{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-ernst-introduce-bill-to-deport-illegal-migrants-convicted-of-sex-crimes", "Grassley, Ernst Introduce Bill to Deport Illegal Migrants Convicted of Sex Crimes", "2024-10-02", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "Senate", "IA", "Chuck Grassley", "G000386", "www.grassley.senate.gov", "grassley", "https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in reintroducing bipartisan legislation to deport illegal immigrants convicted of sexual offenses. The legislation follows recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data revealing more than 15,000 illegal immigrants convicted of sexual assault currently reside in the U.S. outside of ICE custody.\n\n\u201cSexual violence has no place in America,\u201d Grassley said. \u201cThe Biden-Harris administration\u2019s open border policies have allowed criminals to enter our country and threaten the safety of our communities. I\u2019m fighting to uphold the law and protect American citizens.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese violent criminals never would have entered America in the first place if we had real border security, but now that they\u2019re in our communities, they need to BE GONE,\u201d Ernst said. \u201cSince Border Czar Kamala Harris won\u2019t protect this country, then I will. My legislation will combat sexual violence by ensuring predators are identified, stopped and deported.\u201d\n\nDownload bill text HERE.\n\nBackground:\n\nThe Better Enforcement of Grievous Offenses by Unnaturalized Emigrants (BE GONE) Act would classify sexual assault and aggravated sexual violence as \u201caggravated felonies\u201d under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Migrants convicted of \u201caggravated felonies\u201d are subject to immediate deportation and barred from reentering the U.S.\n\nGrassley continues to push back against the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s open border policies. He is cosponsoring legislation requiring ICE to arrest, detain and deport criminal migrants, and has also worked to root out abuse of the immigration parole program and reform the Biden-Harris program endangering migrant children. Further, he\u2019s sounded the alarm on the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s unlawful failures to collect DNA from illegal immigrants at the border.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-ernst-introduce-bill-to-deport-illegal-migrants-convicted-of-sex-crimes"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6762071754783392, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}