[Pages H5354-H5358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN BY ILLEGAL ALIENS ACT

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1455, I
call up the bill (H.R. 7909) to amend the Immigration and Nationality
Act to provide that aliens who have been convicted of or who have
committed sex offenses or domestic violence are inadmissible and
deportable, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1455, in lieu
of the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the
Committee on the Judiciary, printed in the bill, an amendment in the
nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print
118-47 shall be considered as adopted and the bill, as amended, is
considered read.
The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows:

H.R. 7909

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Violence Against Women by
Illegal Aliens Act''.

SEC. 2. INADMISSIBILITY AND DEPORTABILITY RELATED TO SEX
OFFENSES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, STALKING, CHILD
ABUSE, OR VIOLATION OF PROTECTION ORDER.

(a) Inadmissibility.--Section 212(a)(2) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
``(J) Sex offenses.--Any alien who has been convicted of,
who admits having committed, or who admits committing acts
which constitute the essential elements of a sex offense (as
such term is defined in section 111(5) of the Adam Walsh
Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (34 U.S.C.
20911(5))), or a conspiracy to commit such an offense, is
inadmissible.
``(K) Domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, or
violation of protection order.--Any alien who has been
convicted of, who admits having committed, or who admits
committing acts which constitute the essential elements of--
``(i) a crime of domestic violence (as such term is defined
in section 237(a)(2)(E));
``(ii) a crime of stalking;
``(iii) a crime of child abuse, child neglect, or child
abandonment; or
``(iv) a crime of violating the portion of a protection
order (as such term is defined in section 237(a)(2)(E)) that
involves protection against credible threats of violence,
repeated harassment, or bodily injury to the person or
persons for whom the protection order was issued,
is inadmissible.''.
(b) Deportability.--Section 237(a)(2) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (E)--
(A) in the heading, by striking ``crimes against children
and'' and inserting ``and crimes against children''; and
(B) in clause (i), by inserting before the period at the
end the following ``, and includes any crime that constitutes
domestic violence, as such term is defined in section
40002(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act
of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12291(a), regardless of whether the
jurisdiction receives grant funding under that Act''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(G) Sex offenses.--Any alien who has been convicted of a
sex offense (as such term is defined in section 111(5) of the
Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (34 U.S.C.
20911(5))) or a conspiracy to commit such an offense, is
deportable.''.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill, as amended, shall be debatable for
1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking
minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary, or their respective
designees.
The gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock) and the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Nadler) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).

General Leave

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on H.R. 7909.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, just last week, the Judiciary Committee heard from moms
whose daughters were brutally assaulted and murdered by illegal aliens
who have been welcomed into our country by President Biden and Vice
President Harris.
The statistics tell us how broad this threat has become, but the
individual cases tell us how deep and painful it is. It seems that
every few days we learn of little girls and young teens or moms
abducted by illegals, raped by illegals, and murdered by illegals, none
of whom have any right to be here, and all of whom have been trafficked
into our country by this administration's policies. These entirely
preventable tragedies will continue as long as these policies continue.
The Democrats often talk about the war on women over abortion or
employment policy, but it seems my colleagues couldn't care less about
allowing into our country a flood of sexual offenders, domestic
violence offenders, and child abusers, and allowing them to stay
indefinitely, free from any fear of deportation.
When these monsters commit these ghastly acts and their grief-
stricken moms appear before our committee, the Democrats put on their
best long faces, assure everyone how much my colleagues on the other
side of the aisle grieve with the families, and then argue to continue
precisely the same policies that have produced this nightmare in the
first place.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 7909, the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens
Act, removes any loopholes in current law and requires that illegal
aliens who commit sex offenses or domestic violence are not to be
allowed into this country anymore and must be immediately removed from
our country when they are found, period.
The Democrats say this is duplicative of existing law. If that is
true, why do they oppose it? The Democrats say it is unnecessary. Tell
that to the growing number of families who are paying the butcher's
bill for these open-border policies.

