Gowdy-Goodlatte SAFE Act Would Criminalize Non-citizens And Indefinitely Hold Non-deportees

The SAFE Act worst than Sensenbrenner's criminalization 2006 HR 4437 bill that was killed by the U.S. Senate, which sparked massive national opposition and immigration reform marches.

By H. Nelson Goodson

September 17, 2013

Washington,  D.C. - In October, the SAFE Act bill HR 2278 will be debated and voted in the U.S. House floor. The HR 2278 bill previously passed the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

In June,  both the House of Representatives' Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) with the support of the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) introduced the "Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act" SAFE Act HR 2278, the United We Dream dot org. reported.

The SAFE Act is considered more extreme than U.S. Representative James Sensenbrenner's (R-WI) criminalization bill HR 4437 (2006) that would have criminalize anyone who rendered aid to undocumented immigrants. The HR 4537 bill passed the U.S. House in 2006,  but was killed by the U.S. Senate when it sparked major protests and massive marches around the country.

The current SAFE Act is destine to wake up another wave of protests and immigration reform movement as it is expected to be debated in the House. 

Today, President Barack H. Obama, his administration and a bipartisan group of both U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators are trying to debate and pass a just immigration reform bill. The SAFE Act, if it is allowed to proceed will most likely be a devastating factor for a Republican presidential bid defeat in 2016.

Under the Obama administration, more than one million of undocumented immigrants have been deported and deportations continue, which more than 40,000 are expected to be deported within months. Most of those deported, have no criminal history.

A majority of those deported are family income wage earners and the deportations continue to separate families, according immigration reform activists and organizations.

According to the SAFE Act bill, it will fund an additional 5,000 law enforcement officers and it,

● Will give authority to state and local law enforcement agencies to identify, arrest and detain undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and allow the DHS to sign an 287G agreement with any law enforcement agency requesting it.

● Will require state and local law enforcement agencies to share personal data from those detained or stopped with the DHS.

● Will make it a federal criminal act to be undocumented in the U.S. and also a criminal offense to be associated with any undocumented immigrant. 

● Will make it easier to deport those with legal Green Cards, if accused of a crime or violation of the law without an immigration judge reviewing the circumstances of the charges.

● Will allow states and local governments to create their own criminal and civil penalties for undocumented immigrants violating immigration laws.

● Will authorize DHS officers to conduct warrantless searches, arrests and allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to initiate deportation proceedings from the field when detaining suspected undocumented immigrants. 

● Will criminalize all undocumented immigrants, despite how long they lived in the U.S. and makes it easier to hold them in federal prisons.

● Will indefinitely detain those undocumented immigrants with removal orders whose country of origin doesn't take them back.

● Will expand detention proceedings and jeopardize safety standards at detention centers for those in removal proceedings.

● Will include provisions to allow all undocumented immigrants to be processed under the SAFE Act, despite immigration categories or status.

● Will automatically eliminate Obama's curent DACA for DREAMers in the country.