Speaker. I invite my colleagues who have used the excusebecause they believe itthat we must first secure the border before we can do anything else. before we can improve our relationship with Mexico. before we can capitalize on the shared production platform that is the United States and Mexico today. where 40 percent of the value of everything that we import from Mexico originated in this country. is connected to jobs in this country. I invite my friends who use securing the border as an excuse not to move forward on immigration reform. despite the fact that we have 11 million people here who are living in the shadows. who. despite that. do their best to contribute to this country each and every day in service to this country and creating jobs in this country. in serving those in this country. I invite you to see the truth. to look at the facts. and to understand that our relationship with Mexico has never been more important. our border with Mexico has never been more secure. by any metric we want to look at. Whether it is apprehension. whether it is the total spent on the security of that border. whether it is the number of men and women. 20.000. who are patrolling that border with our closest partnercertainly the closest trading partner in the State of Texas. I would argue the most important country for the United Stateswhether you look at it economically. demographically. historically. or culturally. I hope these facts. this truth. this light that we are working to shed on the issue. will help my colleagues to make better decisions. better policies. and move forward in the selfinterest of this country. every district. and every person we represent. to do the right thing when it comes to Mexico. to do the right thing when it comes to immigration reform. and to do the right thing in the interest of the United States. Mr. Speaker.
Keywords matched
immigration