[[Page H5355]]

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

{time} 1600

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, here we are again debating a bill that is another
attempt by the majority to scapegoat and fearmonger about immigrants.
This legislation purports to add new grounds of inadmissibility and
deportability for sexual offenses, adds a new ground of inadmissibility
for domestic violence and other related offensives, and expands the
current grounds for deportability for domestic violence.
Sexual offenses and domestic violence are serious crimes, and if this
bill fixed some gap in current law, I would have no problem supporting
this legislation, but that is not the case here.
In reality, the redundancies in this bill all but ensure that no
additional dangerous individuals would face immigration consequences if
it were to become law. Instead, the overly broad definition and lack of
any waiver authority in this bill would result in extremely harsh and
unintended consequences, including the removal of survivors of domestic
violence.
Let's be very clear: All serious sexual offenses are already grounds
for deportability and inadmissibility. For example, an individual is
rendered deportable if they are convicted of an aggravated felony,
which includes rape, sexual abuse of a minor, or a crime of violence,
which is defined as any ``offense that has as an element the use,
attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the
person.''
Individuals who are convicted, or admit committing the act, of a
crime involving moral turpitude, or a CIMT, are already subject to
inadmissibility. Crimes in which there is intent to cause bodily harm
have long been considered CIMTs. As such, people who are convicted or
admit committing an act of any crime where there is an intent to cause
bodily harm like sexual assaults are already inadmissible.
Where this bill has serious problems is in the sections relating to
domestic violence. Under current law, people are rendered deportable if
they are convicted of domestic violence and other related crimes and
can be deemed inadmissible if they commit the acts or are convicted of
a crime involving moral turpitude, where the domestic violence or
related offense has intent to cause bodily harm. The crime of domestic
violence is already well covered by current law.
However, this bill attempts to significantly expand the definition of
domestic violence to include the Violence Against Women Act definition
that is used for grants and funding. This is a much broader definition
that was never meant to be used in criminal law. We know that because
the definition explicitly says it covers conduct ``that may or may not
constitute criminal behavior.''
The definition for domestic violence under Federal criminal law
focuses on physical force. This broader VAWA-based definition sweeps in
a wider range of behaviors that domestic violence organizations say
will implicate survivors who have used violence in self-defense or who
were accused by their abusers and were either unable to defend
themselves or pled guilty to avoid having to go through the court
process.
The bill would also make it less likely that immigrant communities
will report incidents of domestic violence.
We recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the passage of VAWA,
and we should continue our work to combat domestic violence, but this
legislation would actually set back our efforts to protect survivors.
That is why over 200 national and local groups, as part of the
National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, the experts in
the field, oppose this legislation. I think we ought to listen to them.
We need to work together to solve our immigration problems, but this
bill takes us in the wrong direction.
It attempts to fearmonger and demonize immigrants, just like the
disgusting and absurd comments by former President Trump and many of
his colleagues related to Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, a
claim that has been thoroughly debunked, including by the Republican
mayor of Springfield and Republican Governor DeWine of Ohio. Those
comments have led to Springfield City Hall and several of its schools
being evacuated and closed and multiple hospitals being locked down due
to bomb threats.
My Republican colleagues may think that their words and lack of care
have no impact, but sadly, we have seen that they can set off a deadly
chain reaction.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this misguided bill, and
I reserve the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Scott Franklin of Florida). The Chair
would remind Members to refrain from engaging in personalities toward
nominees for the Office of the President.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Lee) will control the balance of time of the majority.
There was no objection.
Ms. LEE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7909, the
Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act.
In 3\1/2\ years, President Joe Biden and border czar Vice President
Kamala Harris have allowed more than 7.5 million unvetted illegal
aliens into the United States.
At the same time that they facilitated the collapse of our southwest
border, President Biden and Vice President Harris have abandoned any
semblance of interior immigration enforcement.
In a September 2021 memo, the Biden-Harris administration made
enforcement more difficult for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officers. In training materials obtained by the Judiciary Committee and
published in a staff report earlier this year, DHS failed to answer
seemingly clear-cut questions, such as whether an alien who served a
20-year drug-related prison sentence or an alien who discharged a
firearm outside of a police station should be priorities for arrest and
deportation.

