[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17] [House] [Page 22294] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]URGING REFORM OF IMMIGRATION POLICY PERTAINING TO SANCTUARY CITIES The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Sekula Gibbs) is recognized for 5 minutes. Ms. SEKULA GIBBS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak regarding a subject that is very important to my constituents in Congressional District 22 of Texas and has great national interest as well. This consideration is regarding much needed reform on our Nation's immigration policies, especially those policies that regard such sanctuary cities, as they are known. As you are aware, my colleague from Texas, Congressman John Culberson, led a successful effort to place an amendment in a recent bill that passed the House of Representatives but has not come forward through the Senate, and this bill disallows Federal funding to those cities who do not provide information to Federal immigration officers regarding illegal aliens. Cities such as Houston, cities that operate under general orders such as that signed by a police chief, those orders that prevent police officers from asking about the immigration status of criminals who commit claim C misdemeanors. Such sanctuary policies have contributed to rising crime rates and to, unfortunately, deaths of police officers, such as the death of Police Officer Rodney Johnson in Houston, who was killed this year by an illegal immigrant, one who had been arrested three times and deported once but then subsequently returned to Texas. Americans are indeed saddened at the loss of our troops in the war in Iraq and also the war conducted across the world against terrorists. We have lost almost 2,900 troops in the war in Iraq. But this figure has to be placed into perspective. We have been given information by Representatives Steve King, Republican from Iowa, who used data from the Government Accountability Office, the Violent Crimes Institute of Atlanta, and AAA Foundation, that says that 12 Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens and 13 Americans are estimated to be killed by illegal aliens who are driving while intoxicated. This gives us a total of almost 4,700 Americans who are murdered annually by illegal aliens. These statistics must not go unrecognized. They call out for action. Americans also are losing their property rights. Those rights are being trampled in favor of the rights of illegal aliens. Recently a jury awarded $210,000 in damages against a rancher who was attempting to protect his property against trespassing by individuals that he thought were illegal aliens but turned out not to be, but he was really attempting to defend his property. He will ultimately be required to pay $98,000 for trying to defend his property against trespassers. What about his rights? Ranchers have been put on notice that if they attempt to prevent armed trespassers from crossing their property, they could face financial ruin with charges of civil rights violations, especially if those trespassers happen to be illegal aliens. This is not right. Legal is legal and illegal is illegal. Illegal immigrants should not be accorded more rights than American citizens. Mr. Speaker, this is a very important issue to the constituents in the congressional district in my part of Texas, Southeast Texas, District 22. Tackling the problem of illegal immigration will require full cooperation of all of our government resources, local, State, and Federal, and I call on this body to work diligently to help us solve this situation. We are all Americans and we must pull together to address difficult issues such as this. Taxpayers demand accountability from elected officials across our country, and they have made it clear that they will not tolerate uncooperative or inefficient use of government resources and their tax dollars. I would like to urge you to work hard to ensure that this important provision that deals with sanctuary city policies is included in any version of immigration bills that do progress into law through this body. ____________________