By The newspaper
01 Feb 2024, 15:31 PM EST
Pushed by Republicans, the House of Representatives approved a bill that requires the deportation of undocumented immigrants caught driving drunk.
The plan was endorsed with 274 votes and had 150 votes against the Democrats, although 59 members of that caucus supported it.
“Every 45 minutes, that is how often someone in the United States dies in an accident with a drunk driver,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican Barry Moore (Alabama), when he introduced the bill on January 18. .
However, it does not specify what percentage of that figure involves undocumented immigrants.
“In 2021 alone, there were 13,384 deaths due to drunk drivers and 400,000 injuries,” Moore added when he presented HR 6976, but again without specifying data involving cases of undocumented immigrants.
A 2021 CATO Institute report indicates that there is no evidence of a relationship between irregular immigration and road accident deaths.
“Nationally, we found no statistical relationship between a higher proportion of the undocumented immigrant population and drunk driving deaths,” the report says.
Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler (New York) criticized the bill and his Republican colleagues for wanting to use immigration as an electoral issue.
“They don’t want to solve the problem, they want to keep it as a campaign issue. So don’t come here and talk about the problems on the southern border if you don’t give the president any means to solve them,” Nadler said on the floor.
Congress debates an immigration plan as a condition for President Joe Biden to approve the supplemental budget for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific.
That budget plan also includes $14 billion for border security.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) has expressed its rejection of the negotiations, considering that it would affect the asylum request processes and other protections for migrants.