Speech #1140012832

We. like everyone elsethe people that dont belong here because of felonious behavior. violence. drug smuggling. and breaking the laws of this Nation. those are the people that ICE should put its emphasis on and get rid of felons. as the President said. and not families. The President did that order. much to the outcry of some colleagues of mine on the other side of the aislenot all. I would never paint the whole Republican Conference with one brush. but there is a significant number that see the issue of immigration in a very different and clouded way. That clouded way has to do more with ideology. It has more to do with the sense that it is us versus them and an insecurity about the changing demography of this country and what it means to the Nation. That insecurity is just sad. an insecurity not founded in fact and not founded on the immigrant history of this Nation. As a firstgeneration American. I can tell you the pride and the values that I have were grown in this country. were nurtured in this country. and serving in this body could be the highest honor I could ever have. That story is repeated. day in and day out. for the history of this Nation. that the immigrant community has come to give and to contribute. not to take. The President has wide latitude. as President. with executive orders. The court case. an injunction to hold the implementation of his executive orders in Texas. where a selection process chose this judge for his previous legal opinions and his previous public comments regarding the issue of immigration. that sided very much with the opponents. I am totally confidenttotally confidentthat as we move up the chain of the Federal court system. that the constitutional authority that the President has for these executive orders. as previous Presidents had for executive orders. will be redeemed. and that lower injunction will be overturned. In the interim. we continue to tell people in the undocumented community. immigrant community: Come forward. bring your documentation. begin to prepare yourself for an opportunity to be one of the people and families that qualify for this program. What the President did with those executive orders is significant in many ways. Those executive orders began mending the social fabric of this Nation. One of the most divisive issues has been immigration. and maybe it is a good election ploy to continue to beat that horse dead in order to get elected. In the long term. in the generational term of this Nation. it does nothing but divide us along very superficial issues. It divides us along the issue of race and divides us along the issue of language and country of origin. Those are not divisions for the social wellbeing of this Nation that we can tolerate. Immigration reform is also about the domestic tranquility of this Nation and to heal that social fabric that has been ripped. I also want to say that the Progressive Caucus. from the onset. has been a tireless advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. humane policies. familycentered reforms. and reforms that deal with the reality of what is around us and doesnt ignore it. I am proud to be a member of that caucus and for its steadfast and unwavering support not only of comprehensive immigration reform. but of the President and his executive orders. Five amendments were presented as part of the DHS bill. which were at the center of the controversy. and the ones that were eliminated so we could finally vote on a key piece of legislation. One amendment. the Aderholt amendment. this amendment prohibits any funds or fees to be used to carry out the majority of the Presidents executive order. including DAPA and DACA. Reality. fact. the prohibition is irrelevant and moot. All the cost of this program comes from the individual making an application. It is a feedriven process. There is no specific allocation that this body has made to it or that the Department is making to it. The Blackburn amendment. which I thought was of particular anguish to everyone. this amendment would end the DACA program. the DREAMer program for DREAMer children susceptible to deportation. Lets say those almost 300.000. if not more. young people that are qualified under DACA. suddenly. with that amendment. would have that protection taken away and their status would now be back in the deportable status. That amendment. in and of itself. does nothing for national security. does nothing to address the issue of a broken immigration system. but. indeed. adds a level of cruelty to the whole process of trying to solve this problem. Preventing the President from being able to have new enforcement priorities. going after criminals and felons. as opposed to trying to break up families and deport families. one of the amendments was meant to stop that. The Salmon amendment really made no sense. Undocumented people are not able and cannot receive and participate in the Affordable Care Act. Employers cannot register and have them employed. period. by Federal law. It was just to state the obvious and try to create an issue in which there wasnt one. And there is no prioritization. where people under this executive order will be ahead of other people. There are two different processes: one is for a legal reprieve of protection that lasts up to the tenure of this President. and the other one. naturalization and getting legal permanent status. continues to be a process. One process doesnt get in front of the line of the other. I want to go back to one point. At some point. we are going to have to deal with the issue of immigration reform in a constructive. proactive way. And it is going to have to be dealt with because I think the economic security of this country is at stake. the domestic wellbeing and quality of life for this country is at stake. the economy is at stake. and the security is at stake. and if for no other reason. to look at the benefits of those areas in the discussion of comprehensive immigration reform. We could continue on the path of making immigration reform and immigrants the cannon fodder in the 2016 election. We could continue to make immigration reform the collateral damage in any piece of legislation that is brought before this Congress. with the assumption that the individuals affected by these laws are not real human beings. We can continue to deny the obvious and the reality of this Nation. that when you have 11 million undocumented living. working amongst us. that the prudent. smart. and pragmatic thing to do is to deal with that issue and not exploit it or ignore it. We have heard so much pandering to this issue. We have heard of disease being brought to this country. which was proven untrue.