Senate Democrats Reject Protecting US Citizens From Criminal Illegals

Senate Democrats should be hanging their heads in shame today after voting down Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s CLEAR Act on Friday. This common sense measure would deport those already in the country illegally who commit even more crimes against the American people.

First introduced by Blackburn in 2007, it would empower local and state law enforcement to detain illegal migrants who break the law. ICE would be required to respond within 48 hours.

Further, her proposal would punish cities that refuse to comply with federal immigration law. 

The Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal (CLEAR) Act would provide states with “the inherent authority of a sovereign entity to investigate, identify, apprehend, detain or transfer to Federal custody aliens in the United States.”

These responsibilities would be carried out, according to the language of the proposal, to assist in the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.

It would further punish so-called “sanctuary” states and cities that refuse to work with federal officials to control illegal migration. The CLEAR Act would limit specific Washington funding to these offending governments. 

GOP senators are in an all-out push to support the Laken Riley Act, which already passed the House. It would force the Department of Homeland Security to detain illegal migrants when they are arrested for so-called “minor crimes.”

Riley, a promising nursing student, was murdered on the University of Georgia campus last month. The alleged killer was quickly arrested and identified as an illegal migrant from Venezuela.

He entered the country unlawfully under the Biden regime in 2022 and had several brushes with the law. Under the current proposal, he would likely have been deported and Riley’s tragic death would not have happened.

The bill was introduced by Sens. Katie Britt (R-AL) and Ted Budd (R-NC). The Act is the companion bill to HR 7511, which was introduced in the lower chamber by Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA).

The fact that the Laken Riley Act is not already the law of the land is a testimony to how far the Democratic Party has fallen morally. Gone are the days when a critic could reasonably argue that the two major parties were mirror images of each other with few substantive differences.

National Democrats cannot even find it within themselves to come together to protect Americans from violent illegal migrants. This does not bode well for the future of the country.