Speech #1040242215

I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Let me begin by trying to dispel some myths and correct something that the chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means has just said. Legal immigrants are not over utilizing welfare. AFDC. for example. In fact. they use it as a lower rate than does the citizen population. What we find is a skew in the numbers because of the refugee population. which by definition comes without anything because they are escaping persecution. We have in the law a requirement that we try to aid them as they try to transition from a place they had to escape without bringing anything with them. We hear people say that we have to deny Immigrants. legal immigrants. not undocumented. access to services for which they pay with their taxes. because In every respect they do what a citizen does. They must contribute in their taxes. We are saying here in this bill. "Lets deny them services because they are coming in this country to get welfare." Absolutely not true. A respected. wellknown research center. conservative research center which the Republican majority often uses. the Cato Institute. told us immigrants contribute about $285 billion to the economy. pay $70 billion in taxes. and net. in other words. in excess. they contribute $25 billion more than they use in services from the government. Now. why do we hear all this talk? Because they cannot vote. they cannot hurt people who attack them. and they are an easy target. especially when we call them noncitizens. On behalf of my parents who were immigrants. on behalf of the over 1 million active and now veteran legal immigrants who served this country in time of war. and on behalf of the two Congressional Medal of Honor winners who served this country. both legal immigrants. that I can talk of. I say they do not come here to take. they come to give. The proof is in the pudding. and we should not attack a group just because it happens to be politically tenable to go after them. because they cannot go after us.