On Thursday, more than two-thirds of House Democrats voted against legislation for deporting non-citizens who are convicted of DUIs, though it did pass with bipartisan support.
Fifty-nine Democrats joined with all 215 voting Republicans to approve the Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act while 150 Democrats opposed it. Seven lawmakers, including three Republicans and four Democrats, did not cast a vote.
The bill, which seeks to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to stipulate that non-citizens “who have been convicted of or who have committed an offense for driving while intoxicated or impaired” by drugs or alcohol “are inadmissible and deportable,” was introduced by Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL).
Though Moore said on X that it was “good news” that 59 Democrats “wised up” and voted for his measure, the congressman added that the “bad news is” President Joe Biden “is still allowing thousands of unvetted illegals to flood into our country and endanger American families.”
Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), one of the Democrats who voted in favor of the bill, touted how the legislation “creates a new authority to deport any person unlawfully in the country who drives under the influence. We must uphold public safety at all costs.”
Other Democrats spoke out against the legislation. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a member of the leftist “Squad,” was among them.
The bill “would mean that our immigrant neighbors who came here lawfully and who have resided in our communities for decades could be deported and ripped from their families due to one misdemeanor DUI conviction, creating a separate and unequal system of justice,” Tlaib said in a statement.
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This week, the GOP-led House passed other bills with bipartisan support that were geared toward border security — all of which now head to the Democrat-controlled Senate — as members prepare to tackle an impeachment resolution against Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas as early as next week and await the unveiling of a border deal being hashed out in the upper chamber.
One bill seeks to establish new penalties for individuals who engage in high-speed vehicle chases while fleeing Border Patrol agents within 100 miles of the border. A second aims to deny refuge in the United States to non-citizens involved with aiding Hamas in carrying out the deadly attack on Israel on October 7 of last year. Yet another ventures to remove or bar any non-citizen who commits Social Security and ID fraud.