January 16, 2025

CORREA VOTES AGAINST GOP BILL THAT SIDESWIPES VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

WASHINGTON — Today, Representative Lou Correa (CA-46) voted against H.R. 30, which would leave behind victims of domestic violence, and released the following statement:

“No one condones domestic violence or sexual offenses. People who commit those heinous crimes have no place in our society. That is why people who commit such crimes are already inadmissible into the United States and are able to be deported,” Correa said. “As the law is currently written, individuals who commit or are convicted of the “sexual offenses” discussed in this bill are not admissible to the country and are already subject to deportation. Those sections of the bill are almost entirely redundant to current law.”

This bill adds new, redundant grounds of inadmissibility and deportability for “sexual offenses,” adds a new ground of inadmissibility for domestic violence, and expands the current deportability ground for domestic violence.

“Let me be clear: I fully support getting all convicted sexual predators off of our streets, regardless of their legal status. But this bill won’t do that—instead, it would harm domestic violence victims and survivors by criminalizing acts of self-defense and making those individuals subject to deportation. We want to incentivize the reporting of sex crimes and domestic violence and not chase victims into the shadows. That’s why this legislation is opposed by 100+ domestic violence support organizations around the country,” he concluded. “What’s more, this flawed legislation seeks to strip back ‘innocent until proven guilty.’”