Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRUZ. Madam President:

I remember: it happened yesterday, or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.

I remember he asked his father: ``Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?''

And now the boy is turning to me. ``Tell me,'' he asks, ``what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?'' And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.

And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever, wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must--at that moment--become the center of the universe.

Elie Wiesel spoke these words as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a living testimony to the vow ``Never forget.'' Although he endured the unspeakable darkness of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, his defiant light burned ever brighter as he dedicated his immense talents to providing a voice for not only the Jewish victims of the Holocaust but also for the voiceless, the condemned, and the forsaken around the globe. Elie tirelessly reminded the world that the savage horror of the Third Reich was not an aberration in the past that was defeated in World War II. He knew that the potential for such genocidal evil remains with us in the present, and he warned that we must always be on guard against it. Now, that little boy who was always with him must always be with us.

I was blessed to know Elie and his incomparable wife Mary personally. They have been powerful and fearless voices for justice no matter the cost. It is humbling to encounter the true greatness that is embodied by Elie and Mary.

When Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress, it was one of the great privileges of my life to host Elie Wiesel and join him on a panel, together discussing the profound threat imposed by a nuclear Iran.

A nuclear Iran, I believe, is the single greatest national security threat facing America. Elie shared that view. ``Never again'' is a critically important phrase. After the victory of World War II, it might seem like a comforting affirmation of fact that humanity had evolved and a horror like the Holocaust could never happen again, but ``never again'' is something more. Elie Wiesel was a living testimony to the fact that ``never again'' is a sacred vow. It is a promise that we will not take this for granted, but we will be ceaselessly vigilant because we know that while the evil of anti-Semitism was defeated once in World War II, it was not eradicated. To assume in our sophisticated modern age that we somehow transcended evil would be a tragic mistake.

We have seen the face of evil this year in the savage ISIS terrorists who are targeting Jews, Christians, and Muslims--murdering regardless of faith. We see it even more clearly in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is seeking the world's deadliest weapons and the means to deliver them to make good on the many threats to annihilate not only the nation of Israel but the entire free world. These are not empty words uttered by an ayatollah without consequence. They are not simply words to placate a domestic political audience. These are articles of faith with the Iranian leadership, and they have backed them up with 35 years of violent hostility towards Israel and the United States.

Last year, the world marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and we remembered the unspeakable atrocities of the death camps. We cannot afford a nuclear Auschwitz. We all know that Iran's terrorist proxies--Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad--have engaged in vicious terror attacks against our Nation, and already too many of our citizens have been killed and maimed. We know that the danger posed by Iran is not a thing of the past. Their intention is to use these weapons of destruction.

This threat should not be a partisan issue. This threat should unite us because that is the only way we will be able to defeat this threat, and defeat it we must because Iran's threat is not only to wipe us off the map but to erase us from the historical record all together. Think about that for a moment. The stated objective of the Ayatollah Khamenei is a world without even the memory of the United States of America, the Great Satan, as they call us--or even a memory of Israel, the Little Satan, as they call Israel.

Together we can stop that threat, just as we did in World War II. Together we can stand up and repudiate this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal that sends billions of dollars to Islamic terrorists committed to our murder. Together we can look evil in the eye and call it by its name, and we can do what we must to ensure that the vow of ``never again'' is fulfilled.

Elie Wiesel left an extraordinary legacy. His memory is a blessing, an inspiration, but it is also a challenge to keep his legacy burning in our hearts. Our prayers go out to Marion and to all of Elie's loved ones. May he rest in peace, but may every one of us rise to answer the call to truth and justice that Elie Wiesel championed each and every day. Kate's Law

Madam President, there is a second topic I wish to address on the floor today.

Last week, as many of us were looking forward to Independence Day and vacations with our family, fireworks, hot dogs by the grill, another family was mourning a loss--the loss of a daughter, the loss of a life, and a loss that should never have occurred. Last Friday was the 1-year anniversary of the senseless killing of a vivacious 32-year-old young woman, Kate Steinle. She was shot as she was walking arm in arm with her dad on a San Francisco pier. After the bullet tore through her, she collapsed to the ground, crying out, ``Dad, help me. Help me.'' She died 2 hours later.

As the father of two daughters, I cannot imagine the anguish and the heartbreak that was going through Mr. Steinle as he held his dying daughter.

Her murderer was an illegal alien, and he wasn't just any illegal alien. He was one who had already been deported five times. On top of that, he had a long rap sheet that included up to seven felonies. What was he doing on that San Francisco pier? He should never have been there, and if he were not there, Kate Steinle would be alive today.

Just a few months before killing Kate, this illegal alien was released from the custody of the San Francisco sheriff's office, even though Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal agency responsible for deporting illegal aliens, had requested he remain in custody. The Federal Government said: Keep this criminal illegal alien in custody. And the San Francisco sheriff said: No, we will release him to the public. The San Francisco sheriff's office refused to honor that request because of a so-called sanctuary city policy that prohibits the San Francisco sheriff's deputies from cooperating with Federal immigration enforcement officers. Local cities are putting in place policies that prohibit local law enforcement from working to keep our country safe.

