Broader Options for Americans Act -- Continued

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the Toomey amendment will withhold critical funding from cities, counties, and States whose police departments refuse to deploy their police officers as immigration agents for the Federal Government.

Listen to what the two chiefs of police in Storm Lake and Marshalltown, IA, wrote last week to the Des Moines Register:

Most significant, the proposed bill would diminish the trust that keeps our cities safe in the first place. We depend on residents, including immigrants, to come to us when they see something suspicious or potentially criminal. If they hear of a looming ``crackdown'' that could affect their families and friends, they are less likely to come [forward] to report and prevent actual crimes.

This is from Iowa chiefs of police in the Midwest. It is common sense.

My superintendent in Chicago, Eddie Johnson, said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Undocumented immigrants are not driving violence in Chicago. That's why I want our officers focused on community policing and not trying to be immigration police.

Vote for our men and women in uniform. Vote against the Toomey amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source