Revolutionary beliefs for which our fore bears fowlingt are still at issue around the globe. The belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of god. President kennedy understood the words of our declaration of independence, quote, we hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A little more than 100 years before president kennedys inauguration, our 16th president , abraham lincoln, defended the deck rahlation and taught those around him as well as future generations how to revere and embrace unwaveringly the sacred and transcending truths expressed in this monumental document. Now my countrymen, lincoln said in 1858 if you have been taught doctrines that conflict with the great land marks of the declaration of independence, if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions, if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal and the rights enumerated in our charter, let me entreat you to come back. Think nothing of me, take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever, but come back to the truths that are in the declaration of independence. You may do anything with me you choose. If you will but heed these sacred principles. Today, mr. Speaker, let us recommit to the principles set forth in our declaration, that all are endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights, among them the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And let those who have admired the leaders of our country, who have reasserted those principles from lincoln to kennedy, gin together and continue to fight for the protection of these godgiven rights, especially the irst right, the right to life. Mr. Speaker, i thank you for allowing me to have this time and at this time i yield back to the gentleman from iowa, with my thanks for having extended to me this time to share these thoughts with the american eople. Mr. King i reclaim my time, mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from pennsylvania for his presentation and bringing this topic together in the way he has. His method of addressing the declaration of independence and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, i would expand on that as well. And life is the most paramount. It is priority right. And our Founding Fathers knew what they were doing. They set up life as thefires priority. Liberty as the second priority. And the third priority was the pursuit of happiness. Ill start from the bottom because i think it deserves the most explanation that pursuit of happiness is often viewed as maybe a fun Tailgate Party or bliss of some kind or maybe a barbecue outdoors with the family. The things with love. Thats the enjoyment of our life. The pursuit of happiness as it was understood by our Founding Fathers came from a greek word, and that, it means developing the whole human being. Its not just the mental well being but it is developing an intellectual human being, the physical human being, the knowledgebase the Knowledge Base thats there and the spirit within us and our theology and our souls. The whole package of what we are as human beings, developing that to the maximum. These godgiven fwifts, develop them for his glorification and thats the concept of pursuit of happy thans our Founding Fathers understood. So the principle is we should we have a right to pursue happiness, dwourpg whole human being which includes the human enjoyment that we think of when we say pursuit of happiness, but no one in their pursuit of happiness can trample on someone elses liberty because liberties are also liberties are godgiven. Liberties that we have cannot be subordinate to the pursuit of happiness, but they are subordinate to the life of others. Because life is the most sacred. Human life is sacred in all of its forms. Its the number one paramount right. And so the protection of human life is the principle, highest priority in the declaration of independence. And the liberties that we have, freedom of speech, religion, the press, the right to keep and bear arms a jury of our peer no, double jeopardy, the whole list of the bill of rights, those are liberties. Godgiven liberties as conceived by our Founding Fathers and enshrined in the bill of rights and of course in our constitution. The rights that we have cannot be trampled upon or subordinated to someone elses pursuit of happiness. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. A well thought out, prioritized list in our declaration that gives us the inspiration that was the foundation for our constitution and the principles of our lives in america today. And so i thank the gentleman from pennsylvania for his explanation of this and giving me an opportunity to flesh this out a little bit and the concepts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the segue he served up to me is this, our debates today here in this congress on the immigration bills that have now just passed this congress have been focused on the right to life. The right to life versus the criminals that took the liberty to take them. They have violated the very foundations of our declaration. And of course they violated our laws in a number of ways. But i think especially at the onset of this discussion, i sarah root, and her legislation, sarahs law, introduced by me in this congress, i have a copy of the bill today, we introduced it last year also, in this congress it became h. R. 174. It came about and then we incorporated it into the broader bill today we called the sanctuary cities legislation, mr. Speaker. Sarah root was had just graduated from Bellvue University in omaha. Modell, hometown is iowa, she had just finished her gradgeuation the day before with perfect 4. 