Ranking Member Raskin: Trump's DIversion of Local Law Enforcement Harms Public Safety

[0:00] Mr. Chairman, and thanks to all of our witnesses [0:02] for being with us today. [0:04] I especially wanna thank Mr. Abraham and Mrs. Gorman [0:07] for coming to speak about their beloved daughters [0:09] who were criminally and savagely stolen away [0:12] from their families. [0:14] As a father, I too know the pain and devastation [0:17] of losing a child, and my heart goes out to you [0:19] and to your families. [0:23] Anyone who commits a crime must be held accountable [0:25] swiftly and completely. [0:27] And immigrants, whether lawful or undocumented, [0:30] who commit violent crimes must be deported [0:32] at the end of their criminal sentences. [0:34] Furthermore, we must end the polarization [0:37] and dysfunction in Congress, [0:39] so we can pass comprehensive, [0:41] common sense immigration reform. [0:43] We need to make it a whole lot harder [0:45] for people to enter the United States unlawfully, [0:48] and a whole lot easier to enter the United States legally. [0:52] Can we agree to an agenda around that? [0:55] And yet, instead of working with us [0:57] on basic common sense reforms to make dreamers, [0:59] lawful residents, to fortify the border, [1:02] to expand the categories for admission of lawful immigrants, [1:05] and to make sure DHS and ICE are properly focused [1:08] on following the law and pursuing their basic self-proclaimed mission [1:12] of keeping us safe from the worst of the worst, [1:15] our colleagues are conducting an endless series of hearings [1:18] on sanctuary cities. [1:20] This is our fourth such hearing. [1:22] And I'm not sure Republicans have even come to any agreement [1:26] on what they mean when they use that spooky term. [1:30] Last year, Trump's Department of Homeland Security published a list [1:33] of nearly 400 counties that it classified as sanctuary jurisdictions. [1:39] This caused an uproar with dozens of conservative sheriffs across the country. [1:44] Their counties were named sanctuary jurisdictions simply because they had strong policies [1:50] on upholding states' rights and rejecting unfunded federal mandates and strong policies [1:56] against conscripting state and local officers to execute federal duties. [2:02] Stunned by this response, DHS removed the list days after it was published [2:08] because a list of sanctuary jurisdictions defying the feds could not possibly include [2:13] so many conservative sheriffs from red counties who drew a strict line around [2:18] on how much of their locally raised tax revenues and resources they should have to spend carrying [2:24] out the federal government's immigration enforcement agenda [2:28] and other constitutional responsibilities when the federal government has a budget far larger [2:33] than they do. [2:34] Well, this was a telling collision between Republicans and Republicans. [2:38] For decades, conservatives argued that the federal government could not impose unfunded [2:43] federal mandates on localities or boss around state and local officials to force them [2:50] to do the work of federal officers charged with enforcing federal laws. [2:54] They even succeeded in the Prince case in 1977 to convince a conservative Supreme Court majority [3:01] to hold that the Tenth Amendment invalidated a provision in the Brady Handgun Control Act, [3:07] which purported to compel sheriffs and police chiefs to conduct background searches on prospective [3:15] gun buyers. [3:16] Justice Antolin Scalia found for the majority, a 5-4 majority, that this provision violated the [3:24] Tenth Amendment, which prevents the federal government, he said, from commandeering state and [3:29] local officers to use their official time and their local resources to implement unfunded [3:36] federal mandates under the direction of federal officers. [3:40] Justice Scalia asserted that this constitutional prohibition in the Tenth Amendment was categorical. [3:46] He was unmoved by the heartfelt claims that the failure to integrate local sheriffs and local [3:51] police into the federal machinery of drug policy, of gun policy enforcement, would result in [3:58] more gun violence, more death, and more injury. [4:01] The feds must enforce their own laws, Justice Scalia said. [4:06] So this is precisely the same mistake which I think our friends across the aisle are making [4:11] here. [4:12] They have been told by the people who have gone from some of the jurisdictions, dragooned into [4:14] Congress on their official time and their official salaries to participate in this endless [4:20] sequence of repetitive hearings that they would notify and they do notify federal authorities [4:26] of when any immigrant prisoner is set to be released from local jail. [4:32] And if asked, they arrange for them to be picked up and handed over right away to immigration authorities. [4:39] No jurisdiction has given them a problem about that. [4:41] But what the ones who have appeared before us say they cannot do is hold such prisoners [4:46] beyond the length of their judicial sentences for the convenience of federal officials, [4:53] both because this practice turns state and local officials into de facto federal workers, [4:59] as Justice Scalia said you can't do, reporting to ICE or the Department of Homeland Security [5:04] instead of reporting to their own courts, and also because they say, and certainly the [5:09] people from Virginia who showed up at the last such hearing said they have no constitutional [5:13] authority under due process or habeas corpus law to hold prisoners without arrest, prosecution, [5:21] and conviction. [5:22] So