COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the need for
bipartisan and comprehensive immigration reform. I am disappointed by
President Trump's actions on immigration during his first 2 months in
office. I do not say that lightly, because I want this President to
succeed, as I want every President to succeed, because if they succeed,
so does our country. But the President's comments and actions to implement policies that
don't hold up American values has me feeling very uneasy. To say the
least, his erratic statements made on domestic and foreign policy, that
he has either taken back or corrected, demonstrates a lack of
diplomatic experience. For example, issuing an executive order to build
a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border is not a real solution to fixing our
broken immigration system. It does little, if anything, to improve our
national security, and it would only hurt trade relations with Mexico,
which would have a very serious economic impact not only on American
exporters, but especially California's agriculture industry. Additionally, the Trump administration's directives to deport
undocumented immigrants, regardless of how long they have lived here
and the contributions they have made to our society, is a strong
example of the President's implementing policy that not only is flawed
from a human rights perspective, but it is going to have a negative
impact on our economy as well. President Trump is forcing over 11 million individuals who have lived
in the United States for decades deeper into the shadows of our
communities. They are scared to go to work, scared to go to school, and
scared to live their lives. California's agriculture industry relies
heavily on a workforce of individuals who are undocumented and work
every single day to accomplish the American Dream for themselves and
their families. These individuals are not only contributing to the
agriculture industry, but they are also students, entrepreneurs, and
businessowners. Furthermore, implementing an executive order to ban travel to the
United States is not the American way.
Keywords matched
immigration undocumented immigrants