Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016-- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Madam President, 2 weeks ago, the Senate was unable to proceed to consider a very important piece of legislation called the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act. The goal of this legislation is to protect our communities from criminals who violate our laws and who pose a danger to those communities--often minority communities themselves. The aim of this legislation is to restore law and order across the country by holding those accountable who are defying Federal law and refusing to cooperate with the Federal Government when it comes to communicating the status of people who are illegally present in the country who have committed other more serious crimes and refusing to honor Federal detainers.

As we discussed the need for this bill, several of my colleagues highlighted the importance of this issue, but unfortunately, we lost that vote because only 54 Senators voted to proceed to the bill and obviously we needed 60 votes.

I am concerned that this debate does not focus on the people harmed the most because of the status quo, and that is why I have come here to the floor to talk about the larger problem of violent crime committed by those who are here illegally and are not being punished according to our laws. I also want to highlight the importance of the victims and families across the country who are suffering because we have not taken the appropriate action to stop these criminals.

There is one person in particular whom I wish to talk about today. My plan is to come to the floor and tell these stories one at a time over the next few weeks.

This is Javier Vega, Jr., who grew up in La Feria, a small town of about 7,000 people in South Texas. Javier was known by the name Harvey to his friends, interestingly enough, and he spent his entire life thinking of ways to help others before himself.

From a young age, he knew he wanted to serve in the military, and so he volunteered for the Marine Corps and embarked on a military career after graduating from La Feria High School. Harvey thrived in the Marine Corps. So after leaving the Marines and working day and night to put himself through college, he decided the next step in his public service was to join the U.S. Border Patrol.

Harvey's mother said that he approached his work at the Border Patrol just like everything else he pursued in life--with diligence, dedication to hard work, and trying just simply to be the best he could be. He was proud to help protect his fellow neighbors and serve our country, and he worked tirelessly to do so.

But, tragically, Harvey's service to his country was cut short. Last summer he was out at one of his favorite fishing spots with his family. He loved fishing. It was a family tradition, and Harvey wanted to pass along his love for this pastime to his sons. Shortly after he and his family members cast their lines into the water on that Sunday afternoon, he was ambushed by two men who tried to rob him, and, heartbreakingly, the encounter turned violent.

Harvey's lifelong commitment to protecting those around him--something he seemed born to do--kicked in instantly. As Harvey and his father, and eventually his mother, tried to fend off the attackers, tragically Javier ``Harvey'' Vega, Jr., was killed. His father, Javier senior, was shot in the hip and still suffers from the wounds inflicted that afternoon.

This was supposed to be another normal weekend fishing with the family. But instead, this normal weekend--or what was supposed to be a normal weekend of fishing for Javier and his family--turned deadly.

Who were the killers? They were two illegal immigrant criminals who had repeatedly violated our laws, and by that I don't mean they just entered the country without the appropriate visa. Both had been deported multiple times but managed to repeatedly find their way back into the country, even after committing a long list of crimes.

In fact, according to some witnesses, these two men had been terrorizing the community for months, committing armed robberies and carjackings, and, clearly, they were capable of attacking and killing a hard-working father on a fishing trip with his family.

This is a difficult topic for some because some people would like to mischaracterize what we are trying to do with this legislation as somehow being anti-immigrant. But indeed, legal immigrants and people who live in the communities along South Texas--many of them have had family members come here from Mexico and elsewhere over the years--recognize how much people who illegally enter the country and commit multiple crimes can terrorize communities and victimize the very people whom those who block this legislation say they want to protect.

I don't raise this issue or this story lightly, but the country should know that for the family of Javier Vega, Jr., this is their reality. Illegal immigrant criminals who were deported multiple times attacked them and killed their son--their father, their brother, and their friend. Their lives will never be the same.

A number of our colleagues voted to block our ability to even consider this important legislation that seeks to merely enforce existing Federal law and to defund those jurisdictions that defy Federal law, and this is the consequence of doing nothing--people like Javier Vega, Jr., being victimized by criminals who violate our laws over and over and over, and when we catch them and they are deported, they simply come back into the country and victimize more people and more communities and kill people like Javier Vega, Jr.

The lives of the Vega family will never be the same, and I know they don't want other families in Texas or elsewhere around the country to have to suffer like they have suffered.

It doesn't seem like a lot to ask--that our Federal laws be enforced to protect our communities from criminals. That is all the legislation attempted to do. Yet there was a concerted effort across the aisle to filibuster the bill and prevent us from even considering this legislation, along with any suggestions our colleagues might have for improving it.

The goal of the bill, the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act, is not to keep legal immigrants from entering the United States or to disparage law-abiding immigrants. Even the victim's mother, Marie, someone with justifiable, personal anger, noted that this tragedy does not mean that her family is against immigration--far from it. This legislation is narrowly targeted to address the root cause of the tragedies like the one I have been talking about, by targeting criminal illegal immigrants who repeatedly ignored the rule of law and who live with virtual impunity in our country and victimize people like the Vega family.

We can't, in good faith, address immigration reform until the American people see us doing more to enforce our existing laws. I have been here for a while, and I have heard the arguments across the aisle that our colleagues would say: Well, the only thing we need to do to fix problems like what the Vega family experienced and otherwise is to pass comprehensive immigration reform. But the American people simply don't have enough confidence in us if we are unwilling to take the necessary steps to see that the laws on the books are already enforced--the very laws that would protect people like Javier Vega, Jr., and his family.

We have a lot of work to do to regain the public's confidence, because we can do other things that I believe we need to do to fix our broken immigration system. It is imperative, it is our responsibility, and it is something we referred to in our oath--that we will uphold and defend the laws and the Constitution of the United States. It is our responsibility to make sure that local governments comply with Federal laws and do not prevent the Department of Homeland Security from doing its job in enforcing them.

America's law enforcement community, including heroes like Harvey, put their lives on the line every day to protect our citizens. They work tirelessly to try to protect our safety.

I hope our colleagues will come to their senses and stand up for those who provide for our public safety and not contribute to a situation where other families, such as the Vega family, will lose a loved one to the sort of career criminals whom I was referring to earlier who killed Javier Vega, Jr.

I have recently joined with Congressman Filemon Vela to send a letter to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection requesting that they reclassify the death of Javier Vega, Jr., as a line-of-duty fatality. Everybody in law enforcement knows that you are never truly off duty, and Javier's brave actions that fateful day back in 2014 should be classified as a death occurring in the line of duty, just like every other law enforcement officer.

I look forward to hearing back from the Commissioner on this soon. I am thankful to Paul Perez, president of the National Border Patrol Council in Kingsville, and to the Rio Grande Valley Union of the National Border Patrol Council for helping the Vega family highlight this issue.

We have a duty to help our brave men and women in law enforcement do their job by passing this legislation

and to regain some of the lost confidence the American people used to have in our ability to actually do our job and to keep illegal immigrant criminals and repeat offenders off our streets.

This issue is not going away. There are countless other stories in Texas and across the country, such as the story of Kate Steinle, out in San Francisco, who tragically was murdered by the same sort of repeat illegal immigrant criminal who killed Harvey Vega.

There are a lot more stories to tell--a lot more stories that I hope we will tell in the coming days. It is our duty as Members of Congress to put a stop to this, and I pledge to keep fighting on behalf of the Vega family for legislation that will do just that.

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