(The Center Square) — The U.S. House passed a bill to deport illegal foreign nationals convicted of domestic violence and sex-related offenses, including sex crimes against children, but not without controversy.
Nearly all Democrats voted against the bill filed by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, on Thursday. They attacked the bill before they voted on it; Mace said their remarks were “shameful.”
“I find the debate shameful. I myself am a survivor of rape. I understand the lifelong trauma as someone who has survived rape, as someone who’s been in a domestic violence situation where I was also the victim. I don’t want to hear it. If you’re here illegally at all you should be gone,” she said.
The bill passed by a vote of 266-158; 215 Republicans and 51 Democrats voted for it. Seven members didn’t vote; 158 Democrats voted against it.
“We are fed up with headlines about women losing their lives or becoming victims of assailants who trespassed into our country illegally under the Biden-Harris border crisis,” Mace said. “This legislation sends a strong message: if you are an illegal who has committed acts of violence against women, you will not find sanctuary here.”
Mace also posted a video on X, saying, “Every member voting against this bill shows the American people they care more about illegal aliens than our women and children.”
The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act “to provide that aliens who have been convicted of or who have committed sex offenses or domestic violence are inadmissible and deportable.” This includes stalking, child abuse, child neglect, child abandonment, violation of protective orders, including credible threats of violence, repeated harassment, and conspiracy to commit a sex offense as grounds for deportation, according to the bill language.
It also includes crimes defined in the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006: child sex offenders, sexual predators, child sex traffickers, using minors in a sexual performance, soliciting a minor to practice prostitution, producing or distributing child pornography, transporting with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, among others.
“It seems that every few days we learn of little girls and young teens or moms abducted by illegals, raped by illegals, and murdered by illegals, none of whom have any right to be here, and all of whom have been trafficked into our country by this administration’s policies,” U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-CA, said in an impassioned speech on the House floor. “These entirely preventable tragedies will continue as long as [Biden-Harris] policies will continue.
“The Democrats often talk about the war on women over abortion or employment policy, but it seems they couldn’t care less about allowing into our country a flood of sexual offenders, domestic violence offenders, and child abusers, and allowing them to stay indefinitely free from any fear of deportation,” he continued. “And when these monsters commit these ghastly acts and their grief-stricken moms appear before our committee, the Democrats put on their best long faces, assure everyone how much they grieve with the families, and then argue to continue precisely the same policies that have produced this nightmare in the first place.”
He also said the bill “removes any loopholes in current law and requires that illegal aliens who commit sex offenses or domestic violence are not to be allowed into this country anymore and must be immediately removed from our country when they’re found.”
Current law allows for some exceptions for those convicted of moral turpitude depending on the age of the offender when the crime was committed and if prison time was served. The bill eliminates existing exceptions, Republicans argue.
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, said it didn’t fix the loophole, otherwise he would have voted for it. “In reality, the redundancies in this bill all but assure that no additional dangerous individuals would face immigration consequences if it were to become law. Instead, the overly broad definition and lack of any waiver authority in this bill would result in extremely harsh and unintended consequences including the removal of survivors of domestic violence.”
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, who opposed it, said, “Republicans went to the House floor today pretending to care about victims of domestic violence—but it was just a cover for continuing to scapegoat immigrants. Their bill would hurt domestic violence survivors by not giving them the protection they deserve. It’s a disgrace.”
Mace pointed to a September 2021 memorandum Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents listing categories of illegal foreign nationals not to deport, including domestic violence offenders because doing so “could make victims of domestic violence more reluctant to report the offense conduct.”
“How many American women and girls have been battered and bloodied due to this insanity?” Mace said. “Under my bill, any illegal alien who commits a sex crime is inadmissible to our country and immediately deportable. We shouldn’t let them into our country under any circumstances, and if we catch them, we send them back.”
