'Shouldn't Have To Explain These Things': Higgins Details How DC 'Does Not Comply' With Federal Law

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) spoke in support of HR 2056, the  District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let's have a candid conversation, if we could, sir, my colleagues

00:07across the aisle, about what's happening here. Congress in America, you know, we need to

00:14clarify for the citizens watching, Mr. Speaker, Congress has a unique authority and therefore

00:20responsibility for our nation's capital as opposed to other municipalities across the

00:26country. You know, why not Phoenix, New Orleans, Atlanta, et cetera? Because it's not the nation's

00:33capital, that's why. Because it's not reflected in the responsibilities that are enumerated

00:41for Congress, for the District of Columbia, for our nation's capital. So with the pendulous

00:49swing of majority control that we observe in our nation, from Democrat majority to Republican

00:58majority, my Democrat colleagues feel responsible to make changes when they have the majority,

01:04as do we. And when we were under Democrat majority control in recent years, since I've been in

01:12Congress, the Democrats supported and did not oppose some policy and legislative decisions

01:21at the municipal level in our nation's capital that we knew would injure our nation's capital

01:31in the realm of law enforcement. So that's where we are. If Republicans have majority control

01:38in the House, the Senate, the White House, so of course we're going to respond to the threat

01:44that we face within our nation's capital towards law enforcement. And this is how simple this

01:50bill is. This is my bill. It requires the District of Columbia to comply with federal immigration

01:58law. What's wrong with that, Mr. Speaker? My colleague says, he stated two or three times

02:06in his opening statement that the District of Columbia does not obstruct federal law enforcement.

02:12That's not true. You have to read between the lines, America. When he says they do not obstruct,

02:19he means they don't like physically stop ICE from executing a warrant. But what he's not saying,

02:26Mr. Speaker, is that the District of Columbia does not comply with federal immigration law enforcement

02:34warrant detainers, which is the safest, most widely accepted means by which a human being that's in the

02:45custody of one jurisdictional authority is transferred to another jurisdictional authority safely and within

02:52the parameters of the law for the benefit of the individual and the community. D.C. doesn't do that

03:01for federal immigration detainers. If they have somebody in custody, Mr. Speaker, for whatever purposes,

03:10and that guy has a warrant for ICE, they know that there's a warrant for that man. And under normal

03:17circumstances, that the custody of that individual will be transferred safely once the District of

03:25Columbia was finished with that individual. They don't do that with ICE. They subject their communities to

03:35dangerous circumstances and law enforcement to absolutely unnecessary danger. So my bill just mandates that

03:45the District of Columbia, the one city that Congress has authority and therefore responsibility to be involved with

03:53things like this. And we shouldn't have to have this law. Why? Because the District of Columbia should be

03:58following the federal law in the first place. We shouldn't have to bring this to the floor. We shouldn't

04:05have to engage in this debate. I shouldn't have to explain these things. But we are going to, by God, require that

04:13our nation's capital comply with our nation's federal law. So I encourage my colleagues to take a deep breath

04:24and step back and say, yes, our nation's capital will be subject to the very laws that this body passes.

04:33I appreciate the chairman's advocacy for my bill. I encourage my colleagues to support it. And I yield the

04:44balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

04:46Mr. Speaker. Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker. The gentleman yields