Those are the training materials required for all of ICE's
enforcement personnel nationwide. Instead of making clear that ICE
officers should carry out their duties to remove criminal aliens from
American streets, the Biden-Harris administration instructs ICE
officers to develop a full profile of a criminal alien before deciding
whether to arrest someone who is in the country illegally.
In the training examples, that includes determining whether an alien
has high blood pressure or is a caregiver, rather than focusing on
appropriate considerations such as criminal history and whether the
illegal alien is a danger to the community.
In a transcribed interview with the Judiciary Committee, a former top
ICE official admitted that the Biden-Harris administration's policies
have made immigration enforcement more dangerous for ICE officers, more
difficult to carry out, and less efficient overall.
The ICE official even acknowledged that because of the border crisis,
fewer ICE officers are available to track down public safety and
national security threats because they are left to do border-related
tasks, but this shouldn't be a surprise.
In 2019, Kamala Harris told the ACLU she would slash funding for
immigration detention, close private immigration detention centers, and
even use taxpayer funding to provide transgender surgeries for illegal
aliens detained in the United States.
Here is how her policies are working out.
In fiscal year 2019, the Trump administration arrested aliens who
accounted for 5,435 convictions and charges for family offenses. That
number dropped to a mere 3,439 in fiscal year 2023, a 36.7 percent
decrease.
In fiscal year 2019, ICE arrested aliens who were responsible for
6,650 sex offenses and 5,061 sexual assault offenses. Under the Biden
administration in fiscal year 2023, ICE arrested aliens responsible for
only 5,746 sex offenses and 4,390 sexual assault offenses, drops of 13
percent in each category.
These aren't just hypotheticals or just numbers. They are a reality
for families across America who need these offenders to be arrested and
prosecuted and, more importantly, need them to be prevented from
entering the United States of America in the first place.
They are emblematic of the Biden-Harris administration's war on
women. Just last week, the Judiciary Committee heard from three moms
whose

[[Page H5356]]

daughters were brutally assaulted and murdered by illegal aliens
welcomed into the country by President Biden and Vice President Harris.
Tammy Nobles recounted how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris released into
the country the MS-13 gang member who went on to murder and sexually
assault her daughter, Kayla Hamilton. The killer later admitted to four
additional murders and two additional rapes.
Patty Morin told how an illegal alien raped and strangled her
daughter, Rachel, and then stuffed her body into a drainpipe. The
alleged murderer entered the country through border czar Kamala Harris'
wide-open southern border.
Alexis Nungaray spoke about how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris released
at the border the two illegal aliens who went on to viciously assault
and murder her 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn. Ms. Nungaray said: ``She
had no clothing from the waist down. Her hands and her ankles were tied
and thrown under the bridge of water like she was nothing but
garbage.''
Victim advocate April Aguirre also told the tragic story of 11-year-
old Maria Gonzalez. The Biden-Harris administration released her
alleged murderer into the United States. Just 7 months earlier, the
illegal alien assaulted and killed Maria, wrapped her body in a trash
bag, and stuffed her in a laundry basket that he placed under her bed.
These are not isolated incidents.
In February, an illegal alien was arrested in Alabama for allegedly
raping a 14-year-old girl who could not consent to the intercourse as
she was physically helpless or mentally incapacitated.
In April, an illegal alien was arrested in Indiana for allegedly
breaking into a Michigan mobile home park and sexually assaulting two
young girls.
In May, authorities arrested a 20-year-old illegal alien for
allegedly snatching an 11-year-old girl off the street in front of her
Lake Worth, Florida, home and sexually assaulting her. According to
local officials, the Guatemalan national crossed the U.S.-Mexico border
in early January, made his way to Florida shortly afterward, and does
not have an immigration court date until 2027.
That is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' immigration legacy: more
unvetted aliens released into American communities, more criminal
aliens on American streets, and more Americans endangered by radical,
reckless policies.
Kamala Harris' war on women is fueled by her open-border policies,
which allow more sexual offenders, domestic violence offenders, and
child abusers not only into the country but also to remain in the
country indefinitely, free from fear of deportation.
The American people can end this nightmare in just 2 months. If
voters choose to end this crisis, Republicans have proposed new laws
that will allow the next President to secure the border and increase
interior immigration enforcement on day one.
H.R. 7909 is just one of many of those bills. H.R. 7909, the Violence
Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, makes crystal clear that illegal
aliens who commit sex offenses are inadmissible to and removable from
the United States.
The bill also fixes a discrepancy in current immigration law by
creating a ground of inadmissibility for domestic violence to mirror
the existing ground of removability for the same offenses. In addition,
the bill expands the current ground of inadmissibility for domestic
violence by cross-referencing the existing statutory definition for sex
offenses.

