A stunning 61 Democrats on Thursday voted in favor of MAGA Representative Nancy Mace’s useless and antagonistic immigration bill.
On its face, Mace’s so-called “Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act” doesn’t seem like a problem. The bill “ensures predators who pose a threat and have been previously convicted of sexual assault, domestic violence and other heinous crimes are turned away or immediately deported,” the South Carolina representative wrote in an op-ed last September.
But in reality, the bill’s aim is redundant at best. Undocumented immigrants can already be deported on account of any crimes, and about 200,000 were deported in 2023. Documented immigrants can be deported for crimes as well, including the exact grounds Mace is referring to.
At its worst, the bill’s vague text could hurt the very people it claims it’s trying to help. Multiple groups, including the National Task Force to end Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, have come out in opposition to Mace’s bill, stating that the bill increases the scope of what constitutes “grounds of inadmissibility.” In effect, it would “negatively impact immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and fail to alleviate the primary barriers to safety and stability experienced by survivors seeking relief under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
The group went on to argue that abusers could use this potential law to accuse their victims of abuse when they actually acted in self-defense. That’s not to mention things like language barriers, fear of retaliation or arrest, a lack of knowledge of rights, and many other obstacles that could result in immigrants being hurt by this bill.
Here are the 61 Democrats who voted for the bill regardless:
- Boyle — Pennsylvania
- Budzinski — Illinois
- Bynum — Oregon
- Clyburn —South Carolina
- Conaway — New Jersey
- Courtney — Connecticut
- Craig — Minnesota
- Cuellar — Texas
- Davis — North Carolina
- Figures — Alabama
- Gillen — New York
- Golden — Maine
- Vicente Gonzalez — Texas
- Goodlander — New Hampshire
- Gottheimer — New Jersey
- Gray — California
- Harder — California
- Hayes — Connecticut
- Himes — Connecticut
- Horsford — Nevada
- Houlahan — Pennsylvania
- Johnson — Texas
- Kaptur — Ohio
- Kennedy — New York
- Khanna — California
- Landsman — Ohio
- Lee — Nevada
- Levin — California
- Lynch — Massachusetts
- Magaziner — Rhode Island
- Mannion — New York
- McBride — Delaware
- McClain Delaney — Maryland
- McDonald Rivet — Michigan
- Morrison — Minnesota
- Moskowitz — Florida
- Panetta — California
- Pappas — New Hampshire
- Perez — Washington
- Riley — New York
- Ryan — New York
- Salinas — Oregon
- Scholten — Michigan
- Schrier — Washington
- Sewell — Alabama
- Sherrill — New Jersey
- Sorensen — Illinois
- Soto — Florida
- Stanton — Arizona
- Subramanyam — Virginia
- Suozzi — New York
- Swalwell — California
- Sykes — Ohio
- Titus — Nevada
- Torres — New York
- Trahan — Massachusetts
- Tran — California
- Vasquez — New Mexico
- Vindman — Virginia
- Whitesides — California
The post The 61 Democrats Who Backed Another Awful Republican Immigration Bill appeared first on New Republic.
