"Kate's Law" Now Showing @ GOP Failure Theater

by JASmius



I've got to admit, folks, given the names on both sides of this branch of the GOP Civil War, I'm at a loss to explain this one:

Infighting on the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee over strict minimum mandatory sentences for illegal [alien]s who return to the United States after being deported could torpedo the GOP’s opportunity to pass tough legislation following the highly publicized death of a San Francisco woman last month, Politico reports.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who sits on the powerful Judiciary Committee, is pushing for "Kate’s Law" — named after Kate Steinle, the woman allegedly killed by a Mexican national who had been deported at least five times — which would impose a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence for people who attempt to enter the country illegally after being deported.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, known for his hard-line position on illegal immigration, side with Cruz.

But they are meeting resistance from inside their own party, by the likes of Utah Senator Mike Lee and Arizona Senator Jeff Flake "who have both criticized mandatory minimums for certain crimes and are skittish about implementing such penalties for [illegal aliens," according to Politico.

"There may be some ways to accommodate some of those concerns, but not with mandatory minimums like that," Flake said. [emphasis added]

Flake's opposition is expected - he was part of the "Gang of Eight" two years ago and a sponsor of the Schumer-Rubio round of "comprehensive immigration reform.  But Mike Lee?  The "good cop" of the heretofore joined-at-the-hip dynamic duo along with the "bad cop" Ted Cruz?  What possible reason could he have for blocking such no-brainer commonsense immigration legislation?  Has the McCain-Graham border erasure crowd gotten to Lee through his "neighbor to the south"?  There's no indication for why he's so "uncomfortable" with toughening mandatory minimum sentencing that he's joined forces with Democrats Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Dick Durbin of Illinois to push diametrically opposite legislation further weakening them, if not doing away with mandatory sentences for illegals altogether.

It's not as if Senator Flake couldn't obstruct "Kate's Law" all by himself.  But I have to wonder if Senator Lee came to his open borders mentality on his own, or if Darth Queeg and his Mini-Me have converted another Tea Partier to the RINO Collective.