Speech #1130123821

Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I commend him for his leadership as chairman and now ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and his important work for comprehensive immigration reform. I also salute the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. Congresswoman ZOE LOFGREN of California. who has not only chaired the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee. she has taught immigration law. she has been an immigration lawyer. She represents a very diverse district in California blessed with a strong immigrant population. Mr. Speaker. more than 520 days ago. the Senate passed bold bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform by an overwhelming margin. It was bipartisan. it was overwhelming. 520 days agomore than that. Time and again. the Republican leadership of the House has promised productive action to fix our clearly broken immigration system. yet. time and again. Republicans have refused to give the American people a vote on this critical issue. They have ignored law enforcement. the badges. faith leaders. the Bibles. and business groupsthe three Bs. They have denied our country billions of dollars in economic benefits and $1 trillion in deficit reduction. turned their backs on millions of hardworking immigrant families forced to live in daily dread of separation and deportation. In the face of Republicans failure to act. President Obama has used his wellestablished legal and constitutional authority to bring our immigration system back into line with our needs as a Nation and our values as a people. The Presidents executive actions will restore accountability to our immigration enforcement: securing our borders. deporting felons. not families. and requiring undocumented immigrants to pass a criminal background check and pay taxes. Presidents have had broad authority to defer removal when it is in the national interest. and past Presidents have regularly used this authority. President Ronald Reagan understood that immigration was the constant reinvigoration of our Nation. As a new President in 1981. President Reagan said: Our Nation is a nation of immigrants. More than any other country. our strength comes from our own immigrant heritage and our capacity to welcome those from other lands. In the leadup to the Immigration Reform and Control Act. President Reagan. again. called our Nation to action when he said: We are also going to have compassion and legalize those who came here sometime ago and have legitimately put roots down and are living as legal residents of our country. even though illegal. We are going to make them legal. In his signing statement of the Immigration Reform and Control Act. President Reagan said: We have consistently supported a legalization program which is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America. He went on to say: The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Does that sound familiar? He went on to say: Very soon. many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight. and. ultimately. if they choose. they may become Americans. In the years immediately following the enactment of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. President Reagan and President George Herbert Walker Bush took bold action to protect the spouses and children of people who received status under that law. Although Congress explicitly chose not to grant status to these people. Presidents Reagan and Bush recognized that it was not in the national interest to separate families. Using their authority to establish a family fairness program by executive action. they offered spouses and children indefinite protection from deportation and gave them work authorization. Every President since President Dwight David Eisenhower has used this same broad authority. Republicans and Democrats alike.