Speech #1140005388

President. I rise today on the important issue of funding the Department of Homeland Security and to urge my colleagues to come together and pass a clean appropriations bill with regard to this agency. The Department of Homeland Security. or DHS. is charged with border security and immigration enforcement. DHSs role extends far beyond immigration. The agency is also responsible for aviation security. emergency management and response. counterterrorism. and cyber security. Democrats and Republicans have long worked together to make sure our hardworking Federal officers on the border. in our airports. and at our ports can continue their critical work that keeps us safe. Now the Republicancontrolled House would irresponsibly risk shutting down the Department of Homeland Security to score political points over the Presidents immigration actions. Today I object to the effort to shut down DHS over the Presidents immigration Executive action because it is not only an irresponsible strategy from a security point of view. but it comes with a real cost in the everyday lives of students and parents. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to expire February 27. The President has been clear that he will veto any policy riders that undo his Executive action and harm millions of students and their families. The House Republican bill forces us to choose between shutting down the Department of Homeland Security or deporting children and families. This is an untenable choice. Looking at the votes in the House. it is clear some Members of Congress would on the one hand say our immigration focus should be on securing our border. while on the other hand they risk turning off the lights at Border Patrol stations because they disagree with the Presidents immigration policies. Last year I led a congressional delegation to McAllen. TX. and to Lackland Air Force Base to see the humanitarian crisis on the border firsthand. My colleagues and I were heartbroken after seeing children as young as 7 years old in Customs and Border Protection facilities. But what we also saw were hardworking border agents doing the best they could under difficult circumstances in an already stressed immigration system. These agents should know that we in Washington are going to give them the resources they need to do their jobs. not irresponsibly shut down the Department of Homeland Security. for whom they work. Instead of threatening to shut down the governments primary homeland security agency. we should be working together to once again pass bipartisan. comprehensive immigration reform. Republicans and Democrats agree our immigration system is broken. With his Executive action President Obama took a step to bring millions across the country out of the shadows and keep U.S. citizens and their families together. Congressional action that puts families first is needed if we are to permanently fix our immigration system. The Presidents Executive action helps millions of people across America by allowing certain students and families to register. work legally. and pay their taxes. His action is rooted in the reality that our immigration enforcement officers need to exercise discretion on whom to go after with limited resources and in a broken immigration system. Those who oppose the Presidents action. which is reflected in the House Republican bill. say that the President and enforcement officers must act with absolutely no discretion. This position contemplates and. in fact. supports the removal of nearly 12 million undocumented people from our country. This is paramount to a policy of mass deportation. If mass deportation were enacted. DHS would need an exponential increase in funding and resources. Billions in increased spending without any permanent fixes or reforms is not a viable option. Even if we somehow have the resources to enact the policy of mass deportation. doing so would devastate our economy. removing millions of hardworking people who would no longer be working. running businesses. buying our goods and products. That would lead to over $2.5 trillion of economic loss to our country in just a decade. Mass deportation is not a serious solution for immigration reform. It simply is not possible for DHS to remove every undocumented person from this country. Passing the House bill would just make life even harder for these people. many of whom are already some of the hardest working people in our Nation. As I mentioned. there are nearly 12 million undocumented people living in communities across America. Many have been living here for years or decades. They are parents. they are small business owners. and they are our neighbors and our childrens classmates at school. They are people such as Bianca. a woman who lives in Hawaii with her family. After moving to the United States on a visa over a decade ago. Bianca met her husband. They moved to the place where they had always dreamed of livingHawaii. naturallyand began a family there. Biancas work visa and her husbands work visa were temporary. and like many immigrant families they faced a tough decision to remain after their visas expired and to continue building a life here in America. Bianca and her husband started with nothing. Today they have two small businesses on Oahu and four American childrenchildren born in the United States.