they were trying to sell [in 2013] to make the ‘Gang of Eight’ more palatable to the public.”...