Although many aliens can already be found inadmissible to and
removable from the United States for certain sex offenses and domestic
violence offenses, H.R. 7909 expands and clarifies the conduct for
which an alien can be found removable from the country.
The time is now to take seriously the danger of criminal aliens in
the United States. Anything that makes it easier for adjudicators and
officials to ensure a criminal alien's arrest and removal should
receive overwhelming bipartisan support, particularly when it comes to
sex offenses and domestic violence.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Violence Against
Women by Illegal Aliens Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

{time} 1615

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I must say I find the gentlewoman's
references to the Harris or the Biden-Harris war on women ironic coming
from the Representative of a political party, the Republican Party,
whose abortion policies have caused countless women to die, to bleed
out while the doctors wait to operate, fearing felonies because of the
anti-abortion laws in various States.
I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Jayapal), a
distinguished member of the Judiciary Committee.
Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, here we are again, debating another
partisan bill that promotes fearmongering about immigrants, instead of
working together to fix the immigration system.
I probably shouldn't be too surprised. Scapegoating immigrants and
attempting to weaponize the crime of domestic violence is appearing to
be a time-honored tradition for Republicans.
The Trump administration reversed protections for asylum seekers who
were fleeing unspeakable domestic violence in their home countries, and
that is exactly what will happen again under another Trump Presidency
as described in Trump's Project 2025.
Aminta Cifuentes is emblematic of the many survivors of gender-based
violence who would be harmed by this legislation.
For over 10 years, Aminta Cifuentes' husband beat, raped, and
tormented her. He tried to set her on fire. It resulted in her
permanent hearing loss. He once hit her so hard that she gave birth
prematurely, and she still has difficulty breathing and speaking.
Ms. Cifuentes tried to get protection from Guatemalan law enforcement
multiple times, but the police dismissed her complaints as marital
problems.
When she tried to leave her husband, he hunted her down. She finally
fled to the United States where even here, her husband's threats still
followed her.
This is exactly the kind of person that apparently my Republican
colleagues do not think deserves protection.
Back in 2013 when the Senate passed its bipartisan comprehensive
immigration reform legislation with 68 votes, it was then blocked by
the Republican Speaker of the House because he knew that it would pass
if it were to come to a vote.
That legislation would have legalized 10 million people, updated the
legal immigration system, and added significant amounts of new
enforcement.
One of the provisions that was forced in by Senate Republicans
actually included a section making the crime of domestic violence a new
inadmissibility ground.
We supported that provision because it also contained important
exceptions to protect survivors of domestic violence. There are
absolutely no such protections in this legislation.
This misguided bill would take the Violence Against Women Act
definition of domestic violence and weaponize it into grounds for
deportation.
Let me be clear: VAWA, or the Violence Against Women Act, is landmark
legislation, and it is actually a testament to a time when Democrats
and Republicans could come together and legislate on issues of
fundamental importance to this Nation, despite our differences.
The initial iteration of VAWA passed the House by voice vote. It was
a significant law. It reshaped how we as a country talk about gender-
based violence and how we treat survivors.
Now, we have to fight tooth and nail to reauthorize it, and
Republicans regularly let it languish, expired now for 3 years.
While VAWA is a great law, its definition was never meant to capture
criminal conduct. In fact, it explicitly says in the definition itself
that it intends to capture conduct that may or may not be criminal.
There is a reason that advocacy organizations for domestic violence
survivors are coming out in droves to oppose this legislation.
They know how this expanded definition will harm survivors and create
a chilling effect for reporting future crimes.
There are so many reasons why individuals in domestic violence
situations

