Speech #1140025777

Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to the latest efforts by leadership to appease hardliners on immigration. Today. this body is allowing their loudest antiimmigrant voices to overrule the adoption of the Gallego amendment by none other than the Republicancontrolled Armed Services Committee. controlled by the Republican majority. Not only are they throwing their highly touted regular order out of the window. they are taking one more dive down the antiimmigrant rabbit hole. The amendment by my friend from Arizona simply expresses a sense of the House that the Secretary of Defense should review whether recipients of deferred action should be allowed to serve in the military. It doesnt say the military must allow them to serve. It says. lets do a review. a study. a sense of Congress. We woke up today and this is how we feel. Remember that these same 700.000 recipients who grew up here in America. passed a criminal background check. and now have a legal work permit to reside in the United States. they are ready to risk their lives to defend the only country they know. It just says. Hey. do you guys want to take a look? Meanwhile. you totally missed the Veasey amendment calling for a similar study of how executive actions of President Obama and prosecutorial discretion could expand the pool of potential military recruits and how enlistment of DACA applicants would impact military readiness. They missed that one. I guess NumbersUSA didnt give you a call over on the other side or Heritage Action forgot to tell you about that provision. So. Republican hardliners fixated on the Gallego amendment. Seeing the word "review." all they heard was the word "amnesty." If the majority party is unable to allow a nonbinding study approved by the committee of jurisdiction where they are the majority because it includes the word "immigrants" without slapping the amnesty label on it. how on Earth will you be able to fix our broken immigration system or win over the fastestgrowing group of voters in this country? It is clear to me that the candidate who is ready to embrace immigrants and protect DREAMers and their families may as well start measuring the drapes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. and I think I know what her name is.