Schools Not Shelters Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 597, I call up the bill (H.R. 3941) to prohibit the use of the facilities of a public elementary school, a public secondary school, or an institution of higher education to provide shelter for aliens who have not been admitted into the United States, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Ms. FOXX. 3941.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3941, the Schools Not Shelters Act. In simplest terms, this bill ensures that any public K-12 or postsecondary education institution that houses illegal aliens will not receive a penny of funding from hardworking taxpayers.
Tens of thousands of illegal aliens are pouring into cities across the country, and this administration does nothing to secure the southern border. At its height in May, the average number of illegal border crossings averaged 10,000 per day. It is unsustainable and a slap in the face of Americans and those who come legally.
What is worse, Biden's allies at the State and local level have proposed using public school facilities to accommodate the influx.
Schools are for educating students, not housing illegal aliens. That statement shouldn't be controversial. Yet, somewhere along the way, the left diverged from reality and lost sight of what is best for students.
Take New York, for example. New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently announced plans to allocate up to 30 public school gymnasiums as overflow to house illegal aliens. Governor Hochul doubled down by expressing interest in housing 1,500 illegal aliens in dorms at a few SUNY campuses.
Adult illegal aliens, not children, were already being housed in Brooklyn at Public School 188 facilities by mid-May. Because of the thousands of migrants coming into New York City every week, New York City officials have stated they are in no position to take anything off the table when it comes to housing migrants.
Unfortunately, these actions set a precedent for other localities to follow. For example, in Chicago, 800 illegal aliens are being housed in two colleges.
H.R. 4931 puts a stop to this and for good reason. First, housing illegal aliens in public schools diverts educational resources away from students already reeling from the effects of prolonged school closures during the pandemic.
An entire generation of students has fallen behind academically. If you want proof, look no further than the latest NAEP student test scores for math, reading, civics, and history. They are abysmal.
Every educational resource available must be aimed at getting students back on track. Unfortunately, that is not a reality for many school districts.
In El Paso, surges in illegal aliens required the city to spend $300,000 a day in 1 month alone. That is nearly $10 million in 1 month, every dollar of which should have gone to students and our citizens.
Second, these policies drain institution budgets. It was reported that campuses within the University of Maine system that considered housing illegal aliens found that doing so would require millions to renovate unused facilities.
Beyond giving an old building a facelift, consider the recurring costs: electricity, water, and transportation, and those are just the basics. Make no mistake; institutions that bear increased costs to house illegal aliens will ultimately transfer that burden to students through tuition hikes or the American taxpayer.
Third, these actions perpetuate this administration's illegal border policies. Like many of the left's policies, they are shortsighted and do not address the root challenges that they are intended to solve. Housing illegal aliens in educational facilities is no different.
President Biden caused this mess at the southern border. He, along with his allies at the local and State level, should be the ones paying for their disastrous policies, not schoolchildren or postsecondary students.
Above all, consider this: No State, no city, no school district, and no institution is immune to the effects of an open border. Because of President Biden, every State has become a border State.
What we are voting on in the Schools Not Shelters Act is a change of priorities; putting students and taxpayers above the failed policies of President Biden. The Schools Not Shelters Act sends a message that Republicans will not stand for the left's sanctuary cities that continue to run cover for this administration. Nothing outweighs the success and safety of students.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, housing illegal aliens in public educational facilities is downright dangerous, drains educational resources, and distracts school districts and universities from their primary mission of educating students.
This Chamber sees many rigorous debates about all types of issues facing the American people. I never imagined there would be a debate over the primary function of schools. Since when did schools being used for learning become a novel idea?
The Schools Not Shelters Act delivers a dose of reality to the Biden administration and the left who are putting students second to their open border policies. Enough is enough.
I urge my colleagues to vote for this important bill and stand up for students' well-being and academic success.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in strong opposition to H.R. 3941, ``Schools Not Shelters Act of 2023''.
This bill is an absurd measure to condemn the use of elementary and secondary school facilities that provide shelter for people caught up in emergencies, just like we do for other disasters.
Using the facilities of a public elementary or secondary school to provides shelter for non-U.S. nationals who are not admitted into the United States should not be politicized, as this is humanitarian issue and failure of our broken immigration system.
As a Member on the Homeland Security committee, and more specifically the Border Security and Enforcement subcommittee, I interact with those at the border and migrants frequently.
