Speech #CREC-2017-07-25-pt1-PgH6217-5_t1

But not if Donald Trump has his way they don't, or at least not when it comes to coming here to America. Thankfully, the American court system disagrees with our President on this. Hawaii sued the President again and won an injunction again, and the Supreme Court, which would ultimately determine the fate of America's commitment to refugees and religious tolerance will determine the case later this year. But in the meantime, over the objections of the President, grandparents are officially part of the family and have a bona fide relationship that allows them, under the law, to bypass the President's attempt to keep them out. Thank you, courts, for recognizing and defending families and giving our President a lesson in the obvious. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, I learned about a tragedy in San Antonio where a truck packed with immigrants was discovered and at least 10 people were killed. The truck had no ventilation or air-conditioning. There was no water for those inside who had paid a lot of money to risk their lives to live in America--10 dead and another 20 near death, some of them children, under the hot Texas sun in an apparent smuggling operation. You see, if you cut off legal immigration channels and make people wait decades for a visa, if they are eligible to apply at all, it strengthens the hands of smugglers. If you turn asylum seekers around, in violation of our own laws and international law, those seeking freedom are driven into the arms of smugglers. If, by going through our legal system in requesting asylum, your entire family becomes vulnerable to deportation, being sent back to a place you fled because death was a certainty, then people will pay smugglers to go around our system because there are no ways to go through it. A border wall like the one Republicans will slip into the military spending bill this week in the House will not help matters, but only make them worse. Forcing people to enter the black market because there is no way to go through our visa system will undoubtedly increase the number of times we hear about tragedies like the one in Texas and the number of parents, grandparents, and children who lose everything because we have failed to create and maintain a functioning immigration system. When Luis Andres turns 18 and is able to vote, just like a million young Latinos like him every year are eligible, I know he will remember which party stood for and stood by families and which ones did not. Grandparents, they are part of the American family even if the Republicans don't seem to think so.