Washington, D.C. — In a speech on the Senate floor today, Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) once again pushed the chamber to pass a bill to make assaulting a first responder a deportable offense, but was blocked by Senate Democrats for the third time.
The POLICE Act amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to explicitly state that an illegal immigrant may be deported for assaulting a police officer. Current law does not cover all assaults against law enforcement, meaning some immigrants can remain in the country even after committing this crime.
On March 8, 2024, Senator Budd attempted to add the POLICE Act as an amendment to an omnibus government funding bill. And on May 22, 2024, Senator Budd requested the unanimous consent of the chamber to pass the bill.
WATCH SENATOR BUDD’S SPEECH AND REBUTTAL
Full text of Senator Budd’s Speech and Rebuttal (as prepared for delivery):
Under President Biden, nearly 10 million illegal immigrants have entered our country. Now, among those 10 million are an unknown number of dangerous individuals.
We know that hundreds of individuals appear on the terrorism watch list. We know that a significant number are trans-national cartel members. Other categories include drug smugglers, human traffickers, and many more. There’s a laundry list of bad actors who have no business stepping foot into our country.
And sadly, it’s not a surprise that when we allow over half a million illegal immigrants with criminal records into the homeland, they commit crimes against American citizens. Even members of law enforcement – the very people entrusted with keeping us safe – are now on the frontlines of the border crisis. And no, I’m not talking about police in Texas or Arizona. I’m talking about North Carolina and New York City.
Two years ago in my home state of North Carolina, Wake County Deputy Sheriff Ned Byrd was killed in the line of duty by illegal alien gang members who crossed the border under President Biden.
And just this week in Queens, New York, NYPD officers were shot while trying to apprehend a suspect in a string of robberies – one was shot in the stomach and the other was shot in the leg. Thank goodness that these officers are expected to recover.
The suspect was identified as a 19-year-old from Venezuela, who crossed the border illegally through Eagle Pass, Texas, in July of last year. Worse yet, he was caught and released with a future court date that he predictably ignored. Enough is enough.
I am back here on the Senate floor to once again try and pass a bill called the POLICE Act. It’s a straightforward bill. The POLICE Act simply states that an alien can be deported for assaulting a police officer, firefighter, or other first responder. The bill has already passed the House, and it can be sent to the president’s desk by passing it today.
Now the last time I tried to pass this bill, the Senator from Connecticut blocked it – He called it “nothing”. That is 100% wrong. Specifically, the POLICE Act amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to explicitly state that an illegal immigrant may be deported for assaulting a police officer. It’s important to point out that current law does not cover all assaults against law enforcement. This means that some immigrants can remain in the country even after committing crimes against cops.
And we know that under the Biden administration, that is a very real possibility. The truth is that we cannot trust this administration to do the right thing, enforce the law, and keep our communities safe. That’s why we need to pass the POLICE Act today.
Any Senator who claims to “back the blue” should have no problem supporting this bill. I sincerely hope that in the face of yet another attack on police officers, that we can pass this bill today.
Rebuttal to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT):
I appreciate my colleague’s comments.
I know that he once said that illegal immigrants are “undocumented Americans” and that they are “the people we care about most” .. but I would submit that if you illegally enter the United States and then beat up a police officer, you are most certainly not an American, and the only thing we should care about is that you are deported. And this bill is quite important in that regard.
As I said before, current law does not cover all assaults against law enforcement. Deporting an illegal alien who assaults a law enforcement officer likely requires a complex legal analysis to prove that the illegal alien committed an aggravated felony or a crime involving moral turpitude. It is not guaranteed that this process will result in deportation.
The POLICE Act creates a simple, straightforward, common sense rule that says that illegal aliens who assault cops are deportable – period, end of story. We saw it in North Carolina. We just saw it in New York City. And it could happen in a community near you. We need to act.
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