Mr. Speaker. Members of the House. in 1 week this 113th Congress will expire without having considered a single piece of legislation to fix our Nations broken immigration system. It has been 525 days since the Senate passed bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would have made meaningful and long overdue reforms. But our Chamber here has still steadfastly refused to allow an upordown vote on that measure. No one questions that our immigration system is broken. It is failing our economy and millions of families and our businesses. And yet. rather than deal with these critical issues. we are here today to vote on yet another symbolic. antiimmigrant measure that has absolutely no chance of consideration in the Senate. I want to be clear. H.R. 5759 is politically motivated. hastily drafted. and an attempt. once again. to attack our President. as well as immigrant families who contribute to our communities and our economy. By blocking the protections offered by the Presidents actions. the legislation would deprive nearly 5 million immigrants and their families of the hope that they might finally live without constant fear of separation and deportation. It would undermine the administrations efforts to devote greater resources toward securing our borders and deporting felons and not families. This would mean millions of undocumented immigrants would not be asked to pass national security and criminal background checks and pay their fair share of taxes in order to register for temporary protection from deportation. Now. H.R. 5759 falsely claims that President Obamas assertion of authority is unlawful.
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antiimmigrant immigration undocumented deporting deportation immigrant immigrants