Supporting Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. STEUBE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Budd for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I am honored to have the opportunity to stand for justice with the victims of sanctuary cities.

It is completely offensive to me as an American that we have cities and, in some cases, entire States declaring themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants who are mercilessly committing crimes in our Nation.

American citizens are being assaulted, raped, and murdered at the hands of illegal immigrants who should have been deported by ICE, but due to the blatant disregard of Federal law, cities are giving sanctuary to criminals and rapists while actual American citizens can do absolutely nothing about it.

Just last year, two illegal immigrants committed a horrific gang- related murder in the Seattle area. One took a baseball bat to the head and body of a high school student, killing him. Another took a machete to the teen, chopping off an arm and a leg and hacking at his neck.

This followed another gang-related murder in King County, Washington, that also involved an illegal immigrant that local authorities refused to turn over to ICE for deportation.

In the wake of the killings, King County officials have defended their policies and complained that ICE is harassing the county. Apparently, officials in King County, Washington, would rather have Americans be murdered by machete-wielding illegal immigrants than deport noncitizens who pose a risk to those who actually call America home.

Ken Cuccinelli, Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, stated at the time: ``You're talking about literally crimes that never should have happened in this country because they're people who, upon their first interaction with the justice system, should have been deported.''

Therefore, if cities are going to blatantly ignore the law of the land and provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants that commit crimes in our country, then those cities should be held financially accountable to the families of the victims, and those cities should be stripped of Federal funding until they comply with Federal law.

I will take a step further. It should be a criminal offense for elected officials to blatantly ignore Federal immigration law, and they should be held accountable for denying ICE the ability to protect our country.

I encourage all of my colleagues to support this important legislation.

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