Rep. Mo Brooks announced this week that he has cosponsored the companion bill to legislation first introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Empowering Law Enforcement Act, which would grant local and state police more authority to enforce U.S. immigration law, Yellowhammer News reported. The legislation seeks to address the nation’s southern border crisis as illegal border crossings hit record numbers this year. Critics blame the Biden administration’s reversal of most of the immigration policies from the Trump administration. Biden recently ended border wall construction and ended the Trump administration’s Remain-in-Mexico policy. Known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the policy kept migrants in Mexico until their hearings were processed.
According to a statement released by Tuberville in May, the Act will “grant state and local law enforcement inherent immigration enforcement authority to investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain or transfer a migrant that has entered the U.S. illegally.” The legislation would also provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary flexibility on how long someone may be detained, extending the 180-day period.
“If the Biden Administration is insistent on taking away ICE’s ability to enforce our immigration laws, then we should make sure our state and local law enforcement has the authority to respond to the influx of illegal migrants in our communities,” stated Tuberville. “The Biden Administration has failed our law enforcement at the expense of American communities, and this bill will remedy that moving forward.”
Brooks commented to Yellowhammer News, “Joe Biden and the Socialist Democrats have surrendered America’s southern border. We’ve all seen the horrifying scenes of illegal aliens, many of whom are COVID-19 positive, streaming into America unabated by the millions. Senator Tuberville’s Empowering Law Enforcement Act is an important measure in the fight to secure the southern border and fully enforce America’s immigration laws by giving states and local law enforcement critical resources and authority to enforce federal immigration law. This is especially important as the Biden administration continues to hamstring Customs and Border Patrol operations in order to appease the far left.”
