Alabama Republican senator Jeff Sessions has introduced a new immigration bill that aims to strengthen the position of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while simultaneously cracking down on cities in the United States that offer protection to undocumented immigrants. The Michael Davis Jr and Danny Oliver in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement Act is named after after two police officers who were killed by an undocumented immigrant.
Sessions says that he is introducing the Senate bill to stop “the planned and sustained dismantlement of immigration enforcement in America”, a press release states. The bill is similar to one that was introduced in the House of Representatives back in February by Representatives Trey Gowdy and Bob Goodlatte. Senator Sessions says the incident during which the two police officers were killed by undocumented immigrant Marcelo Marquez, which took place last year, would never have happened if immigration laws in the United States had been correctly enforced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, given that Marquez had a long criminal history and had already been deported twice.
“In America, tens of thousands of preventable crimes occur each year, including the most violent and heinous, because of our failure to enforce our immigration laws,” Sessions claims. “Too many people are living in fear of violent gangs and drug cartels as a result.”
More than 76,000 undocumented immigrants possessing criminal records have been released by ICE, and Sessions blames the Obama administration for putting too many restrictions on the law enforcement agency and allowing the creation of “sanctuary cities” that prevent undocumented immigrants being deported.