Speech #CREC-2017-06-07-pt1-PgH4690-5_t7

Right in front of TV cameras from across central Florida, first, the two parents came down--parents of a citizen who hadn't seen his parents in over 5 years. The scene was traumatic: crying, hugs, and welcomed by cameras wondering what had happened to these two individuals. These were simply two citizens of Iraq trying to come over to visit their son, who had already been given visas to come on over. A few minutes later, our constituent finally arrived as well. She also had been held for 8 hours without water, without food, after a 20- hour flight, and a barrage of questions. After that, we saw public opinion change sharply in central Florida as people saw these were the alleged people that were getting extreme vetting: people who were visiting their son in central Florida, longtime residents, who only had productive lives in central Florida. A few weeks later, we had the deportation force memo come down. I was shocked. We sent out letters to our sheriffs, we sent out letters to our schools, asking if they were planning on participating in this deportation force that President Trump had called upon to help implement and enforce our immigration laws. We called immediately a round table, where we invited immigrant groups, we invited law enforcement groups, and so many others to talk about the issues that were happening. Two of my three sheriffs immediately said they weren't planning on participating, that this was a Federal issue. A third ended up going from fully participating to, a day later, walking back that position, to just picking up folks who had been accused of violent felonies. Then our schools responded very quickly after they were posed with a scenario--a situation that was going down the very same day: a citizen, a young woman of Mexican descent, whose parents were also legal immigrants, was asked in front of their classmates about her status. Afterwards, there were a lot of finger-pointing and excuses that these were questions that were being levied to determine whether she needed to participate in the ESEA program. But at that moment, it was just more of this anti-immigrant rhetoric that was coming out of so many areas in central Florida. But like that incident, which was covered at length, minds and hearts changed in central Florida. There was an apology given to this young woman who was a citizen, and they changed the policy so that no one would be asked about immigration status in front of their peers, even if it was for something as harmless as the ESEA program. With our sheriffs clarifying their policies to not join this DHS call for deportation force, we were proud once again to have an inclusive society in central Florida where we welcome everybody. We are such an international community, home to the best theme parks in the world, a world-class convention center and hotels, and we welcome everybody from across the globe. Then, in addition, I just received a letter from a constituent. Her daughter had grown up, gotten a job, fallen in love, and had a bright future ahead of her. But she worried because her daughter's boyfriend potentially could be deported because he is on an H-1 visa. These types of policies breaking up families don't serve any interest in helping people pursue the American Dream and don't serve any interest in protecting our economy and protecting growth in central Florida, where we have such a large cattle industry and where we have such a large citrus industry. Finally, we have so many DREAMers, young students, who live in central Florida, who are working and striving, rising up in our society, and helping people along the way, immigrants who potentially could be one of 40 percent of creators of Fortune 500 companies that have been created here in America, one of the 65,000 servicemen and - women who are immigrants, who serve in our United States military. And we find that, with every 100 immigrants, we are creating 120 new jobs because our country has been founded and created on growth and equality. So I would like to see a few things happen, things that I believe Democrats and Republicans can agree on. First, let's make sure to ratify the DREAMer program, the Deferred Action program. You have bipartisan cosponsorship for this bill. This is something we could get done, especially for our veterans and those serving in our U.S. military. In addition, I believe that we need to relook at the H-1 visa program, the farmworker program. We need to acknowledge the reality that we have had for the last 150 years of agriculture here in the United States, which is that we rely on many of our immigrants coming from Mexico and Central and South America to help with our agriculture. This has been going on for over a century. What we can do is simply go from a 1-year to maybe a 3-year or 5-year program. I know our immigrants' rights community would support it. I know our agriculture communities would support it; and we wouldn't have people unwittingly not getting back to their country of origin after the 1-year visa expires, when they just want to go back and come back again to help out as seasonal labor. Then thirdly, there is an arbitrary cap on highly skilled workers here in this country. We train them in Ivy League schools, in brilliant schools in Texas, California, Florida, and across this Nation. And then, because of an arbitrary cap that no one wants to change because of the hot-button issue of immigration, then we send them on their way, back to their countries of origin, rather than keep them here and harness their talent for the future of our economy. Canada has even got word of this and welcomes these folks. When they realize their visas are up, they beg them to come to Canada to help start new businesses. So these are some of the ideas that we can fix, that we could all agree on, that both parties can agree on. And of course, in the end, we need a comprehensive immigration reform. But, in the meantime, let's get some things done that we all agree on and move our country forward. Mr.