Politico
By Seung Min Kim
August 11, 2015
Ted
Cruz and other Senate Republicans are pushing an aggressive immigration
crackdown, proposing tougher penalties against foreigners who
repeatedly try to enter the United
States illegally.
But there’s stiff resistance — from fellow Republicans.
The
GOP rift — a drama that’s playing out within the Senate Judiciary
Committee — has opened up around the question of mandatory minimums, a
sensitive topic that’s also
central to the broader debate on Capitol Hill about reforming the
nation’s criminal justice system.
And
the divide could undermine Republican attempts to respond to the death
of Kathryn Steinle last month on a San Francisco pier, allegedly by an
undocumented immigrant
from Mexico — a killing that’s ignited the issue of immigration in
Congress and on the campaign trail.
On
one side are Republicans such as Cruz, who’s promoted his so-called
Kate’s Law on the 2016 stage, powerful Judiciary Committee Chairman
Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who commands significant influence on
immigration among hard-liners. They are all lobbying for legislation
that would enact a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years for
immigrants who try to re-enter the country illegally
after being deported.
“It
is legislation that ought to pass 100 to nothing,” Cruz told POLITICO
in a brief interview. “Every senator, Republican and Democrat, should
support keeping this nation
safe from criminal illegal aliens.”
But
on the opposing side are Senate Republicans such as Mike Lee of Utah — a
close Cruz ally — and Jeff Flake of Arizona, who have both criticized
mandatory minimums for
certain crimes and are skittish about implementing such penalties for
undocumented immigrants.
Lee
has been a particular thorn for Republicans trying to write a bill in
response to Steinle’s death, according to GOP sources. And on a
committee with a narrow 11-9
majority, Republicans can’t afford to lose a single vote without
picking up Democrats — an unlikely scenario on a proposal that’s
imposing such tough penalties.
“That
would not be something that I would be recommending,” Flake said of a
five-year mandatory minimum for illegal re-entry offenses. “There may be
some ways to accommodate
some of those concerns, but not with mandatory minimums like that.”
Steinle’s
death on the Embarcadero in San Francisco has stirred calls from the
Capitol and campaign trail to get tough on illegal immigration after
Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez,
an immigrant from Mexico who had repeatedly re-entered the United
States illegally after being deported, allegedly fired the shot that
killed the 32-year-old woman on July 1.
In
the immediate aftermath of Steinle’s death, Republicans forcefully
criticized so-called sanctuary cities — localities such as San Francisco
where law enforcement officials
decline to carry out orders from federal immigration authorities, due
to constitutional and local policing concerns — and put Democrats
largely on the defensive.
And
another California crime last month is likely to amplify the push in
Congress to bolster immigration enforcement. Authorities say Victor
Aureliano Martinez Ramirez,
who is accused of sexually assaulting and killing a 64-year-old Air
Force veteran in Santa Maria, was in the United States illegally and had
a lengthy arrest record, according to the Los Angeles Times.
But immigration, an issue that’s repeatedly tripped up the GOP, is again causing complications for Republicans.
Lee
is resisting efforts from fellow Republicans to include tougher
mandatory minimum prison terms for immigrants who enter the country
after having been deported — which
would include Lopez-Sanchez, who had been sent back to his native
Mexico five times, but returned to the United States after each removal.
Lee,
who has aligned with liberal Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont
and Dick Durbin of Illinois to ease mandatory minimums for certain
crimes, is uncomfortable
with such binding punishments for immigration offenses, and he’s
threatening to oppose sanctuary cities legislation that includes
mandatory minimums.
“We
have to have enough votes to get a bill out of committee, and we’ll
have to deal with that when we deal with it,” Grassley said. “I can’t
control anybody else’s vote
and there’s other things other than just mandatory minimums that are
important to get done so that’s what we’re gonna have to do.”
North
Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, another Republican member of the Judiciary
Committee, said he’s sympathetic to the idea of relaxing mandatory
minimums for U.S. citizens
for certain crimes. But for immigrants here illegally, that’s another
matter.
“These
are noncitizens violating our immigration laws,” Tillis said. “I think
you can hold them to a different standard. Some may think it’s a
conflict; I look at these
as people illegally entering and re-entering the country, and that’s
why I’m able to rationalize.”
Outside
groups pushing for tougher immigration enforcement have lined up behind
legislation from Sessions and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), which includes
the five-year mandatory
minimum sentence for immigrants who attempt to re-enter the United
States illegally after having been deported. It also calls for
withholding funding from states, cities and counties that refuse to
cooperate with immigration officials.
The
Judiciary Committee had been scheduled to take up a narrowly focused
bill from Flake and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that would deny federal
cash for cities and states
that don’t comply with so-called detainers. That’s a request that goes
out from immigration officials to local jails, asking them to hold an
immigrant so he or she can be deported.
But
the Senate’s early adjournment last week delayed the markup until
September. Meanwhile, Grassley is working on his own bill that includes
the mandatory minimums and
similar funding restrictions for sanctuary cities, but so far, it’s
unclear whether that will come up in his committee.
And
Cruz is touting his mandatory minimums bill, called Kate’s Law, on the
campaign trail — even blaming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
during the first GOP presidential
primary debate in Cleveland last week for blocking a vote on the
legislation on the Senate floor.
Texas
Sen. John Cornyn, the second-ranking Senate Republican and a member of
the Judiciary Committee, declined to say whether he would advocate for
mandatory minimum sentences
in an immigration bill: “I would be sympathetic to [increasing
mandatory minimums] but I would want to know what the whole package
looks like.”
Democrats
and immigrant-rights groups are likely to fight back on proposals that
toughen mandatory minimums for immigration crimes. Right now, the
discretion largely falls
to judges, but a prison sentence could start at two years, according to
David Leopold, a veteran immigration lawyer.
But
Democrats have had their own issues when it comes to sanctuary cities.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democrat on the Judiciary
Committee, has been under
fire from advocates for proposing legislation targeting sanctuary
cities such as San Francisco, where Feinstein once served as mayor.
Key
Senate Democrats huddled last Wednesday on Capitol Hill to strategize
about how their party should respond to the increasing congressional
push against sanctuary cities,
aides said. One Senate Democratic staffer familiar with the meeting
said there will be a “clear isolation of any Democrat who proposes
enforcement-only legislation.”
Democrats
at the meeting were Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and
Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York, Robert
Menendez of New Jersey and
Michael Bennet of Colorado.
But
most of the drama lies with Republicans who control the committee and
will have to deal with the diverging views on mandatory minimums to put
together a bill.
“I
think that’s the Kate’s Law,” Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) said. “That guy
had five convictions on his sheet, and I think it’s very important that
we get that minimum
sentence in there.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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