Beth Ann Rosica: Suburban congress members prioritize illegal immigrants over citizen safety
Last week, three U.S. House members representing Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Berks counties voted against the Laken Riley Act. The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain illegal immigrants who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.
When the Delaware Valley Journal reported on Representatives Chrissy Houlahan, Madeleine Dean, and Mary Gay Scanlon’s dissenting votes, I was outraged, but not surprised. As a longtime Chester County resident, I am quite familiar with Houlahan’s voting record and her strict adherence to Democratic Party politics.
I immediately called Houlahan’s local office in West Chester and was greeted by her voicemail asking me to leave a message as her “limited staff” were not available to take the call. The message also asked me to identify the reason for my call and specifically asked me to note if I expected a phone call back.
My respectful message identified that I was troubled by her vote on the bill and I explicitly asked for a call back and left my phone number. I also mentioned that I had previously contacted her office on a different matter and never received a call back, despite asking for one, so I was hopeful that someone might get back to me this time.
That was on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. The next day, I filled out a request on her website and asked for someone to call me back since no one had responded to my voicemail.
As of this writing, I have not received a phone call back from Houlahan or her office. I did, however, receive this form letter which basically regurgitated the justification for her vote posted on her website.
Houlahan said in a statement on her website, “H.R.29 is carefully written to intentionally erode Constitutional protections, beginning with undocumented immigrants. I encourage people to read the text, which clearly shows how the bill removes the right to due process. Trump promised these kinds of dangerous changes, and the Republicans in Congress are desperately trying to satisfy him regardless of the implications of the legislation should it become law.”
Her response makes me wonder if she actually read the text of the bill. She is concerned about eroding “constitutional protections beginning with undocumented immigrants.” Illegal immigrants — people who have come to our country illegally — and who have committed crimes are the only group of people impacted by the legislation.
How does this bill erode constitutional protections? Illegal immigrants should have no protection from deportation under the constitution because they are here illegally. And if they have committed crimes against citizens who are under the protection of the constitution, why would we not want to detain them?
Perhaps if Representative Houlahan or her office had called me back, we could have engaged in that discussion? Or maybe that is exactly the reason why no one called me back…..
This bill is named for Laken Riley, an innocent 22 year-old nursing student who was jogging on the campus of the University of Georgia and subsequently brutally beaten and murdered. The murderer is a 26 year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela who had been previously arrested and later released in the United States. Had this legislation been in place at the time of the murderer’s first arrest, Riley would likely still be alive today.
Despite Houlahan and the other local Democratic representatives’ dissenting votes, the bill passed the House 264 to 159. There were 48 Democrats who voted in favor of the bill, including two from Pennsylvania — Brendan Boyle (Philadelphia) and Christopher Deluzia (Beaver County).
The Southeastern Pennsylvania progressive squad joined ranks with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Nancy Pelosi (Cal.) to vote against this commonsense bill.
Yet, Houlahan works hard to portray herself as a moderate who does not vote lock-step with the Democratic party. She claims, “here in Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District, we are a purple community – not Republican red or Democrat blue. I understand that as our Representative, I am sworn to represent our priorities, not a particular political party.”
The hypocrisy of her voting record was noted in an article last year by Guy Ciarrocchi.
“Houlahan votes with Nancy Pelosi 94 percent of the time. And we all know that Pelosi embodies ‘moderation,’ consensus-building, and bipartisanship, don’t we?
“Well, certainly Houlahan’s ‘I worked in the private sector and belong to the problem-solvers caucus’ must have an independent streak. She can’t be as breathlessly loyal to Biden as Casey is – can she? Yes, she can, and worse: 99.1 percent of the time.”
The Laken Riley bill passed the senate the next day with a much higher majority, 84 to 9. Notably, Houlahan and gang voted with dissenters Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — two of the most self-proclaimed progressive members of the senate.
Both Pennsylvania senators — John Fetterman (D) and Dave McCormick (R) — voted in favor of the bill, demonstrating bipartisan leadership while representing our purple state. They both believe the bill is simply common sense.
Fetterman not only voted in favor of the bill, he was a co-sponsor. If this bill was intentionally written “to erode constitutional freedoms,” why would 90 percent of the senate vote in favor of it?
In an interview with Fox News, Fetterman said, “It’s really common sense. I’d like to remind everybody that we have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of migrants here illegally convicted of crimes. Who wants to defend them, to allow them to remain in our nation?”
Newly elected McCormick, said in a press release, “I’m proud that my first vote in the United States Senate was to advance the Laken Riley Act. It is my responsibility to fight for legislation that protects the lives of every single American. This commonsense bill gives the Department of Homeland Security the authority and strength they need to keep our communities safe.”
Unlike Fetterman and McCormick, Houlahan and the Southeastern Pennsylvania squad are apparently more concerned about the rights of illegal immigrants than the safety of our citizens. Their failure to recognize the common sense of this legislation demonstrates their ineptness in representing their purple constituents.
Author’s note: on Jan. 15, a week after leaving the initial voice mail message, a staff member from Representative Houlahan’s office called me back and I shared my views on her vote. Her staffer said that my feedback would be shared with the Representative.
Beth Ann Rosica resides in West Chester, has a Ph.D. in Education, and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of at-risk children and families. She covers education issues for Broad + Liberty. Contact her at barosica@broadandliberty.com.
Many terms are thrown about to justify the mind set of these representatives, including “progressive ideology” (whatever that may mean) as a kind of justification. At the very bottom of the ideological underpinnings for these folks is a deep and abiding hatred for America and its values. The lack of response is a marker that shows how much contempt they have for their constituents, voters in general and democracy in particular. The tragedy is their being elected to an office they despise and disrespect.
Wow. Take a step back from big tech platforms and murdoch funded “news” outlets for a second and ask yourself: What does “loving America” mean to you exactly? Cattering to ruling class elite tech oligarchs? Giving a get out of jail free card to hundreds of violent thugs who savagely beat police officers with flag poles and pepper spray? Trying to illegally subvert the will of the people by pathetically begging governors to “find votes” and organizing what were, in their own terms, “fake electors”? Censoring social media and weaponizing the FCC to sue networks who provide coverage you don’t like?Apparently, simply teaching Christ’s message of mercy is an “anti-american radical leftist” act now. If you want to see contempt for voters and democracy, there it is.
I called Dean’s Washington office and was advised that she didn’t like the word “shoplifting.” She always has some lame excuse. I believe she should officially announce that she’s a member of the Squad.
As we now understand: if you’re waving a maga flag you’ll be given a get out of jail free card even if you’re caught in broad daylight on video smashing in the skulls of POLICE officers with fire extinguishers, stabbing them with flag poles, and throwing them down the stairs. If you’re not waving a maga flag while committing crimes then you’re SOL.