Speech #1090171336

Mr. Speaker. like HumptyDumpty atop a great wall. the Republican leadersbips false proposal that we consider today is really on the edge of a great fall. This is not so much about broken immigration policies. as it is about a House leadership that is desperately trying to cling to power and realizing that it is about to take a great fall. A great fall because. in part. on immigration. as with so many other issues. it has had years to act. and years to respond. Like this Administration. it has failed to secure our borders or find a meaningful way to deal with immigration. So today. as part of the campaign of fear and hate that it has promoted over the recess with hearings across America. this bill is designed to erect a fence along the entire border of Texas. including all of the area that I represent along the Rio Grande River between Texas and Mexico. With no funding accompanying the bill. it is really less of a fortification than a fairy tale. and it is also results from public concerns on this issue that arise from the failure of the Administration to fund the 2.000 Border Patrol agents that we proposed in 2004 when it ended up providing only 210. It is similar in concern to the raid that President Bush and his Administration made on our Texas Border Patrol agents. when it moved them to Arizona. in what even my Republican colleagues condemned as an "outrage." They cannot put HumptyDumpty together again because reality does not comport with their rhetoric. The solution to our problems with immigration will take more than concrete. You cannot build a wall high enough or long enough. You cannot pour in the billions and billions of dollars that they propose over the next decade for this wall. if it were ever funded. to keep people who are hungry from coming to this country. What we need is a comprehensive approach that includes securing our borders. but at the same time realizes that much of our American industry and agriculture depends on immigrant labor. We need a way to encourage that labor to enter the country in a legal. not illegal fashion. If you do nothing but erect a false barrier and fail to include at the same time a legal way for labor to enter this country to seek a better life and to help us have a better life. one is left with a tremendous false sense of security for a wall that didnt work in Berlin. didnt work around Hong Kong. and hasnt worked in many other areas and is not the kind of comprehensive solution we need.