In advance of a critical vote Monday on a border security deal offered by Republican Sens. Bob Coker and John Hoeven, the president of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement union urged senators to vote ‘no’ on the amendment.
National ICE Council President Chris Crane issued an aggressive statement calling on lawmakers to vote “no” on the amendment to the Senate’s immigration reform bill and called out Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio for misleading law enforcement on promises of more interior enforcement.
“Senator Corker — a lead sponsor of the 1,200 page amendment being voted on today — has admitted that needed interior enforcement provisions are absent. Senator Rubio, who promised ICE officers and Sheriffs that he would take steps to repair the bill’s provisions that gut interior enforcement, has abandoned that commitment,” Crane said. “He directly misled law enforcement officers.”
On Thursday, Corker said that he had wanted to add more interior enforcement but was unable to, Politico reported, speculating that objections from Democratic senators and the White House might have prevented it.
“I do wish this amendment had some other measures relative to interior security, but I think the House can improve this,” Politico quoted Corker. “I think a conference can improve this. So I hope we have the opportunity down the road to see that occur.”
According to Crane, Rubio admitted to law enforcement in private the legislation was flawed but did nothing to change it.
“Senator Rubio left unchanged legislation that he himself admitted to us in private was detrimentally flawed and must be changed,” Crane said. “Legislation written behind closed doors by handpicked special interest groups which put their political agendas and financial gains before sound and effective law and the welfare and safety of the American public. As a result, the 1,200 page substitute bill before the Senate will provide instant legalization and a path to citizenship to gang members and other dangerous criminal aliens, and handcuff ICE officers from enforcing immigration laws in the future. It provides no means of effectively enforcing visa overstays which account for almost half of the nation’s illegal immigration crisis.”
Crane continued, charging the legislation will empower political appointees and leave ICE agents unable to do their jobs, all the while endangering public safety and ensuring future illegal immigration.
“Abuses by political appointees, who currently pick and choose which laws enacted by Congress will or will not be enforced, will escalate with their increased discretion and authority provided by this bill. This bill avoided every significant problem with our broken immigration system that should have been addressed, and instead became a wish list for special interest groups representing and profiting from illegal immigrants,” he said.
“Regretfully, the months of talking points by the Gang of Eight do not accurately reflect the content of this bill. This bill will not only fail; it will worsen the broken system we now have. It should not be allowed to pass the Senate for the House of Representatives to ‘hopefully’ fix later as Senator Corker has suggested.”
Crane further called on the Senate to vote “no” on Corker-Hoeven and to renew their effort to find a solution to the nation’s immigration woes.
“Either good faith debate must continue until further amendments can be made to dramatically improve the legislation, or if forced to vote today, on behalf their constituents, Senators must vote no on this 1,200 page substitute bill,” he said. “Far from fixing the bill, the Corker-Hoeven Amendment makes it worse. A vote against this bill is not a vote against the immigration reform which we all seek. It’s a vote against bad legislation and the special interests that wrote it; it’s a vote to start this process anew and create reforms that truly fix the nation’s broken immigration system.”
A spokesman for Sen. Rubio did not immediately respond to a late night request from The Daily Caller for comment.
