The House of Representatives passed three measures aimed at supporting law enforcement officers on Thursday, including a bill that calls for the deportation of migrants who assault officers, and a resolution condemning efforts to defund the police.
The House passed a bill to strengthen penalties for migrants who assault law enforcement officers, and another bill that enables officers to purchase retired service weapons for their use across the country. The third, a resolution, was a statement by the House condemning efforts to “defund the police.”
The “Protect Our Law enforcement with Immigration Enforcement Act” or “POLICE Act,” a law that would make any foreign national who assaults a first responder in the United States deportable from the country, was passed by a 255-175 vote. The bill’s terms encompass assaults on all first responders.
The POLICE Act was sponsored by Republican Rep. Andrew Gabarino of New York. “It is about improving officer safety and making it easier to remove migrants who have demonstrated flagrant criminal violence while on U.S. soil,” Gabarino told the Daily Caller News Foundation, noting that law enforcement officers in New York and along the southern border had recently been assaulted by illegal immigrants.
One amendment to the bill, submitted by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, passed, and requires the government to report the number of illegal aliens who assault police officers every year.
Along with the POLICE Act, the House voted to approve the “Federal Law Enforcement Service Weapon Purchase Act” on Thursday by a margin of 232-198. It would allow retired federal law enforcement officers to purchase, at market value, the handguns they were assigned during their careers.
The bill’s sponsor was Republican Rep. Russell Fry of South Carolina. “Taxpayers are paying for these weapons twice — when they go into circulation and when they are retired,” said Fry in a statement, adding that “[n]ot only does this have the potential to save millions of dollars in waste, but it would offset the cost of purchasing new weapons and fund other agency expenses.”
The third resolution considered was sponsored by Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, the resolution “condemns calls to defund, disband, dismantle, or abolish the police,” according to its text.
The resolution cited “violent leftist extremists [having] repeatedly attacked and assaulted local law enforcement officers” during and after protests across the country over the summer of 2020, claiming that “the defund the police movement…puts [officers] at greater risk of danger.” It was passed by a vote of 301-119, with over 70 Democrats voting in favor.
“[L]eftist activists and progressive politicians have shamefully called for the defunding and dismantling of local police departments across the country,” Buck told the DCNF.
It is unclear whether these bills have support in the Senate, and whether President Biden would veto the bills. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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