WASHINGTON ― House Republicans on Wednesday quietly tried to repeal a major provision in the Violence Against Women Act that helps tribes respond to horrific levels of violence directed at Native American women by non-Native men on tribal lands.

During a House Judiciary Committee markup on the 2019 bill to reauthorize the law, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) offered an amendment to repeal provisions in the 2013 law that give tribes jurisdiction over non-Native people who commit crimes of domestic violence, dating violence or who violate a protection order against a victim on tribal land.

He claimed that non-Native domestic abusers’ constitutional rights might not be upheld if they harm a Native woman on tribal land and have to go before a tribal court. His amendment would have also stripped out new language in the 2019 bill to expand tribes’ jurisdiction over non-Native abusers who commit crimes of sex trafficking, stalking and violence against law enforcement officers on tribal land.

“Tribal courts do not necessarily adhere to the same constitutional provisions that protect the rights of all defendants in federal and state courts,” said Sensenbrenner. “This sets us down the road to a dangerous path.”

This is the same argument that Republicans made in 2013 before they voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. It completely glosses over the reality that tribes are sovereign nations with their own laws in place for responding to crimes committed on their land, just like any other state or country has laws for this.