A woman whose son was murdered by a classmate in the country illegally blamed Congress for the killing and demanded that lawmakers crack down on illegal immigration.
“I did not put my kid in harm’s way when he went to school that day,” said Laura Wilkerson, testifying before a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing. “You did. Every one of you is elected by an American. It is time for you to stand in the gap for Americans.”
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Wilkerson was one of two mothers who appeared before the committee to spur a debate about whether President Obama’s immigration policies allow illegal immigrants to carry out violent crimes and avoid deportation. But the conversation broke down along party lines, as Democrats warned against “scapegoating” the entire immigrant community with the crimes of some.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-N.Y., scored an early point by observing that Republicans had invited a sheriff whose deputies were found by a federal court to have violated the Fourth Amendment rights of a Salvadoran immigrant by stopping her without a reason. “It has no place in law enforcement and certainly not in the Judiciary Committee,” Lofgren said.
Minerva Carcano, a United Methodist Church bishop testifying on behalf of illegal immigrants, argued that communities are destabilized by local police forces attempting to enforce federal immigration laws. “Even U.S. citizens are less likely to contact police officers if they are a victim of a crime because they fear police officers will use that time to investigate the immigration status of someone they know,” she wrote in her prepared statement. “As a result, local police involvement in immigration enforcement has led to a reduction in public safety, while mistrust of the police has increased.”
But Sheriff Charles Jenkins of Frederick County, Md., proceeded with his testimony and told lawmakers that transnational gang activity is on the rise, with at least 75 known members of the gangs in his home country. “It is my belief that if this Congress and the next president do not take action to close and secure the border with Mexico and simply enforce the federal immigration laws that exist, every county in America will become a border county,” he said.
Wilkerson responded to Lofgren, referring to her as “this sweet lady who is an immigration attorney,” by saying that laws must be enforced and reciting several examples of Americans who have been killed by people in the country illegally. “You want to know what fear is? When someone reaches into your house and grabs your littlest kid, tortures them — you’re afraid for a long time,” she said. “The laws are here to be enforced by who? By you. And they are not being enforced and my kid suffered terribly for it.”