0 grade point average, her major was criminal investigation. She would today be investigating criminals if it werent for the criminal that killed her the day after she graduated. And the individual thats mija sible is here, edwin who ran into her vehicle on the street with trip they will blood alcohol content thats legal. He was on a first name basis with at least two of his immigration attorneys. And when he was taken into custody, interestingly, as bad as the accident was, sarah was rendered unrecognizable and she was on life support for a little while. While the parents were deciding what decision to make and she was also an organ donor. Ra saved six. And many days i wear this bracelet that says sarah root saved six. And this bracelet hangs on the antlers in my man cave when i walk down there in the morning. I often say a prayer for all those bracelets hung on the antlers of my man cave that represent those individuals whose lives have been lost at the hands of criminal aliens who were unlawfully present in the United States and perpetrated violence against generally american citizens but others that are generally those that are at least lawfully present in america. Sara root was sarah root was one of those victims a stellar young lady with a 4. 0 grade point average a fresh diploma from Bellvue University, her whole life and the world ahead of her, run down on the streets. And her father came to testify here in the Judiciary Committee in congress. E said, the judge bailed eswin mija, this perpetrator, out of jail for less money than it cost to marry my daughter and he was back home in his home country before we could bury my to bury my daughter and he was back home in his home country before we could bury my daughter. Those are some of the most moving wards i have heard. He had been incarcerated before, hed been encountered by Law Enforcement before, and they turned him loose on the streets. This happens again and again in america every day. Local Law Enforcement, picking up people who are unlawfully present in america, violating Immigration Law the law requires they be placed into removal proceedings. Thats the law. But they turn them loose anyway. Turn them out on the streets because we have sanctuary cities, sanctuary city policies, some local jurisdictions dont have a written policy but its a practice they have evolved into accepting. So when i say every one of the americans who died at the hands of someone who was unlawfully present in america, illegal ail generals aliens, generally speaking, every one of those are a preventable death. If we enforced the law they wouldnt have been in america in the first place to commit the crimes they committed against our american citizens, our innocent people with sarah root, this beautiful young lady with a perfect grade point average, the world ahead of her a happy, joyful young lady that today would be live, love, laughing and learning and contributing to our society, but shes in her grave today because eswin mija got triple drunk, was unlawfully in the United States and ran her car down and killed her on the street and absconded for a 5,000 bond. What we did with sarahs law and i want to ask unanimous consent consent to introduce her law into the record, mr. Speaker, so that we have a copy of it. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. King thank you, mr. Speaker. Ill present this to the clerk here in a moment. But this is h. R. 174, the original language, i want to assure the family of sarah root that this language sin corporated into the bill we passed today. Its incorporated into the sanctuary cities legislation that we passed today. It prohibits a judge from releasing an illegal alien on bond if they have been charged with or subject to a homicide or a crime where theres a serious bodily injury. Once this issue came up in omaha, nebraska, and the public knew about this, we tried to unseat the judge that released this criminal, this criminal that may have done damage again, but the judge that let him out on 5,000 had a similar case the next time the bond way up into six or even seven figures. I think he got the message but the public got the message too. I dont know if hell be able to hold his seat or not. Weve got to bring the right thing. Weve got to put the fixes in place. You would think wed have a judge that would understand this yet somehow in the political culture of america, were watching criminal aliens turned loose on the streets over and over again. I recall sitting in on immigration hearings in the Judiciary Committee over a number of years now, i suppose there are a couple of people in this congress that have sat through more, not many. And the witnesses would be, every week or so wed have a hearing and thered be witnesses that would testify how many people died in the arizona desert trying to sneak into america. And that number would be 200 in a year. 250 in a year. Maybe the next year it went to 300. I remember that number going to 400 or more who dieded in the arizona desert on the way into, trying to sneak into america. Finally, what this parade of witnesses that were experts on why we ought to open the border so they didnt have a difficult time getting into america, thats the lunacy weve heard in the debate today over on this side of the floor from my view, mr. Speaker, i began to ask the qunses, to ask the witnesses this question, youve come to testify how many didnt make it through the desert. Could you tell me how Many Americans died at the hands of those who did make it through the desert . And i would ask the witnesses, generally four witnesses, it would go down the line, i dont know the answer, i dont know the answer, i dont know the answer. That went on for a while. And the fourth witness in one of those days was a former i. N. S. Agent, michael cutler. And we are just a few years after september 11, 2001, when i asked him this question, how Many Americans died at the hands of those who made it through the desert, which is the phrase to imply how Many Americans died at the hands of those who are unlawfully present in america. Michael cutlers answer was, i dont know the answer to that but i can tell you it is in multiple os they have victims of september 11. Think of that. 3,000 americans were killed that day. Multiples of that would be at least 6,000. If hes right, and hes confident hes right and now im confident he was right. And that started me thinking. Shortly after that, i commissioned a g. A. O. Study and that g. A. O. Study dug down deeply into the records we had access to and its hard to get this congress to compare apples to apples. So i began to ask the questions, of the people in the prisons in america, what are they in prison for . How many of them are criminal aliens . And we did a report on that. They sliced and diced it, narrowed it down, it never actually became apples to apples but it did come down to this substantial number thats been supported a couple of other times in other studies, one subsequent to that i had done in 2011. The number is close to 28 of the inmates in our federal penitentiaries are criminal aliens. 