[[Page H5357]]

are forced into the criminal legal system.
Too often, survivors are arrested alongside their abuser, and they
are charged and even convicted of crimes involving violence. Using this
definition makes it more likely that we harm the very people that we
want to protect.
In that same vein, this bill also has no waivers or exceptions. Under
current law, any crime involving moral turpitude, which would cover
much of the conduct in this bill, is eligible for a waiver if the
individual can meet very strict criteria.
Current law also has specific and important options for waivers for
survivors when dealing with a conviction for domestic violence or
stalking.
These allow the government to waive a conviction if certain criteria
are met, including showing that the individual was not the primary
perpetrator, and that the crime was committed in self-defense.
Unfortunately, the Republican majority is attempting to add a new
inadmissibility ground, and they don't even require a conviction or
include any waivers. This makes absolutely no sense.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the
gentlewoman from Washington.
Ms. JAYAPAL. As it is, domestic violence survivors say that these
waivers are not as strong as they could be, but to not include them at
all shows a shocking lack of empathy and understanding of what
survivors of domestic violence experience.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering that this is the same
party supporting a man who was found liable for sexual assault and
bragged about grabbing and forcibly kissing women without their
consent.
Last week, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of VAWA's enactment,
and now, as Trump's Project 2025 threatens to decimate key protections
enshrined in VAWA, congressional Republicans are attempting to contort
the law to hurt the very people it was designed to protect. What a
disgrace.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this misleading bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The chair would remind Members to refrain
from engaging in personalities toward nominees for the Office of
President.
Ms. LEE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman
from South Carolina (Ms. Mace).
Ms. MACE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Jim Jordan for his
leadership.
I find the debate on my bill, the Violence Against Women by Illegal
Aliens Act, shameful. I, myself, am a survivor of rape. I understand
the lifelong trauma as someone who has survived rape, as someone who
has been in a domestic violence situation where I was also the victim.
I don't want to hear it. If you are here illegally at all, you should
be gone. Today, we are only dealing with a very limited number of
issues, meaning the worst of the worst, the criminal illegal aliens who
are here illegally, committing some of the worst crimes against women
and underage girls.
Joe Biden and border czar Kamala Harris have opened the floodgates,
welcoming countless criminal illegal aliens into our country to prey
upon American women and American girls.
Thanks to the policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, these criminal
illegal aliens who have no business, they have no right to step foot
into our country now roam the streets of our communities, inflicting
senseless acts of sexual and domestic violence and murder while they
hurt American women and girls.
These Biden-Harris criminal illegal aliens have molested American
children, battered and bruised American spouses, and violently raped
American women and girls.
In April 2022, an illegal alien was arrested in my home State of
South Carolina for sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl, after being
previously deported not once but twice.
In May of 2022, an illegal alien and Guatemalan national raped and
impregnated a 9-year-old girl in Ohio.
In April 2023, an illegal alien broke into a woman's house in Indiana
in the middle of the night, physically assaulted her, and held a box
cutter to her throat while he raped her.
In July 2023, an illegal alien and Honduran national raped a 13-year-
old girl in neighboring Virginia, just 25 miles from where we stand
today.
In March of this year, an illegal alien followed a woman from a train
station, grabbed her, robbed her, and sexually assaulted her.
On March 25th of this year, an illegal alien was arrested and charged
with raping a mentally incapacitated 14-year-old girl in Alabama.
On May 13th of this year, a serial rapist illegal alien was arrested
in California for raping two women in a van which authorities referred
to as his ``rape dungeon on wheels.''
In April of this year, an illegal alien was charged after breaking
into a mobile home in Michigan and viciously sexually assaulting two
young girls under the age of 13.
In May of this year, an illegal alien abducted an 11-year-old girl in
Florida, forcing her into his van and brutally raping her.
On June 17th of this year, two illegal aliens raped and strangled 12-
year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas.
Just last month, an illegal alien was arrested after raping a 10-
year-old boy in Mississippi.
Earlier this month, an illegal alien convicted of a violent assault
in Massachusetts was released and went on to rape a child.
This is hardly an exhaustive list. We see more tragedies like these
with every passing week. The blood and the physical and emotional scars
of these tragedies rest on the hands of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Not only has the Biden-Harris administration caused this problem, they
are actively enabling it.
Listen to this. In a September of 2021 memo, Secretary Mayorkas
specifically argued domestic violence shouldn't be categorical grounds
to apprehend and remove an illegal alien. How many American women and
girls have been battered and bloodied due to this insanity?
Under my bill, any illegal alien who commits a sex crime or act of
domestic violence is inadmissible to our country and immediately
deportable.
We shouldn't let them into our country under any circumstances, and
if we catch them, we send them back. They have to go.
As a survivor of rape, I know firsthand the devastating toll these
heinous acts can take on a woman and the lifelong scars and the
lifelong trauma that they leave behind. One woman or one child violated
by an illegal alien is one too many.
Each and every sex crime or act of domestic violence committed by an
illegal alien was preventable. They have no single right to be here
today.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to put politics aside
and protect American women and children from being victimized by
criminal illegal aliens.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded again to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President and the Vice President.
Ms. LEE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from New York (Mr. Molinaro).
Mr. MOLINARO. Mr. Speaker, I too rise in support of the Violence
Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act. Since President Biden took office,
over 11 million individuals have come into this country illegally.
Hundreds of thousands of these illegal immigrants have come to New York
State.
Thanks to sanctuary city policies established both in the city of New
York and in the State of New York, the Governor of New York allowed the
mayor of the city to transport illegal immigrants to hotels and motels
across upstate New York, forcing Democrats and Republicans to take
executive action to block this action.