The sad truth is, Kate should be alive today, but she isn't because the Federal Government failed her. It has failed to secure the border. It has failed to faithfully and vigorously enforce the immigration laws that are on the books. It has failed to strengthen those laws to deter illegal aliens like Kate's killer from coming back over and over and over again. It has failed to enforce the law against sanctuary jurisdictions--which now number in the hundreds all across America-- that aid and abet illegal aliens evading deportation.

The President of the United States is the officer charged by the Constitution with the sole responsibility to faithfully execute the law. When his administration tolerates and encourages lawlessness, is it any surprise that terrible things happen? We must put an end to this administration's lax enforcement of our immigration laws, which threatens the safety and security of the American people, and we should begin by putting a stop to sanctuary cities, which this administration has been unwilling to do on its own. A real President, faithful to the Constitution, would end sanctuary cities by cutting off money to any jurisdiction openly defying Federal immigration law.

That is why I am a proud cosponsor of Senator Pat Toomey's Stop Sanctuary Cities Act, which would withhold Federal grant money from cities that refuse to cooperate with Federal immigration enforcement officers. Cities that flout Federal law should not be rewarded with Federal taxpayer dollars.

We must also address the persistent problem of aliens like Kate's killer who illegally reenter this country after deportation. That is why I introduced, exactly 1 year ago, an earlier version of Kate's Law. Unfortunately, no action was taken on that bill until it was incorporated into Senator Vitter's Stop Sanctuary Policies Act. Senate Democrats voted in virtual lockstep to defeat the bill. Last fall, I went again to the Senate floor and asked for unanimous consent to pass Kate's Law as a stand-alone bill, but the senior Senator from California--the very State where Kate's senseless murder occurred-- stood on this floor and objected.

Today, I thank the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, for scheduling a vote on Kate's Law and a separate vote on stopping sanctuary cities, for giving this body another chance to address the problem and to listen to the people. The time for politics is over. We should come together and protect the American people. It is a time to confront the sobering issue of illegal aliens, many of whom have serious criminal backgrounds and yet are allowed to illegally reenter this country with impunity.

Kate's Law would do three things. First, it would increase the maximum criminal penalty for illegal entry from 2 to 5 years. Second, it would create a new penalty for up to 10 years in prison for any person who has been denied admission and deported three or more times and illegally enters the country. Finally, and most importantly, it would create a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of illegal reentry who, like Kate's killer, had an aggravated felony prior to deportation or had been convicted of illegal reentry twice before. This class of illegal aliens has a special disregard and disdain for our Nation's laws. Violent criminals keep coming in over and over and over again, and all too often these illegal aliens have criminal records that go back years or even decades.

For example, in 2012, just over one-quarter of the illegal aliens apprehended by the Border Patrol had prior deportation orders. That is an astounding 99,420 illegal aliens. In fiscal year 2015, of the illegal reentry offenders who were actually convicted--that is 15,715 offenders--the majority had extensive or recent criminal histories. At least one-third had a prior aggravated felony conviction, but even though the majority of offenders had criminal records, the average prison sentence was just 16 months, down from an average of 22 months in 2008. In fact, more than one-quarter of illegal reentry offenders received a sentence below the guidelines range because the government sponsored the low sentence.

Clearly, we are failing to adequately deter deported illegal aliens from illegally reentering the country, especially those with violent criminal records. That is why we need to pass Kate's Law. We must increase the risk and the penalties for those who would contemplate illegally returning to the United States to commit acts of murder.

I thank all the leaders in this body. I thank leaders like Bill O'Reilly for shining a light on this vital issue. This vote ought to be an easy decision. Just ask yourself this: With whom do I stand?

I hope my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, will choose to stand with the American people, the people we should be protecting, rather than convicted felons like Kate Steinle's killer.

It is worth noting the city of San Francisco--bright blue Democratic San Francisco--voted out the sheriff after the murder of Kate Steinle. All Americans, regardless of being a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent--all Americans deserve to be protected, and we need a government that stops allowing violent illegal aliens to prey on the innocents.

If our Democratic colleagues make the choice to put politics over protecting innocent Americans by refusing to enforce our immigration laws, the consequences of that are a mess. Doing so is quite literally playing with people's lives. This isn't hyperbole. Unfortunately, it is a fact.

Tragically, Kate's death was not just an isolated occurrence, as much as we all wish that were the case. Just last week, an illegal alien killed three innocent people and wounded a fourth outside a blueberry farm in Oregon. According to ICE officials, the illegal alien had been deported from the United States an astounding six times since 2003.

Enough is enough. Stop letting in violent criminal illegal aliens who are murdering innocent Americans. This should bring us all together. How many more of these terrible acts must we endure until Congress acts? What does it take to break the partisan gridlock and actually come together and protect the American people? The votes this afternoon will help answer that question. I very much hope we will not wait one day longer.

I urge my colleagues to stand together united against lawlessness, to stand against dangerous criminal illegal aliens who flout our laws, and I urge each of us to hear the words of Kate Steinle, ``Help me, dad. Help me, dad.'' That was a cry that went not just to a grieving father, but it is a cry that should pierce each and every one of us and move this body out of slumber and into action, to help and stand with the American people.

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