Speech #1090173332

Mexicans dont want the drug violence going on. Texans dont want the drug violence going on. But it is not an immigration issue. We need to secure the borders. but we dont want to mix apples and oranges. We want to get rid of the alien smugglers and the drug smugglers. but these poison pills. and these bills are not the way to comprehensive immigration reform. I ask my colleagues to defeat the rule so the previous question can go forward. I rise in opposition to House Rule H. Res. 1018. which provides for a closed rule on the Border Tunnel Prevention Act. H.R. 4830. the Community Protection Act. H.R. 6094. and the Immigration Law Enforcement Act. H.R. 6095. We need an Open Rule for these immigration bills so that they may properly be considered debated. The Bush Administration has been in office for 6 years. and the majority has controlled Congress for more than 10 years. but only now. in an election year. have we begun to examine how to address the critical need to fix our broken immigration security systems. The House and Senate passed their bills on immigration reform and border security months ago. Under regular order. we should be appointing conferees and engaging the process of reconciling the two bills. However. in a substantial deviation from normal practice. the House Majority Leadership decided to launch a traveling roadshow of committee hearings in States across the country. The American people saw through this charade and condemned the hearings as a waste of time and taxpayer money. when Congress should have been focused on resolving the immigration problem in conference. Now that it is September. and the nationwide hearings are over. the House Leadership continues to skirt its duty to conference with the Senate. hiding behind procedural holdups and creating busywork by bringing these same provisions that were passed in H.R. 4437 last December to the floor again. just before the election. Consistently. the majority has sought great fanfare land publicity for their supposed border security initiatives. But consistently. they have refused to fund these promises and have failed to carry out the security measures for which they seek public acclaim. The problem is that immigration has become about talk and show. and winning elections. The majority has done nothing to pass real. meaningful immigration reform that addresses all needsincluding the 12 million undocumented already in our Nation. the needs for improved family reunification policies. and reforms to the nonfunctional workplace enforcement. in addition to the critically needed border security and enforcement enhancements. We know that 5 years after 911. the Bush Administration still does not have any control over the borders. If the Bush Administration had property secured the border. we would not be facing the security issue of millions of unknown people in our country. If the Bush Administration had enforced the workplace laws. we wouldnt have more than 7 million undocumented aliens working in the United States. If Congress had funded the 911 Commissions recommendations or conducted proper oversight. we would not be voting on these same enforcement provisions for the second or third time. We would be in conference. hammering out a compromise with the Senate as we were elected to do. When we bring these bills to the floor. bills which we held no hearings on. which did not go through committee. we owe the American people a meaningful debate. We must have an Open Rule and an opportunity to debate our Amendments in the Nature of a Substitute to address the real needs of immigration and border security reform. I urge you to vote against House Rule H. Res. 1018.