Speech #1140007982

We count on the Coast Guard. the TSA. Customs. and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Serviceswhich are all part of the DHSto be on the job every day. Some of my Republican colleagues insist that before we fund the critical work of Homeland Security. we must first undo the Presidents commonsense immigration actions that helped millions of families across the country. The House bill before us holds DHS funding hostage to make political points against the President. This is a manufactured standoff. The House bill attacks undocumented persons who have Americanborn children. Those are U.S. citizen children. The Presidents actions enabled these families to step out of the shadows. pass background checks. pay their taxes. and work in the open without the daily threat of deportation. The House bill attacks DREAMers. the students who have been helped through the DACA problem for nearly 3 years. Just yesterday President Obama met with six DREAMers in the Oval Office who represent some of the very best our country has to offer. The House bill says to these DREAMers: You. too. like the parents of U.S.-born children. should live under the daily threat of deportation. There are 600.000 DREAMers in the DACA Program throughout the country. The House bill reverses longstanding enforcement priorities and directives that DHS has implemented. These directives tell immigration enforcement officers to focus on the bad guys rather than on the moms. the dads. and other contributing members of our communities. The House bill. in removing all administrative discretion on who should be deported. in effect says that all 12 million undocumented persons in our country can be deported. This is totally unrealistic and unnecessary. I stand with my colleagues who are ready and willing to come together to pass bipartisan immigration reform. We did that last Congress with 68 bipartisan votes. As Republican Senator HELLER said recently. the House bill that is before us "only includes language that complicates the process of finding a solution when it comes to immigration reform." This House bill emphasizes a policy of mass deportation that would harm our economy. costing trillions in economic loss. not to mention the devastating impact on the people. Economists have told us that comprehensive immigration reform will provide an enormous boost to our economy. helping all workers across the country. The House bill does not reform our system. The House bill does not help millions of students and families come out of the shadows. It does not provide more resources to our hardworking Border Patrol agents. It does not help those who have been stuck in our visa backlog for decades. Rather than debating comprehensive immigration reform. the House has once again ducked the issue. this time holding DHS hostage so that a small minority of their colleagues can have their way. This is like "Groundhog Day"-a repeat scenario that brings us continuing resolutions to keep government going in a stopandgo fashion and indeed a scenario that brought us the government shutdown in 2013. We do not have to keep repeating failed scenarios. Lets bring a clean DHS funding bill to the floor. Lets get that done and then move on to a debate on comprehensive immigration reform that is long overdue. I yield the floor.