Press Releases

Today, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a full committee hearing on H.R. 2278, the “Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act” (The SAFE Act).  After hearing from a panel of witnesses, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued this statement critical of the bill under consideration:

“I sincerely hope that this bill does not signal the direction in which our conversation is heading.  As the Senate works on a bipartisan basis to modernize and comprehensively reform our nation’s broken immigration system, my Republican colleagues in the House seem to be looking for partisan solutions that have failed in the past.

“The enforcement-only bill before the committee today, the so-called, ‘SAFE Act,’ is a dangerous approach to a complicated problem, and it will harm communities all around the country in four crucial ways.

“First, like H.R. 4437 passed by House Republicans in 2005, this bill turns millions of undocumented immigrants into criminals overnight. Indeed, the bill could even make it a felony to be an undocumented immigrant residing in the United States.  Everyone recognizes that it would be impossible, impractical, and inhumane to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in our communities today.  But the solution proposed in this bill—to charge millions of them with crimes and send them to prison—would only make things worse.

“Second, this legislation delegates complete and unchecked immigration enforcement authority to state and local law enforcement agencies, turning every police officer in the country into an immigration agent; a move that would greatly endanger public safety.  Study after study has shown that when police become immigration agents, crime victims and witnesses don’t come forward.  Crimes go unreported and unsolved and public safety decreases.  Far from living up to its name, the SAFE Act makes our communities far less safe.

“Third, this bill will lead to widespread racial profiling and unconstitutional arrests of U.S. citizens and immigrants alike.  We have already seen this in jurisdiction after jurisdiction operating pursuant to 287(g) agreements with the Department of Homeland Security.  Rather than improve the situation and protect against discrimination by requiring greater oversight, this bill grants total enforcement authority with no checks in place.

“Finally, I am very troubled by the lack of due process in this legislation.  The bill allows people to be held in custody by state and local officials for 14 days or longer, seemingly without any process at all.  The state or local government just need to believe that person has violated immigration laws.  This is breathtaking, and given the complexities of immigration law, the completely unchecked authority to detain people for 14 days or longer, without any due process whatsoever, will unquestionably result in the prolonged—and clearly unconstitutional—detention of U.S. citizens.

“The premise of the SAFE Act is that we can enforce our way out of the problem created by an immigration system that has been broken for decades.  But we have tried this and it has failed.  I sincerely hope that this bill does not signal the direction in which our conversation is heading, and I strongly urge my Republican colleagues to take a more thoughtful, constructive approach.  The nation is watching and they are counting on us to do the right thing for our economy, our communities, and our families.”

###