Cracking the SAFE Act: Understanding the Impact and Context of H.R. 2278, the “Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act”
 
For Immediate Release

August 27, 2013

Washington D. C. – Today, the Immigration Policy Center releases, Cracking the SAFE Act: Understanding the Impact and Context of H.R. 2278, the “Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act."  In June, the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 2278, the “Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement (SAFE) Act.” The bill, introduced by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), was the subject of a contentious committee mark up, ending in its passage out of committee on a straight party line vote of 20 to 15. The SAFE Act is one of several bills that the House leadership might offer as part of its “step-by-step” approach to immigration reform, in which various House bills addressing different aspects of the immigration system may be voted on separately.

The SAFE Act represents an attrition-through-enforcement approach to unauthorized immigration that has not proven effective and which runs contrary to many of the objectives of immigration reform. It returns to a philosophy which holds that punitive enforcement measures alone can address the many flaws in our immigration system. The House Judiciary’s endorsement of an outdated philosophy that touts more enforcement, more detention, more penalties, and a more complicated, expensive, and decentralized immigration enforcement system runs counter to the House leadership’s repeated pledge to fix that very system.

To view the fact sheet in its entirety see:
Cracking the SAFE Act: Understanding the Impact and Context of H.R. 2278, the “Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act”  (IPC Fact Check, August 27, 2013)
###

For more information contact, Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524