Rep. Bob Goodlatte: Obama Admin Isn’t Enforcing Immigration Laws

STEPHANOPOULOS: “That committee oversees immigration. Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte joins us now. Congressman, what went wrong here? And what should be done about it?”

GOODLATTE: “Well, both the government -- the federal government and San Francisco are wrong here. And George let me say at the outset what a tragedy for this family. My heart goes out to them, but quite frankly the federal government, ICE, knows about San Francisco's sanctuary policy. It's a bad policy, but they know about it. Why did they ever turn him over to them when they could have deported him, or they could have prosecuted him for illegally reentering the country four times and send him to prison. Either way, Kate Steinle would be safe. The fact of the matter is, San Francisco, why would they release somebody back onto their streets who is illegally in the United States and has committed seven prior felonies when they could have contacted ICE and turned him back over to them for deportation. And again, she would have been safe. It's a real tragedy.”

STEPHANOPOULOS: “So, what's the answer here? Should the federal government -- should there be a law that requires cities like San Francisco to turn over those who have been charged in the past, those who have been deported in the past, those who have been charged with illegal crimes?”

GOODLATTE: “Well, that is the law and that was the law, the policy regarding detainers, which is the law of the United States, was enforced by the Bush administration as being mandatory. The Obama administration has converted that into something voluntary. And in doing so, they have eliminated a program that was working called Secure Communities, where individuals like this would be detained and would be turned over to the immigration service. Now, in addition to that, this administration is releasing criminals back onto the streets themselves. So there's fault to be borne by both –“

STEPHANOPOULOS: “But as you know –“

GOODLATTE: “-- but the fact of the matter is the laws need to be enforced.”

STEPHANOPOULOS: “The Obama administration points out that over the last six years, deportations of criminals are actually up 80 percent.”

GOODLATTE: “They are not deporting people in the numbers that have been deported in the past and they're counting people that they apprehend at the border and turn back around. The Bush administration did not count those as deportations. They simply apprehended them at the border, sent them back into Mexico. That didn't count as deportation. The Obama administration has started counting those and that has driven those numbers up. But the actual deportations from the interior of the country are way down. This administration is not enforcing our immigration laws and, quite frankly, I don't think they care. And this is -- this tragedy in San Francisco, which is repeated every day around the country and doesn't get this kind of notoriety is the product of that lack of caring about respect for the rule of law and enforcing our laws.”

STEPHANOPOULOS: “Mr. Chairman, thanks very much for your time this morning.”