Raul wants immigration crackdown

Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador pressed a sweeping immigration enforcement bill Thursday that would add 12,500 additional armed federal immigration officers, penalize sanctuary cities, enlist state and local police in federal immigration enforcement, impose new criminal penalties and step up detentions and deportations.

“For too long, we have allowed individuals to enter our country illegally and in too many cases to do us harm,” Labrador declared, as the House Judiciary Committee took up his bill. “This is a critical first step to ensuring that the American people feel confident that our laws are being enforced.”

At a stormy markup session in the committee on Thursday, Democrats charged that the bill has serious constitutional problems, would waste billions on rounding up and detaining people who pose no danger, and would actually increase crime in U.S. communities, by forcing undocumented people “into the shadows” where they’d be afraid to report crimes they’d witnessed or suffered, for fear of deportation/ Betsy Russell , Eye on Boise. More here.