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Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, tried to drive a ground vote Wednesday on a legislation that might require illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), within the hope of stopping avoidable assaults and ensuing deaths.
The Iowa Republican’s unanimous consent request was thwarted by Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who objected to the request.
Ernst requested unanimous consent from her colleagues so as to advance Sarah’s Law to the ground for a vote, asking throughout a ground speech, “How many young Americans must die? How many families must be ripped apart for this administration to wake up and take border security seriously?”
The bill would require ICE to take into custody of illegal immigrants who’re arrested and charged with inflicting the deaths or severe damage of one other. This was reiterated by Ernst throughout her speech. “It would merely require ICE to detain, just to detain, otherwise deportable illegal immigrants charged with killing or seriously injuring another person,” she mentioned.
Durbin claimed the bill would detain victims of trafficking or home abuse who had been charged with crimes. According to him, the bill would “deprive immigrants of the due process that everyone is afforded.”
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, talks to reporters following the weekly Senate Republican coverage luncheon within the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The measure’s namesake, Sarah Root, was a 21-year-old Iowa girl who was killed by a drunk driver who was additionally within the nation illegally. Ernst famous that the suspect, Edwin Mejia, was in a position to submit bond and finally escape dealing with the courtroom.
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“Citing the Obama administration’s November 2014 memo on immigration enforcement priorities, ICE declined to take custody of Mejia, despite his repeated driving offenses and history of skipping court dates,” the senator defined.
Immigrants wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico, with the U.S.-Mexico border barrier within the background, on August 6, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona. ((Photo by Qian Weizhong/VCG by way of Getty Images))
She additionally referenced the current dying of University of Georgia nursing scholar Laken Riley, through which one other illegal immigrant, Jose Ibarra was arrested and has been charged with a number of crimes, together with malice homicide and felony homicide, amongst others.
News of Riley’s killing made headlines throughout the nation final month and has prompted congressional Republicans to demand solutions. According to Ernst, each Root and Riley’s deaths are “doomed to be repeated,” below the present insurance policies.
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Laken Riley poses for a photograph posted to Facebook. Riley, a nursing scholar on the University of Georgia, was discovered useless close to a lake on campus on Thursday, February 22, 2024. (Allyson Phillips/Facebook)
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The senator pointed to the immigration apply generally known as “catch and release,” throughout which illegal immigrants in search of entry on the premise of asylum are launched throughout the processing interval. “Instead of being detained while he was processed, he was released into our country — never to be heard from again,” she mentioned.
While Ibarra might have been prevented from allegedly killing Riley had he been detained upon entry to the nation, Sarah’s Law wouldn’t have stopped the assault, as Ibarra’s prison document does not embrace crimes through which others had been killed or injured.
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