House Passes Bill to Deport Illegal Immigrants Convicted of Sex Offenses

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in Washington, in a file image. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The U.S. House on Sept. 18 passed a bill that would authorize the deportation of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of a sex offense such as soliciting a minor to engage in sexual conduct.

Members voted 266–158 to send the bill introduced by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) to the Senate. All Republicans who lodged a vote were in favor of the bill, while 51 Democrats voted in favor and 158 voted against.

Known as the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, the bill would add to federal immigration law that any illegal immigrant who has been convicted of or has admitted to carrying out sex offenses such as possession of child pornography and soliciting a minor to engage in sexual conduct would be inadmissible to the United States and shall be deported if already inside the country.

Having committed a crime of domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, child neglect, child abandonment, or violation of a protection order would also render an illegal immigrant inadmissible or deportable.

“[The legislation] removes any loopholes in current law and requires that illegal aliens who commit sex offenses or domestic violence are not to be allowed into this country anymore and must be immediately removed from our country when they’re found,” Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said on the House floor before the vote.

The law currently designates illegal immigrants who have been convicted of a crime “involving moral turpitude” as inadmissible, but there are exceptions if the crime was committed when the illegal alien was a minor or if the maximum penalty was a year or less behind bars and the illegal immigrant was not sentenced to more than six months in prison.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who voted against the bill, said he would have supported a bill that fixed a gap in the current law.

“But that is not the case here. In reality, the redundancies in this bill all but assure that no additional dangerous individuals would face immigration consequences if it were to become law,” he said on the floor.

“Instead, the overly broad definition and lack of any waiver authority in this bill would result in extremely harsh and unintended consequences including the removal of survivors of domestic violence.”

Mace noted that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a memorandum to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that not all domestic violence offenders should be removed because he believed that such a “categorical determination ... could make victims of domestic violence more reluctant to report the offense conduct.” She also listed a number of instances in which illegal immigrants have committed sex offenses, including the rape of a 9-year-old girl in Ohio.

“How many American women and girls have been battered and bloodied due to this insanity?” she asked. “Under my bill, any illegal alien who commits a sex crime is inadmissible to our country and immediately deportable. We shouldn’t let them into our country under any circumstances, and if we catch them, we send them back.”