Representing North Carolina’s Ninth District                                                                        

MYRICK SPEAKS ON IMMIGRATION BILLS BEFORE CONGRESS

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Representative Sue Myrick (NC-9) spoke at a press conference regarding immigration enforcement bills currently before Congress.  Below are her comments given at the press conference. 

 One of the immigration bills currently being debated, H.R. 4437, has a provision of Myrick’s bill, the Scott Gardner Act, dealing with deporting illegal aliens convicted of DWI’s.  However, H.R. 4437 says that an illegal alien would be deported after three DWI’s.  Rep. Myrick is not satisfied with this and wants to deport any illegal alien convicted of just one DWI.  In order to correct this, she will offer an amendment to H.R. 4437.  

 Myrick will also fight to attach other amendments to HR 4437.  One amendment would include other provisions of the Scott Gardner Act, such as helping local and state law enforcement utilize federal immigration databases.  Another would be an amendment based on the 10K Run for the Border Act, which would raise fines on employers who hire illegals to $10,000 and would give 80% of the fine to local law enforcement to help combat illegal immigration. 

 Before any amendments get to the House Floor, they must first be approved by the House Rules Committee.  Myrick will fight to get these amendments approved by the House Rules Committee so that they can be debated on the House Floor next week.

Prepared Remarks from the Press Conference Today:

“I want to thank Tom for all the hard work he has done as chairman of the Immigration Caucus,  and for having us here today.

Congressman Sensenbrenner and King have worked hard to get meaningful legislation to the floor, and I applaud their efforts. 

However, we shouldn’t see these bills as a cure-all.  We will have to continue to work at fixing our immigration problems. 

We are going to try to add amendments to these bills to make them stronger, and we will keep pushing immigration legislation after these bills pass. 

Recently, I introduced the Scott Gardner Act, named after a school teacher in my district who was killed by an illegal alien who was driving drunk. 

It was the illegals FIFTH DWI- I’ll say that again- It was his FIFTH DWI.  For some reason he was still in our country after his first DWI. 

And tragically, we recently had another person killed by an illegal alien who had been drinking and driving. 

Among other things, the Scott Gardner Act would deport any illegal alien convicted of a DWI. 

Thankfully, the Judiciary committee thought this legislation was so important, they put the DWI provision in their bill. 

However, their bill says an illegal alien would be deported after 3 DWI’s. 

Basically, this is saying that if an illegal kills a person while drinking and driving, and it’s their 1st DWI, they are allowed the chance to do it 2 more times before we kick them out. That’s ridiculous. 

I believe that if you are an illegal alien and you get one DWI— you are done—You should be deported.

So, if the bill is voted out of committee today without this One and Done policy—1 DWI and you’re gone— I will try to introduce an amendment on the floor to change it. 

This is extremely important to me because we cannot afford to have people in our country illegally who are breaking the law and endangering our neighbors. 

I will also be introducing several other amendments on the floor such as my 10K Run for the Border Act, which increases employer fines for hiring illegals and gives an 80% cut of the fine to local law enforcement officials to help them fight illegal immigration.

Again, this is a good start for the debate on illegal immigration issues, but it is just the beginning.  We will keep pushing until we have solved our immigration problems. 

Thanks.”

###