Go ahead and put this in the category, "we told you so," Democrats are the pro-crime party. Need more proof? Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-7) wants to make Americans pay for illegal aliens' legal defense, and stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from being able to detain people who shouldn't even be in our country.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Jayapal was joined by fellow Democrats to announce her bill H.R.2760 - The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act - which has 123 Democrat co-sponsors in the House.
“This bill brings dignity, justice, oversight, and accountability to the detention system by repealing mandatory detention, prohibiting the detention of families and children in family detention, phasing out the use of private detention facilities and jails, and requiring DHS to establish civil detention standards.”
“The bill creates a presumption of release and imposes a higher burden of proof to detain primary caregivers and vulnerable populations. The bill also mandates the DHS Inspector General to conduct unannounced inspections and requires DHS to admit Members of Congress to detention facilities for unannounced inspections.”
What a joke!
Jayapal admitted that her bill not only "overhauls the detention system," but also "drastically scales back the use of detention" by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE agents.
"It ensures that every single immigrant who is in detention has their human and civil rights protected," the Democrat rep said. "It requires DHS to allow members of Congress to do our job and conduct those unannounced inspections that hold these facilities accountable."
If passed, The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act would:
Repeal mandatory detention;
Prohibit the detention of families and children in family detention;
Create a presumption of release and impose a higher burden of proof to detain primary caregivers and vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, survivors of torture or gender-based violence, people with serious mental or physical illness or disability, LGBTQ individuals, asylum seekers, and people over age 60;
Phase out the use of private detention facilities and jails over a three-year period;
Require DHS to establish civil detention standards that provide, at minimum, the level of protection in the American Bar Association's Civil Immigration Detention Standards;
Mandate the DHS Inspector General to conduct unannounced inspections with meaningful penalties for failure to comply with standards; and
Require DHS to admit Members of Congress to detention facilities for unannounced inspections.
That bit about allowing Congress to have unannounced visits is an obvious reference to what my RedState colleague Ward Clark wrote about back in May, when members of Congress stormed an ICE detention facility in New Jersey.
A DHS statement at the time read:
"Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility. This is an evolving situation."
In case you missed it, check out the chaos below.
And lest we forget to point it out, at the event on Wednesday, Jayapal stood next to pro-Hamas agitator Mahmoud Khalil to announce her bill demanding that detained illegals be given taxpayer-funded lawyers and other services that American citizens have.
She then turned the microphone over to Khalil, who said, "No one should be detained for immigration enforcement. No one. There's no need for detention for immigration enforcement." Jayapal nodded along in agreement with everything he said.
This is absolutely insane. If you break our laws to get into our country, you do not get to be treated the same as those born here, or those who followed the rules and stood in line, to have the rights of Americans. Period.