During a July 16 interview with Telemundo, pro-immigration extremist Rep. Luis Gutierrez had this to say about the murder of Kate Steinle at the hands of a convicted criminal illegal alien:
After a reporter cited the killing in relation to sanctuary cities, [Gutierrez] responded: “Every time a little thing like this happens, [Republicans] use the most extreme example to say it must be eliminated.”
Unsurprisingly, numerous people took offense to Gutierrez’s dismissal of Steinle’s murder as “a little thing,” including Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. During her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Vaughan called Gutierrez out for his reprehensible comment:
“As someone who has also lost a close family member,” Vaughan said, “my brother, because of a negligent act by a sworn law enforcement officer and also a bad policy — and I should add that the offense that was committed was one that some on this committee would call a ‘minor traffic offense’ that killed my brother, I have to say that it is really not OK to refer to these tragedies as a ‘little thing,’ as one member of this committee has.”
[…]
Vaughan continued, “I have a friend. Her name is Heather. A few years ago, she was carjacked at knife-point and taken to Roger Williams’ Park in Providence, Rhode Island, and raped repeatedly by an illegal alien who had been in the custody of the Providence Police Department more than once,” but was released thanks to a mayor’s sanctuary city policies.
“This was not a ‘little thing,’” she declared. “I have other friends, some in this room, who can tell similar stories. And I’m afraid Congress is about to get away with doing just a ‘little thing’ just by barring funding from these sanctuary jurisdictions, some funding. And I’m asking you today to not be satisfied by just doing a ‘little thing.’ This big problem requires you to have the courage to do a bigger thing.”
Later, Gutierrez took the stand — and he absolutely imploded:
Here’s a synopsis, in case you can’t watch the above video or can’t make sense of Gutierrez through his fury:
About three minutes into his testimony, he asked to re-read a statement he made at another hearing. He began to read in an increasingly angry tone.
“I just want to, just for the record, because I think it is very important –” he paused, glaring daggers at the audience, likely at Vaughan. “Listen to this,” he demanded, with another pregnant pause. He then read aloud a statement he made during a July 14 hearing.
“‘I want to say to you, Mr. Gowdy, that I feel the same anguish and pain that I know the secretary does, and every American should at the death of that woman,’” he read. “That nobody has come here to look for excuses or anything else. I mean, this is a career criminal we have on our hands… This man is not an immigrant. Immigrants come here to work hard, sweat, and toil,” he read in staccato, before rushing on: “We should be warm and welcoming them; this man is a foreigner who has come to cause damage.”
He appeared to calm himself somewhat before stating: “‘Let’s fix our broken immigration system, so we can get rid of foreigners who come here to cause damage, harm and welcome immigrants.’”
“That is my statement,” he said, waving a piece of paper. “I’d just like to put it in the record, once again, because apparently Mrs. Vaughan didn’t read it,” he snarled. “Or take the time to read it.”
“Secondly, on the floor of the House of Representatives, on July 9, quote — and this is in the record, and I’d like to put it in the record once again, because apparently Mrs. Vaughan doesn’t read,” he spat, “what is actually said, in the English language, in the English language, that I have said.”
This was a deeply disingenuous thing for Gutierrez to say about Steinle’s murder: In English, he said he could “only imagine the grief her family is feeling” on the Congressional record. One week later, he said in Spanish her death was “a little thing.” Politicians talk out both sides of their mouth, but thanks to mass immigration, the U.S. can see its elected representatives do so in different languages.
Gutierrez closed out by accusing Vaughan of exploiting Steinle’s death in order to make him look bad. However, Gutierrez did a pretty good job of that himself.
