From Sen. Charles Grassley:
I’m here to support the Laken Riley Act.
This legislation comes within the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee, which is the committee I will chair this Congress.
We all know that a result of the last election was a mandate for the president to carry out his agenda.
In that agenda was the deportation of people who illegally enter our country.
Everybody knows, you can’t come to the United States without our permission.
One of those things that President Trump prioritized was his pledge to detain and deport criminals who are in this country illegally.
Laken was a young woman who lost her life at the hands of a violent illegal immigrant with criminal history.
Laken’s killer robbed a business before he robbed Laken of her life.
He should’ve either been in prison or deported immediately after committing his first crime of robbery.
This bill would ensure that thieves are detained by our immigration authorities.
Sadly, we know from experience that some administrations willfully refuse to enforce our immigration laws.
This bill protects our citizens against any future administrations that wants to let criminals stay in the United States illegally.
It allows states to sue the federal government if and when it refuses to detain an illegal immigrant who has harmed a person in that state.
Over the past four years, a countless number of criminals have crossed our borders and hurt Americans.
No American should be harmed by those who shouldn’t be here in the first place.
The Laken Riley Act will empower the president and his administration to remove the dangerous criminals that currently roam our streets and threatens our citizens’ safety.
I’d like to thank my colleague, Senator Britt, for taking the lead on the Laken Riley Act.
Thanks to her leadership, we have supporters and cosponsors from both sides of the aisle backing this legislation.
I urge my colleagues to move to and support this bill.
The primary role of the federal government is to protect its citizens.
We owe it to Laken Riley and others who have fallen victim to crimes by illegal migrants to ensure that the federal government never fails to protect other Americans, like it failed to protect them.
