Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), along with Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Mike Rounds (R-SD), introduced legislation this week to allow local and state law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law.
The legislation, known as the Empowering Law Enforcement Act, aims to combat the Biden administration’s gutting of interior immigration enforcement through a series of “sanctuary country” orders that are preventing about nine-in-ten deportations of illegal aliens by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
The legislation grants local and state law enforcement the ability to investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain, or transfer illegal aliens while extending the period by which illegal aliens can be detained in ICE custody to ensure they are not released back into American communities.
“If the Biden administration is insistent on taking away ICE’s ability to enforce our immigration laws, then we should make sure our state and local law enforcement has the authority to respond to the influx of illegal migrants in our communities,” Tuberville said in a statement.
The legislation would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to:
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Delegate immigration enforcement authority to local and state law enforcement
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Allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary to extend federal detention for illegal aliens until their deportation from the United States
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Ensure that illegal aliens are detained in federal custody upon state or local law enforcement request
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Reimburse local and state authorities for costs related to detaining and transporting illegal aliens
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Streamline immigration information sharing between DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
“The Biden administration has failed our law enforcement at the expense of American communities and this bill will remedy that moving forward,” Tuberville said.
No Senate Democrats are expected to support the legislation unless it is coupled with an amnesty for most of the roughly 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S.
“[But] the current Democratic Party has no interest in enforcing immigration laws, so I think the risk of a bill like this being packaged up with the amnesty is very low,” said Rob Law, the director of regulatory affairs and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies.
With his “sanctuary country” orders issued by top DHS officials, President Joe Biden is preventing ICE agents from arresting and deporting illegal aliens unless they are terrorists, known gang members, or have been recently convicted of an aggravated felony.
As a result, deportations of illegal aliens have been cut to the lowest monthly total in recorded history while the number of criminal illegal aliens in federal custody has dropped nearly 80 percent compared to two years ago.
In Arizona, as Breitbart News reported, illegal aliens convicted of armed robbery, drunk driving, drug crimes, and arson are walking free out of prisons instead of being turned over to ICE agents for deportation.
Likewise, in Florida, illegal aliens convicted of burglary, cocaine trafficking, grand theft auto, heroin trafficking, credit card fraud, and money laundering are being released back into American communities from prison rather than being taken into ICE custody.
Illegal alien sex offenders, thanks to the Biden orders, have reportedly been released from U.S. Marshal’s custody. Without the orders, they would have been turned over to ICE agents for deportation.
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