Last week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) halted progress on a vital piece of legislation proposed by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) aimed at addressing the growing concern over violent crimes committed by illegal aliens.
The bill — titled “Sarah’s Law” — is designed to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with enhanced authority to detain illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes. It provides that illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes can be held in custody by ICE without deferring to local prosecutors or judges.
Sarah’s Law is named after 21-year-old Sarah Root. Like the recent tragic story of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, Sarah’s life was cut short by an illegal alien who should have never been inside the U.S. in the first place.
Democrat senator thwarts GOP effort to pass bill detaining illegal immigrants charged with violent crime https://t.co/eW99OH0JDW
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 7, 2024
Despite the clear intent to protect citizens and enforce existing immigration laws, Durbin objected to the unanimous consent request to advance the bill to a floor vote. His procedural objection stops the bill dead in its tracks for the time being and effectively shields illegal migrants charged with violent crimes from pre-trial detention.
Durbin argued that automatic detention would “deprive immigrants of the due process that everyone is afforded.” That shortsighted and legally inaccurate statement ignores the fact that illegal migrants are afforded the same rights to habeas corpus as other criminal defendants and allows them the right to taxpayer-funded assistance from a federal public defender.
Ernst’s rationale for the bill was clear and straightforward: “It would merely require ICE to detain, just to detain, otherwise deportable illegal immigrants charged with killing or seriously injuring another person.”
Democrats BLOCKED my #SarahsLaw to detain illegal immigrants who have killed or injured U.S. citizens.
They are standing in the way of keeping Americans safe. pic.twitter.com/PhweWo8La6
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) March 8, 2024
The objections raised by Durbin are misaligned with the interests of American citizens and the victims of these crimes. The cases of Root and Riley are not isolated incidents but examples of a broader issue that has been exacerbated by policies such as the “catch and release” approach since the onset of the Biden administration.
Critics of Durbin’s stance argue that protecting American citizens should be the foremost priority. As highlighted by Ernst, the unfortunate reality is that tragedies like those of Root and Riley are preventable. Yet, they are doomed to be repeated under the open borders policies being forced upon America by the Biden administration and leftist Democrats like Dick Durbin.