28 . And so its reasonable to do a calculation and extrapolation off of 28 of these inmates are criminal aliens, what percentage of the murders are they committing . What percentage of the rapes are they committing . What percentage of the Violent Crime are they committing . Or are they in jail for just simply violation law immigration . Youll find out very few are in prison for violation of Immigration Law. The reflection on criminal aliens of a similar proportion of the crimes committed by others. Put that on there, hit the calculator, im not going to it is shocking and stunning how Many Americans have lost their lives at the hands of people who shouldnt have been here in the first place. Sarah root included, kate steinle included and many, many more. A few days after sarah root was killed, i sent out a tweet, sarah root would have been alive living and life if the president ad not violated his oath and ordered i. C. E. To stand down. President obama asserted he had this prosecutorial discretion. It is something established in law or precedent and has to be on an individual basis. Janet mrs. Napolitano delivered it in a document. They decided that prosecutorial discretion and granted an amnesty to all of them and turn them loose. They turned criminals loose on the streets of america. 36,007 in one bunch. Some of them were murderers. You can see what happens to the crime in this country. If you are importing people from the most violent countries in the world and turning them loose or if they are picked up for a detail light, speeding or shoplifting, failure to signal and i said a stop light, they are picked up for that. When local Law Enforcement encounters them, they look at their identification and asks them a few questions. Some of them are good enough liars. But any time that Law Enforcement encounters people unlawfully present in america they are to put them in unlawful proceedings. And yet, thousands have been turned loose on the street. And 300 cities in america vrl established sanctuary policies. And some of the cities have passed policies that refuse to allow their Law Enforcement to even gather information or accept information on illegal aliens that they encounter. So, for example, this is how bad it is, even in a place like iowa. I had one of my staff people that was involved in a car accident that was caused by an illegal alien that had no license or insurance, but he did have an illegal job. He crashed into my staff. And wrecked my staffs car. And so when i got the phone call on that, i turned to my then chief of staff who is university lawyer. O school i said stay this until you get this resolved and what can we get accomplished to enforce the law . This is our opportunity to learn. If a member of Congress Staff can be run into without a without a license and insurance and owning a car and if i have a topnotch lawyer to try to bring the Law Enforcement in place so we can at least deport the guy after three, four guys up there and number of phone calls from me, i got the message, we couldnt crack through the code of local Law Enforcement to be able to deport the individual that was clearly illegal and unlawfully working, no drivers license and no insurance. And the practice of simply staying out of Immigration Law because they were local Law Enforcement and didnt want to touch it was so engrained we couldnt move the bubble. And i said we have other people to take care of and arent going to get this solved. That is so very frustrating. But i tell this to let the world know the frustration of families an have a loved one kill by illegal and have them go back into the shadows and hide. Thats the thing that happened with saro root and we did honor to her and her life bypassing sarahs law as part of the sanctuary law. How appropriate to bring a ban on sanctuary cities and wrapped up in the same bill as sarahs law to respect her, her life and the sacrifice of her life, the sacrifice of her mother, michelle, her father scott and her brother, scottey, who carries the whole load for the next generation. All of that finally congress did some justice for sarah root. Its only a small piece of justice and least we can do but the right thing for us to do. And what her family wants is that no other families have to suffer like they have suffered. And this is the story of sarah root, whose name was elevated on the National Stage by president trump. As much as i push things out of this congress dont close to having a big mega phone as donald trump. I thank the president of the United States when he came to iowa when he was campaigning and he began to make his immigration cases and lay out the platform for his immigration policy. I noticed that it mirrored mine very closely. And i mentioned to him, i market tested your immigration policy for 14 years in iowa, it shouldnt be a surprise they understand these issues and support the rule of law and support building a wall and support banning sanctuary cities. That is not iowas values but american values. American values that want to live in a country that has the rule of law and people can