Just in the past year alone, upstate New York has seen several
heinous crimes committed against women by illegal immigrants.
To name just a few, in June, a Turkish migrant raped a 14-year-old
girl in Albany after attacking her inside her vehicle.
A migrant from Ecuador suffocated a woman in Syracuse on her 21st
birthday and then hid her body in a community park.
In Delaware County, New York, an illegal immigrant raped and
strangled a

[[Page H5358]]

woman. To make matters worse, this illegal immigrant was out on
Governor Hochul's cashless bail for previously raping someone.
One instance of a woman being raped or assaulted should be enough and
should have been enough for President Biden and Vice President Harris
to take executive action to close the border.
The Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act will ensure that
these evil individuals, these criminals, are arrested and deported.
I urge my colleagues to support the bill so that we can remove any
illegal immigrant who commits awful crimes against women.
Ms. LEE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself
the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this bill does not close any gaps in the law, does not
fix any of the myriad problems with our immigration system or the
southern border, and would actually harm the very people it purports to
protect.
It is another excuse for the Republican majority to play politics
with immigration without doing any of the hard work involved in finding
bipartisan solutions.
I urge Members to oppose this bill, and I yield back the balance of
my time.

{time} 1630

Ms. LEE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, Democrats assert today that this
bill is unnecessary, but that ignores the clear reality of the crisis
affecting our southern border and how it has affected those who are
victims of these crimes in our country.
Take, for example, the fact that under current immigration law, there
is no explicit ground for inadmissibility of illegal aliens who commit
domestic violence offenses, despite a ground of removability for such
aliens.
Consider that despite certain sex offenses making aliens removable
from the country, there is currently not a ground of inadmissibility or
removability for certain sex offenses.
The Biden-Harris administration's war on women must come to an end.
H.R. 7909 is one step toward that. Making people inadmissible to and
removable from the United States because they have committed a sex
offense or a domestic violence offense should be something that even
open-border Democrats can agree with us on.
The Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act is a
straightforward, commonsense bill that I urge my colleagues to support.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 1455, the previous question is ordered
on the bill, as amended.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was
read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on passage of the bill.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Ms. LEE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.

____________________