Speech #1130111977

It is my hope that these leaders stay true to their word and demonstrate leadership by addressing the humanitarian crisis taking place within their own countries. These young unaccompanied children must be treated in a humane and dignified way. Ultimately. these childrens fate rests in the hands of our immigration judges. and those children who are not granted asylum must return to their countries. Playing politics with this grave crisis. as some are doing. is not productive. It is the height of hypocrisy that Republicans want more border security. but have refused to allow a vote on a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would in fact provide more funding to secure our borders. That makes no sense. We have spent billions of dollars on border security. but clearly. our border is not yet secure. The comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate in a bipartisan fashion requires that a longterm plan be developed and executed with an initial $8.3 billion in funding to focus on securing the borders today and an additional $6.5 billion in funding to be spent over the next 6 years to in fact secure our border. What we need now. more than ever. is an open and honest discussion on the House floor about the relationship between immigration reform and this humanitarian crisis. Therefore. I urge my Republican colleagues to join together. in a bipartisan fashion. like they did in the Senate. to find an effective and humane short- and longterm solution to this crisis. which is directly related. in my opinion. to fixing our broken immigration system. ABLE ACT