Note: Click HERE to see Georgia cosponsors

Getty images

Davis-Oliver Act would make Trump’s immigration agenda law of the land

BY BOB DANE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR – 06/01/17

Immediately after taking office, President Trump acted quickly and decisively by using executive power to restart the process of controlling our borders and enforcing America’s existing immigration laws. Progress is being made but much more remains to be done.

Legislation must follow executive action in order to fix flaws in the system, enhance public safety and ensure lasting reforms are solidly in place. The onus is now on the GOP-led Congress to act, particularly given that for eight years, the GOP has railed against President Obama’s usurpation of their authority to regulate immigration.

Thus, the introduction of the Davis-Oliver Act is a refreshing signal that the GOP may be taking its responsibility seriously. The bill is a much-needed legislative vehicle for many of President Trump’s signature immigration enforcement initiatives and would provide law enforcement professionals the relief, guidance and authority they have long needed to keep America safe. The bill, sponsored by Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee Vice Chairman Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) is a vital first step — but not the only step — in modernizing our broken immigration system.

Named after two California law enforcement officers murdered by a criminal illegal alien, the Davis-Oliver Act, among other things, would ensure that state and local law enforcement officials would always have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws. It would also end the ability of future presidents to unilaterally shut down immigration enforcement (read: Obama) for political purposes.

The bill adds much-needed clarity to ICE’s detainer authority, the tool used by federal immigration enforcement officials to order criminal aliens be held by local jails for at least 48 hours so they can be picked up and removed from the country. Under current law, ICE detainers are regularly ignored by sanctuary communities — even for some of the most heinous criminal aliens — and result in convicted criminal aliens being released back onto our streets.

The needless carnage created by communities that refuse to cooperate with detainers is a national disgrace. In 2014, for example, 13,288 criminal aliens — charged with serious crimes including homicide, kidnapping, assault, sexual assault, drunk driving — were released back onto the streets, only to commit new crimes against innocent Americans… READ THE REST HERE