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More than 140 Democrats voted Thursday against a House bill to deport illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes.
The legislation passed along bipartisan lines in a vote of 274 to 145. All Republicans present supported the bill, while the opposition was made up exclusively of Democratic lawmakers.
The bill was first introduced by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., in the 118th Congress, but was not adopted by the formerly Democratic-controlled Senate. At the moment, 158 Democrats voted against the bill.
“Our country has been devastated by the horror of illegal immigrants… who violently rape American women and girls,” Mace said during debate on the bill. “I know the lifelong scars, the irreversible scars left by these heinous crimes.”
Elon Musk has notably been among the bill’s most ardent supporters, and has even called for lawmakers who voted against it to lose their seats in the House.
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House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is among Democrats who voted against the bill. (Getty Images)
“There is no excuse. Please publish the list of people who opposed this law and want to keep illegals convicted of sex offenders in the United States.” Musk wrote in X in response to a conservative influencer who discussed the bill. “They all need to be removed from office. Every single one of them.”
In addition to deporting immigrants convicted of sex crimes, the legislation would also consider illegal immigrants Those who admit to, or are convicted of, domestic violence or sex-related charges are inadmissible to the US.
But Democrats argued that the bill would harm domestic abuse victims who fight against their partners and expand the definition to domestic violence to the detriment of survivors.
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Rep. Nancy Mace, R.S.C., first introduced the bill in the 118th Congress. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for the Congressional Integrity Project)
During debate on the bill Thursday morning, progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said the bill “does absolutely nothing to address the needs of the American people” and “widens the road to Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans.
Jayapal said it would “create a chilling effect on reporting future crimes” and “empower abusers to persecute immigrant women and children.”
Mace wrote in
Elon Musk backed the bill last year (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
House Majority Leader Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the House’s No. 3 Republican, also criticized Democrats who voted against the bill.
“House Democrats’ votes against HR 30 should be seen for what they are: prioritizing criminal illegal immigrants over the safety and well-being of their constituents. It is inconceivable that we would have to pass legislation like this, and much less that the members oppose it. Emmer told Fox News Digital.
Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, one of the Republicans who voted for the bill, argued that the Biden administration’s border policies made the bill necessary and said the legislation would “ensure that any illegal immigrant who commits “a sexual crime or a crime of domestic violence is quickly detained and deported.”
