Senator FORD proposed the following amendment to the Committee Report (JUD0020.008):

Amend the Committee Report, as and if amended, page [20-14], before line 13, by adding an appropriately numbered SECTION to read:

/     SECTION     __.     (A)     Notwithstanding the provisions of this act and as a matter of public policy, the General Assembly finds that:
    (1)     the United States has a long and distinguished history of providing shelter and support to oppressed people from around the world who, for reasons beyond their control, cannot return home;
    (2)     since 2006, Mexico has suffered an alarming escalation of deadly drug-related violence and breakdown in social security;
    (3)     Mexico's war on drugs has claimed more than twenty-three thousand lives and continues to threaten the livelihood of hundreds of thousands more;
    (4)     possessing little confidence in the ability of the Mexican government, military, or other local or federal officials to provide for their safety, tens of thousands of Mexican nationals have escaped to the United States in search of sanctuary from the escalating violence; and
    (5)     less than two percent of Mexican applicants have been granted political asylum in the United States since the outbreak of drug-related violence in 2006; Now, therefore,
(B)     The members of the General Assembly hereby memorialize Congress and President Barack Obama to expeditiously enact legislation granting temporary protected status to all qualifying Mexican refugees who have fled to the United States to escape Mexico's uncontrolled drug-related violence, corrupt and ineffective law enforcement entities, and overt political repression.             /

    Renumber sections to conform
    Amend title to conform.