Napolitano Opposes Immigration Provision in War Bill

(Washington D.C.)- Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano voted against the War Supplemental Appropriations Bill, House Resolution 1268, on Thursday, after Republican leaders attached the Real ID Act, H.R. 418, to the bill during negotiations between the House and Senate. Napolitano said she could not support any bill that unfairly targets immigrants and places an expensive unfunded mandate on states.

           “I support our troops 1000 percent and want nothing more than to provide them the full funding they need,” said Napolitano, D-Norwalk. “This bill is a wartime supplemental spending bill. It has nothing to do with immigration. I cannot and will not support this Republican effort to tuck this unconscionable immigration legislation into such an important defense bill.”

          The House of Representatives approved H.R. 1268 by a vote of 368-58. The $81.3 billion in emergency funding for the current fiscal year allocates the heavy majority of the monies, some $76.8 billion, for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. If enacted, it would bring the total money appropriated for Iraq and Afghanistan to $275 billion. H.R. 1268 also includes $656 for tsunami relief and recovery and $222 million to reimburse the U.S. government for tsunami-relief operations.

          Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid lamented that Democrats were completely shut out of negotiations on the final version of the bill, calling it “another example of the Republican leadership’s abuse of power” by including a provision that has not even been debated on the Senate floor.

          Napolitano voted against the Real ID Act when the House considered it in February.

Touted as a border-securing instrument in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the legislation also tightens driver’s license requirements and makes it more difficult for foreign nationals to claim asylum.

          “For the uncounted masses of undocumented workers in service jobs that few Americans want, this bill would do nothing but force them further into the shadows,” she said. “And at the same time, it adds thousands of unlicensed and uninsured motorists on our streets while clogging our DMVs with foreign nationals trying to weave their way through a maze of confusing and onerous regulations 

          “This is another very expensive unfunded mandate on our states,” she added. “This bill isn’t targeting terrorists. It’s targeting immigrants in a nation of immigrants.”

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