Speech #1140005388

Because of the Presidents order. Bianca and her family no longer live in fear every single day of being torn from the life they have built in Hawaii. The House Republicans mass deportation policy is a serious proposal in only one respect. It would result in serious. negative consequences for our economy. our government. and millions of families in our country. In contrast. prioritizing deporting felons. not families and students. is simply common sense. and that is what the Presidents Executive order does. Now is the time when we should be working together on commonsense and comprehensive immigration reform that the vast majority of Americans support. Comprehensive immigration reform is supported by 70 percent of the American people. In the past Congress. nearly 70 percent of the Senate supported our bipartisan immigration bill. Our bipartisan bill was a compromise. It strengthened border security. modernized our system. addressed visa backlogs. and allowed millions of undocumented people to step out of the shadows. get in line. and work toward becoming American citizens. Comprehensive immigration reform would have spurred economic growth in our country by over $100 billion per year while helping to bring down the deficit. The only thing that kept this bipartisan reform bill from becoming law was the fact that Speaker BOEHNER refused to give the bill an upordown vote in the House. Recklessly shutting down the Department of Homeland Security will not fix our broken immigration system. Undoing the Presidents Executive action will not fix our broken immigration system. We must work together. and we must fund the Department of Homeland Security so that they can continue to protect our country. and we must come together to pass commonsense reform that Americans support. Both sides of the aisle agree that we are a nation of immigrants and our immigration system is broken. We dont need to shut down the Department of Homeland Security or round up and deport millions of families and individuals. We can start that process with a clean DHS funding bill. and I urge my Republican colleagues to bring one to the floor quickly.