the position they've taken, which doesn't seem at least to be unreasonable or deranged, [5:28] is simply they're very happy to work with the feds to turn people over before their sentences [5:34] are completed, but after their sentences are completed they can't hold them. [5:38] So why are our colleagues so desperate to keep pulling this boogeyman of the sanctuary jurisdictions [5:44] out of the closet? [5:46] Well perhaps it has to do with the fact that they voted to give DHS more than a quarter [5:50] of a trillion dollars to improve immigration enforcement, and America has watched as the [5:57] Department of Homeland Security has used this staggering pile of money to waste on luxurious [6:04] private jets for the secretary, complete with bedrooms and bars, on overpriced and ultimately [6:11] useless industrial warehouses to detain human beings that are now being sold off at a massive [6:16] loss to the taxpayers, on a glitzy $220 million public relations horseback photoshoot and ad campaign [6:26] for a glamorous Department of Homeland Security secretary who called the slain citizens Alex [6:32] Preddy and Renee Good terrorists. [6:37] Mega Republicans have done nothing as ICE has abused hundreds of billions of dollars to arrest, [6:42] beat up, shoot, and even kill American citizens for exercising their First and Second Amendment [6:47] rights. [6:48] It's about ICE to ignore its duty, to keep us safe from the worst of the worst, and instead [6:53] gone after kids and parents coming home from kindergarten, rape survivors who just finished [6:58] testifying in court, and volunteers at Catholic Church soup kitchens. [7:03] ICE's indiscriminate and chaotic immigration enforcement has also undermined the ability of [7:09] state and local prosecutors and law enforcement to keep their own communities safe and to deliver [7:14] justice to victims of crime. [7:17] They are deporting crime victims as well as key witnesses and informants without any notice [7:22] to state or local police and prosecutors. [7:24] As a result, investigations are being thwarted, criminal trials are being thrown into disarray, [7:30] and American communities are less safe. [7:33] House Judiciary Democrats put out a report called Acquitted by Removal, how Trump's mass deportation [7:38] agenda abandons crime victims and allows the perpetrators to avoid justice, which I recommend [7:44] that all of you check out. [7:46] Not only is DHS not making our communities safer, it's making us worse off. [7:50] A recent study found that the metro areas most targeted by ICE in both red and blue states [7:55] had suffered losses of nearly 670,000 jobs, up to 44 percent of which were held by American [8:02] citizens. [8:03] The immigration roundup is profoundly costly to our communities. [8:09] The administration's attacks on so-called sanctuary jurisdictions are hurting Americans from all walks [8:14] of life. [8:15] One can only regard with amazement the fact that rather than own up to this disastrous record, [8:21] my colleagues are trying to change the subject and blame the failures of the Department of [8:25] Homeland Security, not on Kristi Noem and her dysfunctional accomplices and successors, [8:31] but on the state and local jurisdictions, which did not create the problem, have no real power [8:35] to address it and are constitutionally protected from being impressed into service, as Justice [8:40] Scalia said, by an illegal commandeering policy passed by Congress. [8:45] DHS has a quarter of a million employees in a budget larger than that of 150 countries on [8:52] earth. [8:53] It has over 80,000 sworn law enforcement officers, more than the number of officers in New York, [8:57] Chicago, L.A., Houston, D.C., Las Vegas, and Dallas combined. [9:02] But despite all of that, our colleagues think that state and local jurisdictions should be [9:06] using their money and their funds to do the Department of Homeland Security job for them. [9:11] If our colleagues are serious about public safety, they should join us in imposing guardrails [9:16] on ICE to refocus their energy on going after the worst of the worst and to ensure that they [9:20] respect the fundamental rights of every U.S. citizen. [9:23] They should reinvest in public safety programs that the administration has cut, that supported [9:28] local law enforcement, assisted victims of crime, and gone after organized crime drug traffickers. [9:34] And they should push back on the president's shocking abuse of the pardon power, which has [9:39] allowed drug traffickers and international narco-dealers and criminal fraudsters to walk free, depriving [9:46] victims and taxpayers of nearly $2 billion in unmet restitution. [9:52] Last Congress, we came together to craft a bipartisan border security bill. [9:56] President Biden agreed to sign it. [9:58] But then candidate Trump blew up the deal because he wanted a crisis to run on more than he wanted [10:03] an actual solution. [10:05] Sadly, since then, our colleagues have been doing more of the same, holding hearing after [10:09] hearing on the same topic, failing to pass their signature border bill or even their bill [10:13] to coerce and commandeer sanctuary cities to do their bidding. [10:17] I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today and hope that we can rejoin together [10:21] in doing the work of the American people. [10:23] Thank you, Mr. chairman. [10:24] Thanks for that. [10:25] Thank you. [10:26] So thank you, Mr. Chairman. [10:27] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [10:28] Speaker 1 [10:30] Speaker 1 [10:31] Speaker 1 [10:35] Speaker 2 [10:38] Speaker 1 [10:40] Speaker 2 [10:44] Speaker 3