Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) tore into a witness during a House Judiciary hearing Tuesday about his refusal to say illegal immigrants shouldn’t be released into the United States.
The hearing focused on sanctuary city policies. Four witnesses testified, including a Harford County sheriff, an immigration expert, and two family members of victims who were permanently injured by immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.
David Bier, a director of immigration studies at the CATO institute, predominantly centered his testimony on the contributions immigrants, both legal and illegal, have made to the country.
“In just the last three decades, immigrants legal and illegal have reduced [the] federal, state ,and local deficit [by] $14.5 trillion,” Bier said. “They work and start businesses at higher rates, but rather than embrace this tradition, this administration threatens to end it.”
Bier’s comments followed the testimony of Marcus Coleman, a California resident, a state known for its sanctuary policies. Coleman shared his daughter’s story, who was struck by an illegal immigrant driving an 18-wheeler and left permanently disabled. Coleman blamed the incident on sanctuary city policies put in place by Democrats.
“Every day something is happening to somebody and it is your guys’s fault,” Coleman said. “I hold each and every one of you responsible for it. And I always will.”
Bier later made remarks on how immigrant drivers in California average about “25% fewer fatal crashes.”
Patricia Fox, who resides in Denver, testified about her daughter’s hit-and-run, where she was struck and launched headfirst into a concrete barrier. The driver was in the country illegally and fled the scene. Fox now cares for her daughter, who must eat through a tube and remains in a wheelchair.
“If an American citizen hit my daughter, I wouldn’t be here asking, ‘Why was someone, who had no lawful right to be here in this country, here to hit her in the first place,’” Fox said.
The hearing got heated as Roy pressed Bier on whether the two illegal immigrants involved in the witness’ testimonies should’ve been released “on to the streets.”
“So you’re fine with the two individuals who were released by the Biden administration, who were able to carry out and engage in this activity that resulted in the death and the destruction and the maiming of the American people,” Roy said.
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The two went back and forth, interrupting each other as Bier reiterated his support for a “legal way to vet” immigrants. Roy continued to fire back, asking if immigrants should be allowed to “walk across the border without regard to our visas or our laws.”
Bier reluctantly answered, “no,” and agreed that there should be border security before backtracking, saying “it depends on the circumstances” on whether immigrants who were taken into custody after crossing illegally should be released back into the U.S.