MADISON, Alabama— Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council President Chris Crane addressed Sen. Marco Rubio’s conduct at Donald Trump’s Sunday rally at Madison City Stadium. Crane’s address came just moments before the news broke that Trump had earned one of the most coveted endorsements in the conservative movement—the endorsement of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.
During his speech, Crane detailed how Rubio’s immigration plan was “a public safety and national security nightmare.”
“It’s as if the criminals wrote it themselves,” Crane said—warning that the crowd that it is a bill “you will see again, a bill that will pass if Sen. Rubio is elected as President of the United States.”
Crane is the national spokesman of approximately 5,800 ICE officers responsible for interior enforcement in all 50 states and U.S. territories. He is an ICE officer of 13 years, a former U.S. marine, a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and lifetime member of the American Legion. Sessions has called Crane “an American hero” for his efforts to expose immigration corruption. In 2012, Crane and nine of his fellow officers sued President Obama in an effort to stop Obama’s first lawless executive amnesty.
Crane told the audience: “In 2013, we aligned with other law enforcement organizations to include approximately 150 sheriffs around the country and we linked up with some Congressional leaders like Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions so we could defeat the Gang of Eight Marco Rubio amnesty bill, perhaps the worst immigration bill our country has never seen. A bill that you will see again, a bill that will pass if Sen. Rubio is elected as President of the United States.”
The crowd booed wildly at the mention of a President Rubio.
“Very quickly I want to run through a few of the highlights of the Marco Rubio Gang of Eight bill for you, so that to give us a sense of what we can look forward to should Rubio take the presidency,” Crane explained. “Senator Rubio’s Gang of Eight bill provides amnesty for almost everyone illegally in the United States. It included special provisions to protect members of violent street gangs, some sex offenders, aliens convicted of assault and assault of police offenders, criminals convicted of theft, identity theft, vehicular homicide, domestic violence, the list goes on and on.
“Sen. Rubio’s bill eliminates the current enhancements and punishments that we have for aggravated felons. It requires federal agencies like ICE to ignore state convictions for aliens smuggling and human trafficking… This bill is a public safety and national security nightmare. It’s as if the criminals wrote it themselves.”
The crowd began to jeer loudly.
“But most alarming perhaps is the fact that there is no border patrol plan, no border security, no nothing to this entire Marco Rubio border security plan,” Crane continued. “There’s nothing. In fact, the amnesty comes first. We know exactly what’s going to happen. I’m going to predict it right now on stage. The minute we do Rubio’s immigration plan we’re going to have millions more illegal aliens flooding across our border overnight.”
The crowd again began to boo Rubio.
Crane continued:
Rubio said on Friday that the only reason he wrote and so adamantly supported this immigration bill with the rest of the Gang of Eight was because it was the best he could do at the time— the time being 2013 Democratic-run Senate. But that’s just another Marco Rubio spin and lie. Marco Rubio did not have to support any bill. There was no gun to his head. We already have immigration laws on the books. We just need to enforce them. Marco Rubio did not have to support amnesty without border security, and he certainly didn’t have to support provisions to protect criminals and immigration violators. Marco Rubio supported this bill because he had his hands deep in the pockets of wealthy special interest groups. The welfare of America was not a concern for Marco Rubio.
But America should know also that as Marco Rubio worked with pro-amnesty groups and big business and the Obama administration to develop the immigration bill he actively excluded law enforcement from the bill’s development. By excluding input from the men and women that worked on the frontline of our immigration crisis… he excluded input from Americans who are in the best position to identify and come up with solutions who are the in best position to identify our nation’s weaknesses and come up with solutions. Marco Rubio excluded law enforcement because (1) we had no dirty money for his presidential campaign and (2) because he knew law enforcement would tell the American public exactly what his Gang of Eight bill was: an amnesty bill supported by Barack Obama that threatened public safety and national security. A bill that fixes none of our current immigration problems but serves only to make them worse.
Crane added that Rubio and his colleagues pushing the bill “treated law enforcement like trash—not only was law enforcement not invited to provide input in his Gang of Eight bill while amnesty groups were, but when law enforcement reached out to Marco Rubio expressing concerns about the bill, he completely ignored us.”
Only as public pressure mounted against Rubio to meet with law enforcement did he finally relinquish and agree to meet, during the meeting strong concerns about the bill’s impact on public safety and national security were discussed, Crane said. “Rubio committed to make many significant changes to the bill to address these safety and security concerns, but in the end it was all just a big lie… None of the changes Rubio committed to make were included. It was all just more dirty Washington D.C. politics with Marco Rubio.”
Crane then detailed how he and several sheriffs attended a Gang of Eight press conference. During that press event, Rubio oversaw as Crane was ejected from the room for trying to ask a question on behalf of law enforcement.
The crowd again booed loudly.
“I will never forget how Sen. Rubio looked directly at me [as police escorted me out],” Crane said. “As a military veteran, a law enforcement officer, an American citizen, who was simply trying to ask a U.S. senator a question at a public event in a building of Congress—the House of the People no less. How could any U.S. Senator think it was the right thing to have a U.S. citizen escorted out by police, but out of that group of Senators, Sen. Marco Rubio knew exactly who I was. He looked directly at me and did nothing to stop it. He could have stepped up the mic and yelled, ‘Stop. Let the man speak.’ But he didn’t.”
The crowd began to boo, one member yelled audible, “He wears high-heeled boots!” at which the crowd laughed.
“So Marco Rubio in his Gang of Eight immigration bill fought for members of violent street gangs, sex offenders and millions of foreign nationals who have violated our country’s immigration laws, but he couldn’t step up to the mic say a word to protect the free speech, support the free speech of a U.S. citizen, a veteran, a law enforcement officer,” Crane said. “This is not the character of a Commander in Chief. I am here today to urge everyone of you and everyone in Alabama and everyone American, simply: Please do not vote for Senator Marco Rubio for President of the United States.”
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