Chris Lange, FISM News
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on Wednesday introduced a House version of a bill that would block and deport immigrants with sex crime convictions from the United States.
The Better Enforcement of Grievous Offenses by unNaturalized Emigrants (BE GONE) Act, which was introduced in the Senate earlier this month by Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), would add sexual assault and aggravated sexual violence to the list of crimes defined as “aggravated felonies” in the Immigration and Nationality Act. Illegal immigrants with prior convictions of these crimes are prohibited from entering the U.S. For illegal migrant residents, such convictions serve as cause for deportation.
The bill has garnered the support of dozens of lawmakers, including 58 sponsors in the House and 20 in the Senate.
“We are witnessing a border crisis of historic proportions,” Stefanik said in a statement. “The Biden Administration’s open-border policies are allowing the highest number of illegal border crossings through our Southern Border in over 30 years.”
Ernst, a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence, called on President Biden to acknowledge “the reality of the crisis at our border,” adding that the legislation is one practical step “to ensure sexual predators and criminals are identified, stopped, and deported.”
The bill’s House introduction follows the arrest of a Congolese national accused of brutally raping a woman on a Philadelphia subway earlier this month. The suspect, Fiston Ngoy, 35, had already racked up multiple arrests and two criminal convictions, including one for sexual abuse, and had overstayed his student visa, which expired in 2015. He was never deported because his crimes were classified as misdemeanors which, according to an immigration judge’s 2019 decision, did not rise to the level of deportation. Ngoy pled guilt in 2017 to the sexual abuse misdemeanor and received a sentence of 120 days in prison and nine months’ probation.
“We must work to ensure sex criminals are stopped and deported immediately for the safety of our citizens,” said Stefanik. “Border security is national security, and I am proud to work to keep our communities safe.”
According to a Fox News report, several former Trump officials have added their names to the list of the bill’s supporters, including former acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan and former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan.
Homan made reference to the Nyong case when voicing his support:
Every day the Biden administration makes it harder for ICE to detain and remove those here illegally – including criminals – leading to dangerous events like the train assault in Philadelphia.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) also backs the “commonsense and well-timed” legislation and has called on Democrats to do the same.
“Not only should sexual predators ‘be gone,’ so should Majority Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi’s indefensible opposition to every immigration bill that seeks to enhance enforcement or secure the border,” said FAIR’s head of government relations RJ Hauman “This bill should be voted on immediately. Enough is enough.”
The BE GONE Act represents another push by Republican lawmakers to force the Biden administration to take action concerning the nation’s unprecedented border crisis. Reported migrant encounters have soared to a record-breaking 1.7 million in 2021 so far, with over 200,000 occurring in September alone.