Jeremy and Angel Seay and Sergeant Brandon Mendoza Protect Our Communities From Duis Act of 2025
Floor Speech
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 530, I call up the bill (H.R. 875) to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that aliens who have been convicted of or who have committed an offense for driving while intoxicated or impaired are inadmissible and deportable, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. 875.
Mr. Speaker, today we consider a simple, commonsense bill that says if you are a guest in our country and you drive drunk, you should, in fact, be deported.
To the average American, passing this bill is a no-brainer. Even in a polarized time, Democrats should be able to join Republicans to unanimously support such reasonable legislation. After all, deporting dangerous criminals is a rational, normal, and coherent step that this House should take. Unfortunately, I am skeptical that we will see much agreement from my Democratic colleagues on this bill.
Regardless, I am thankful the House is considering H.R. 875, the Jeremy and Angel Seay and Sergeant Brandon Mendoza Protect our Communities from DUIs Act, a bill that I introduced last Congress and again this Congress.
Every 45 minutes, that is how often someone in the United States dies in a crash involving an alcohol-impaired driver.
In 2022 alone, there were 13,524 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities. In 2020, drunk driving crashes led to nearly 400,000 injuries.
Those crashes do not discriminate, Mr. Speaker. The victim could be me, it could be you, it could be anyone in our families or in our communities.
This issue hits close to home for me. There was a newlywed couple from my hometown of Enterprise, Alabama, named Angel and Jeremy Seay. I knew this couple personally. I knew their family. I played ball with their dad. Angel and Jeremy were riding a motorcycle together when, out of nowhere, an illegal alien under the influence of alcohol collided into the newlyweds with his pickup. Their lives were cut short by this senseless act.
Tragedies like this are not uncommon across this country. In December of 2023, an illegal alien killed a 46-year-old woman and her 16-year- old son in Broomfield, Colorado, when he drove his truck up to 100 miles an hour and ran into the victims' vehicle, causing it to then crash into a tree. Despite having five previous DUI convictions, a Boulder, Colorado, county judge sentenced this illegal alien to probation, community service, and work release on December 8, 2023, in relation to two of those convictions, just 4 days before the drunk driver crashed and killed the mother and her son.
Another case to consider is from Florida, where just earlier this year an illegal alien from Mexico was arrested for his third DUI after he hit and killed a kindergartner. In Texas, in December of 2024, an illegal alien killed a 7-year-old girl after he drove drunk, crashed into a car that was being driven by the girl's mother.
Just months earlier, under the Biden-Harris administration, ICE had lifted a detainer which had previously been lodged against this illegal alien after he was arrested for assaulting a family member in June of 2024.
H.R. 875 makes commonsense changes to immigration laws to make an alien who is convicted or who admits driving under the influence inadmissible. It also makes an alien convicted of doing so removable. In fact, 59 Democrats voted in favor of this legislation when I brought it to the House floor last February.
If you are a guest in our country and you drive drunk, you should be removed from this country, period.
Drunk drivers are involved in 31 percent of all crash deaths in this country. On average, drunk driving killed roughly 11,000 people in the United States every year between 2012 and 2022. Yet, current immigration law does not make aliens inadmissible or removable if they drive drunk and recklessly break our laws.
My colleagues across the aisle will undoubtedly argue that this bill is unnecessary because current law already makes DUI inadmissible and a deportable offense. However, if that is the case, then why would they oppose this bill? Even more, their claim that this bill is redundant could not be further from the truth.
Although some aliens who commit DUIs, such as those who kill or injure innocent victims, may be found inadmissible or removable, but the vast majority of the aliens with DUI convictions escape immigration consequences. In fact, on its website just last year, the Biden-Harris administration's U.S. Customs and Border Protection clearly stated: ``A single driving under the influence (DUI) conviction is not grounds to deny entry into the United States.''
Moreover, the Board of Immigration Appeals has held that a ``simple DUI offense'' is not a crime involving moral turpitude that would make an alien removable from the United States. Yet, as we know, any drunk driving event can lead to death, with consequences that are far from what they call simple.
We shouldn't have to wait for repeat drunk drivers to injure someone or kill before they are deported. That is why H.R. 875 is so imperative. It creates safer streets and safer communities for all of us.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), my good friend.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, I would remind our colleagues that 59 Democrats voted for this legislation last February when I brought it. We cannot wait until an illegal driving drunk kills a family member or a member of our community.
Time and time again, Mothers Against Drunk Driving say that on a DUI, normally it is 80 times they have driven drunk before they are actually caught. Statistics show that it is at least a dozen times that people drive drunk before they are caught.
In Florida, that is why we saw the third time an illegal had a DUI was when he killed a kindergartner. The fifth time in Colorado, the judge released him 4 days before an illegal killed a mother and her 16- year-old son.
A friend of mine, a judge who is no longer on the bench, texted me the other night and thanked me for this piece of legislation. He said that in the last administration, he knew in the courtroom when that illegal got the DUI and he turned him over to ICE, they went out, they got in a white van, and they drove off. They did not detain him.
Time and time again, our communities are suffering because we are not taking these people and holding them to account and getting them out of this country.
I encourage my colleagues to get behind this legislation. Americans look to Congress for solutions to real problems. Despite what my colleagues on the other side have argued today, drunk driving by aliens is an issue in this country that must be addressed. This bill does so.
Making guests in our country inadmissible to and removable from the United States, because they have endangered our communities by driving drunk, is just plain common sense.
The Jeremy and Angel Seay and Sergeant Brandon Mendoza Protect Our Communities from DUI Act of 2025 is straightforward.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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