Madam Chair. I rise in strong opposition to the FY 2015 Homeland Security Appropriations Act because House Republicans are littering the bill with provisions that have nothing to do with homeland security but have everything to do with harming families and keeping our immigration system dysfunctional. risking our national security in the process. I too serve as a ranking member on the Appropriations Committee and craft a bill and work in a bipartisan spirit. and I had an opportunity to work in a bipartisan spirit on this bill as well. So it is truly unfortunate that this bill is being poisoned by amendments that are really going to jeopardize our national security. I reluctantly stand in opposition because the overall bill is "mustpass" legislation. and it includes very important measures to bolster our national security. including additional funding that I fought for and secured to protect children from online predators. Many of my colleagues are in a similar situation. too many poison pills are set to be slipped in that make this legislations passage unacceptable. House Republicans are willfully driving us toward a partial government shutdown that jeopardizes our security at home. all just for the chance to further destabilize our immigration system. make it harder to secure the border. punish young people who have known no other country other than this one. and separate families in the process. Now. how did we get here? Because the extreme elements of the GOP became apoplectic when the President announced that he would move ahead with his legal executive actions to fix our broken immigration system. And everyone will recall. of course. that he did so due to this bodys repeated unwillingness to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Now. as we debated the socalled CR/ Omnibus legislation last year. House Republicans put their cards on the table with temporary DHS funding.
Keywords matched
immigration