Discussion · Senate
Christopher Murphy Democrat
“I want the Senate to pass this bill. Immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens, so they are not a threat just because they are immigrants. Immigration officers can enforce the law without doing it at school bus stops. Even past Republican administrations kept certain places off limits. It makes no sense to claim this bill will turn bus stops into sanctuary camps.”
“Mr. President, just three final points. I think Senator Banks articulates the Republican position, which is that immigrants are by definition a safety threat to the United States of America, and that is just not true. I don’t draw an issue with the fact that there are immigrants who commit crimes, but there are natural-born citizens that commit crimes at higher rates than immigrants do. The fact of the matter is that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than people who were born here in the United States. We should just keep people safe in this country no matter the country of origin or birth of the perpetrator. Second, I think you can make the decision that ICE should be able to operate in the interior while keeping certain sites off limits. In fact, this was the Trump administration policy in the first term. So Republican administrations in the past have come to the decision that certain sites should be off limits for ICE. In fact, when I talk to Trump supporters in Connecticut, who broadly do support the President’s immigration policy, they also believe that they went too far in Connecticut. There were a lot of Republicans who showed up at our big rally the day after this incident happened. So it is not true that you can only support robust enforcement operations in the interior if you support ICE being even at schoolbus stops. And then finally, I will be honest with you, I did not anticipate that one of the arguments against this bill would be that it would lead to the development of sanctuary bus stops. What do we imagine here? People are going to live at bus stops? We are going to have encampments around bus stops of people who are here without documentation? I just think it is an example of how this whole debate has gone way off the rails. It is just fundamentally detached from the reality. You want to support Trump’s immigration policy--you can do that while still saying that we shouldn’t have ICE officers patrolling schoolbus stops with the purpose of traumatizing little children. That could be a consensus position, and we could choose to still disagree over the broader Trump immigration policy. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The Senator from Idaho.”
Mr. President, just three final points. I think Senator Banks articulates the Republican position, which is that immigrants are by definition a safety threat to the United States of America, and that is just not true. I don’t draw an issue with the fact that there are immigrants who commit crimes, but there are natural-born citizens that commit crimes at higher rates than immigrants do. The fact of the matter is that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than people who were born here in the United States. We should just keep people safe in this country no matter the country of origin or birth of the perpetrator. Second, I think you can make the decision that ICE should be able to operate in the interior while keeping certain sites off limits. In fact, this was the Trump administration policy in the first term. So Republican administrations in the past have come to the decision that certain sites should be off limits for ICE. In fact, when I talk to Trump supporters in Connecticut, who broadly do support the President’s immigration policy, they also believe that they went too far in Connecticut. There were a lot of Republicans who showed up at our big rally the day after this incident happened. So it is not true that you can only support robust enforcement operations in the interior if you support ICE being even at schoolbus stops. And then finally, I will be honest with you, I did not anticipate that one of the arguments against this bill would be that it would lead to the development of sanctuary bus stops. What do we imagine here? People are going to live at bus stops? We are going to have encampments around bus stops of people who are here without documentation? I just think it is an example of how this whole debate has gone way off the rails. It is just fundamentally detached from the reality. You want to support Trump’s immigration policy--you can do that while still saying that we shouldn’t have ICE officers patrolling schoolbus stops with the purpose of traumatizing little children. That could be a consensus position, and we could choose to still disagree over the broader Trump immigration policy. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The Senator from Idaho.