California’s U.S. Representative Gary Miller: Immigration Enforcement Champion

Immediately after his 2010 reelection to the House of Representatives, Republican Gary Miller announced that one of his top legislative priorities in the 112th Congress would be to help unemployed Americans reclaim the 8 million jobs that have been lost to illegal immigrants. Miller, a Republican, represents California’s 42nd District. While making his pledge to restore American jobs, Miller noted that under the Obama administration, worksite enforcement has essentially been abandoned. Miller urges enforcing existing immigration laws, expanding E-Verify, promoting more vigorous internal enforcement and encouraging attrition through enforcement. To help meet his goal, Miller recently introduced the LEAVE Act (the Loophole Elimination and Verification Enforcement) that would, in addition to mandatory E-Verify, add 8,000 new border patrol agents, deny Social Security benefits to illegal workers and prohibit states from offering illegal aliens in-state tuition. CAPS issued a Legislative Alert here. During his seven terms in the House, Miller has compiled an unsurpassed voting record in support of immigration law enforcement. In 2005, Miller co-sponsored The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, H.R. 4437, with Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, then Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Their bill was widely unpopular with illegal immigrants and their activists. Former Vice President of Policy at the National Council of La Raza, Cecelia Munoz, called H.R. 4437 “shortsighted and harmful.” After a 2006 illegal alien rally decrying H.R. 4437 in Wisconsin, Sensenbrenner’s home state, Miller wrote: “Too bad their protest didn’t include giving up government-paid social services — because a day without illegal aliens would be a boon to U.S. taxpayers.” Keeping his promise to immediately reduce illegal immigration, this year Miller has also co-sponsored of H.R. 100, the CLEAR Act, that would provide local police with the resources and training to enforce federal immigration laws and H.R. 140, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011, that would require at least one parent of children born in the United States be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident before citizenship would be granted to the child.