Speech #1140056353

Furthermore. why do my Republican colleagues believe they know better than the local towns and citizens who live this day in and day out? They talk endlessly about decentralizing government. giving the power back to local communities. but not this time. It is no wonder that this bill is opposed by law enforcement. including the Fraternal Order of Police. the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force. the U.S. Conference of Mayors. immigrant and Latino rights organizations. faith groups. and domestic violence groups. among others. This bill is not a real solution to our broken immigration system. The bottom line is that we need comprehensive immigration reform. We passed bipartisan legislation in 2013. but we havent had a real discussion in Congress for over 2 years. A recent Pew poll found that 74 percent of Americans overall said that undocumented immigrants should be given a pathway to stay legally. That included 66 percent of Republicans. 74 percent of Independents. and 80 percent of Democrats who support a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants. This bipartisan support is not new. Comprehensive immigration reform. previously passed in the Senate. brought millions of people out of the shadows who had to prove their identity. pass a criminal background check. pay taxes. and provide an earned path to citizenship so ICE could focus on the people who were true public safety threats. The bill also increased penalties for repeat border crossers. It included $46 billion in new resources. including no fewer than 38.000 trained. fulltime. active Border Patrol agents deployed and stationed along the southern border. It increased the real GDP of our country by more than 3 percent in 2023 and 5.4 percent in 2033an increase of roughly $700 billion in the first 10 years and $1.4 trillion in the second 10. It would have reduced the Federal deficit by $197 billion over the next decade and by another $700 billion in the following.