Posted on 07/08/2004 8:10:10 AM PDT by DoctorMichael
House sustains 'sanctuary' laws
By Brian DeBose
The House yesterday voted down an amendment to a Justice Department spending bill that would have forced local police officers to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities.
Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, introduced the amendment to keep state and local governments from giving "sanctuary" to illegal aliens.
Sanctuary laws typically created by cities and towns force local police officers not to cooperate with federal law enforcement to find and detain illegal aliens for deportation.
"These so-called sanctuary policies wreak havoc on communities, especially in situations where illegal immigrants commit crimes and should be reported to Immigration and Naturalization Services and deported, but are not and released to commit crimes again," Mr. King said.
Mr. King withdrew his amendment after members ignored it. The amendment was opposed by Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican and chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, state and judiciary, who said it had no place in the spending bill because immigration is a homeland security function.
The House is debating a $39 billion bill that would outline spending for the Commerce, Justice and State departments for the upcoming fiscal year. The bill failed to reach a final vote yesterday amid numerous amendments and is expected to have a vote in its final form today.
The House spent more than three hours debating whether to take $70 million from the Justice Department and National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and give it to the Small Business Administration to fund the Section 7(A) loan program, which provides government-subsidized, low-interest loans for small businesses.
Reps. Donald Manzullo, Illinois Republican, and Nydia M. Velazquez, New York Democrat, introduced the amendment, which takes $10 million from the endowment and $60 million from the Justice Department. It passed by a vote of 281-137 when more than 80 Republicans crossed party lines.
"You know I support the war on terrorism and expanding democracy, but at some point in time, you have to ask when do we take care of our own, when do we take care of the little people," Mr. Manzullo said.
President Bush had asked Congress to double NED funding to promote democracy in the Middle East and China. The Republican leadership opposed the amendment, saying it would undercut the drive to win the peace in Iraq and the Justice Department's counterterrorism efforts.
"The amendment does nothing but line the pockets of bankers, not the poor or small businesses, and when 198 people from my district died at the Pentagon on September 11, I can't believe that we would be trying to cut money for DOJ-Homeland Security, and the National Endowment for Democracy," Mr. Wolf screamed on the House floor.
House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, California Republican, and Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young, Florida Republican, opposed the amendment.
Mr. Drier said the level of funding for the democracy endowment was $100 million more than last year, but every penny was necessary to counteract inflation and management costs.
Mr. Young said the amendment would hurt the Justice Department's ability to decipher intelligence data because it would gut $26 million from the chief law-enforcement agency's administration budget used to pay workers.
Additional amendments awaiting debate would earmark $50,000 for a steel industry representative on Mr. Bush's Manufacturing Council, cut $174 million from the Census Bureau, and increase funding of the grants program for local police officers.
Sanctuary laws are blatantly unconstitutional since the federal government is to be supreme within its constitutionally-mandated sphere of influence. According to the Constitution, policing the borders is the realm of the federal government
As far as I'm concerned they're all bought and paid for traitors.
..........Why on this particular bill?
I'm now encouraging people who are not from swing states to vote for a third-party conservative, like the Constitution Party. Bush has not know we are upset at his bulls!+ about having a convention where only pro-babykilling, pro-sodomy speakers are allowed, about selling out our soveriegnty for cheap labor and about exploding spending.
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