Kate's Law and No Sanctuary for Criminals Act Passes in the House on Thursday
President Trump's poll promise, made during the 2016 presidential campaign, to crackdown on undocumented migrants has come to fruition with the passing of Kate's Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act. Thursday, to boost President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, the house passed two bills Thursday.
Kate's Law and No Sanctuary Criminals Act will up the penalties on undocumented immigrants who attempt to re-enter the country illegally after being deported for crimes and use funds from cities that protect them. Largely along party lines, Kate's Law passed 257-167, in the GOP-controlled House.
President Trump celebrated the passing of the bill via twitter.
From the White House Cabinet Room on Wednesday, President Trump said "Countless innocent Americans-including the loved ones of many families in the room with us today-have been killed by illegal immigrants with multiple deportations." The Bills "will close the dangerous loopholes exploited by criminals, gang members, drug dealers, killers, terrorist. MS-13 is a prime target," the President added.
Taking President Trump's agenda even further, No Sanctuary for Criminals Act will cut federal grant money to cities that "shield dangerous criminal aliens from being turned over to federal law enforcement." Under Kate's Law, penalties will be imposed on criminal aliens convicted of reentry, deterring reentry and it will keep criminal aliens off of our streets. Undocumented immigrants convicted under this legislation who attempts to re-enter the country could face up between 10 and 25 years in prison.
Kate's Law was given its name to commemorate Kate Steinle, the 32-year old woman who was allegedly shot and killed on July 1, 2015, by Francisco Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant who had already been deported five times and had seven felony convictions.
Tom Homan, director of the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement, said Wednesday, in his endorsement of the two bills that "The laws, if passed, would give officers and prosecutors more tools to protect the public. Stiffer penalties for reentry offenders makes sense."
These laws come at an improtant time as research published by the Pew Centre shows that the Federal law agencies are making more arrests in immigrant-related offenses than other crimes-including drug, property, and gun crimes-than they were a decade ago. The most recent statistics, done a decade ago, shows that half of the 165,265 total arest made by the Federal government in 2014 were for immigration-related offenses, such as crossing the border illegally or smuggling others into the U.S.