In an interview last week with Breitbart News, Chris Crane, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council President, opened up about how ICE and other immigration enforcement officials were left out of the 2013 immigration talks while special interests groups were consulted.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in April 2013 Chris Crane testified that as the representative of 7,600 immigration agents, he was not consulted by the Gang of Eight in their drafting of a "comprehensive immigration reform" bill.
Crane repeatedly asked for a bipartisan meeting to discuss the enforcement concerns he and other ICE officers in the field had about the legislation that was being written but was consistently denied. Sen. Sessions agreed that ICE and other law enforcement officials should be part of the immigration conversation. Sen. Sessions wrote a statement to the Washington Examiner stating, “We saw the same thing the last time around – the men and women who actually know what will work are left out of the process. Why should Trumka and the Chamber be consulted but not law enforcement?”
After reaching out the media and writing letters to CEO’s of companies who were actively pushing for the bill about the concerns law enforcement officers had, Sen. Rubio agreed to a last minute meeting with Crane.
During the meeting Crane told Sen. Rubio about the safety concerns that the immigration bill presented. Crane said that Sen. Rubio agreed with all of his suggestions and said that these problems must be fixed.
However, when the bill was presented, only a few hours after this meeting, none of Crane’s suggestions had been added to the bill. Crane attended the open press conference being held by Sen. Schumer and Rubio about the bill. He tried to ask a question about the enforcement concerns he had talked to Sen. Rubio about but was ignored and eventually was asked to leave the press conference. Even though he had just met with Sen. Rubio hours before nothing was done to prevent Crane from being escorted out.
When asked by Breitbart about Sen. Rubio’s presidential campaign Crane responded, “I think that if elected President, Sen. Rubio’s Gang of Eight bill will be reintroduced and this time it will pass.”
You can read the full interview at Breitbart.com.
