Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2013

Floor Speech

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Ms. MOORE. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of my amendment is to restore $3 million to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. This amendment would simply level fund this account at the fiscal year 2012 level.

Mr. Chairman, it troubles me to see the continued rollout of Secure Communities and increase in funding for these 287(g) programs in the underlying bill, especially juxtaposed with a 13 percent decrease in funding for the office of Civil Rights and Liberties. Experts and officials across the country have concerns about these programs that shift Federal immigration laws into the hands of local police.

I have a letter from 88 civil rights organizations urging the Federal Bureau of Investigation to ``end its facilitation of the fundamentally flawed Secure Communities deportation program.'' The letter states:

Secure Communities has caused widespread controversy because it threatens public safety, encourages racial profiling, undermines community policing, and serves as a deportation dragnet, ensnaring anyone who is booked into police custody.

As cochair of the Women's Caucus, I am particularly concerned when I hear stories of the effects this program has on victims across our communities. Women and their children are increasingly afraid to go to local police to get confidential help, to call 911 during an emergency because they are terrified of being caught in this dragnet.

For many, suffering through an abusive situation is better than watching their families being torn apart. Mr. Chairman, these are real people who are victims or witnesses to domestic violence or other crimes, but they cannot come forward.

According to an October 2011 report by the UC Berkeley Law School's Warren Institute, more than one-third of individuals arrested in this program report that they have a U.S. citizen spouse or child. In other words, an estimated 88,000 families with U.S. citizen members have been impacted by Secure Communities. The same report found that Latinos comprise 93 percent of the individuals arrested in this program, despite only compromising 77 percent of the population.

Mr. Chairman, I suggest that this is not the America we want to create. We should all be able to agree that we don't want to see an America where victims are afraid of the police or an America where racial profiling is encouraged or tolerated.

Now, I understand, Mr. Chairman, that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle believe that increasing enforcement policies is the right approach to solve our broken immigration system. With that being said, I appeal to my colleagues to support efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to ensure adequate oversight of this program.

Steps that the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties have taken and will take to:

Analyze arrest data to make sure that there are no serious indications of racial profiling in any of the participating communities;

Help improve training for local law enforcement officers to reduce confusion and ensure that there are clear guidelines to prevent misuse of the program;

To inform the public about options they have and recourses they can use if their civil liberties are violated by department action; and, finally,

To help investigate and resolve cases where an individual alleges that their rights were violated.

I support these important efforts towards promoting accountability and oversight over these enforcement programs, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. It is fully offset, as is required of this appropriations process, and it is not an increase in this program, but it simply level funds it at 2012 levels.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I respectfully yield back the balance of my time.

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