I believe that a comprehensive approach is needed to find a lasting solution to the current immigration crisis.
However, I think it is essential that migrants are brought and allowed into the country through legal immigration.
I am a strong proponent of humanitarian aid efforts in the immigration context, from preventing the breakup of individual families because of a wrongful deportation to ensuring that victims of civil wars and national disasters around the globe receive a temporary protected status under the U.S. immigration laws.
We should not condemn the use of public elementary or secondary schools provide shelter for non-U.S. nationals who are not admitted into the United States.
I acknowledge that school are places of learning and development for students, but there are time periods when school campuses are not being used, such as during school breaks.
Because of this, the space could be used for humanitarian aid purposes, such as allowing migrants to stay there while they wait for legal processing and paperwork to conclude.
Other exceptions need to be reviewed, such as whether migrants could stay at schools when school is in-session, but humanitarian aid should not be overlooked in the immigration context.
As a leading country on the global stage, it is our duty and responsibility to assist who we can in a legal manner.
More importantly when it comes to schools in America, we should be addressing critical issues that are truly impacting our educational system--namely, the hostile state takeovers of majority-minority school district--as is what is happening in my district with the Texas Education Agency takeover of the Houston Independent School District.
State takeovers in other districts have led to school closures, layoffs, and no improvements in test scores.
The vast majority of school districts that have been taken over by state agencies (TEA included) have not improved but declined.
With data ranging back to the late 1980s, researchers found that most state takeovers don't translate to academic improvements.
We have to stop the State from intermeddling and overstepping into our educational systems--causing further harm and damage to our communities.
That is why I have called upon President Biden and the Department of Education to investigate and take immediate action to address the recent systematic and dangerous efforts underway by state and local officials in Texas seeking to undermine and undo decades of civil rights protections and advancements in educational institutions and student populations.
And so, I am here today to say that these are the issues that the American people truly care about and want us to be fighting for, for the protection and preservation of their educational rights.
Emergency response agencies have always used school facility sheltering to provide emergency services to affected individuals and communities; the use of these facilities as a temporary shelter for migrants puts no students in danger.
These school facilities have always been used as emergency shelters during disasters such as weather-related events.
No colleges or public K-12 schools should lose federal funding because they provide temporary relief to migrants.
If Republicans are really concerned about measure needed to ensure school safety, they should support all measures that address gun violence prevention and mental health issues.
If my colleagues genuinely want to address students' safety, they should join with us to focus on the real causes of violent deaths in our country--guns.
Gun violence is decimating our families and communities--mass shootings in schools, places of worship, shopping malls, concerts, and urban neighborhoods.
A majority of Americans, including parents, teachers, students, and educational workers support common sense and meaningful actions that address the surging violence in our schools and I colleges.
All that this bill does is to punish schools that Republicans think are helping migrants.
By singling out emergency use for migrants, this bill is only about Republicans' continuous opposition to any effort that provides support for the migrant community.
That is why I had offered the following amendments to be considered by the Rules Committee:
Jackson Lee Amendment 13 would simply prevent the enactment of H.R. 3941 until we actually address and enact comprehensive immigration reform in the United States such that the Federal immigration system operates efficiently and offers a fair, humane, and orderly pathway to citizenship.
Jackson Lee Amendment 15 would also prevent enactment of this bill until, my bill the ``Grant Relief for American Children's Elevation (GRACE) Act of 2023'' is implemented such that the ``exceptional and extremely unusual hardship'' term as defined in Section 240A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 12229b(b)) is amended, to include hardship resulting from separating a family member who is a United States citizen, a lawful permanent resident or an individual lawfully admitted to the United States and a family member who is subject to deportation or removal from the United States.
A study on Facts and Fictions of Race and Family in U.S. Immigration Policy found that the United States governing framework of family sponsorship is rooted in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act.
The act eliminated the 1924 national origins quotas while maintaining the principle of numerical restriction by specifying annual caps as well as per-country limits on immigration.
Under the act, ``immediate family,'' specifically spouses, minor children, and the parents of U.S. citizens, are admitted without numerical quotas.
After that, there is a system of hierarchical preferences in which the claims of U.S. citizens are placed above those of legal permanent residents.
There is also a ranking of the family relationship that is based on l assessments of familial proximity and of age, especially in the caseof parents and children.
The dominant political narrative of the 1965 act at the time of its passage was one of national values, family unity, and the American commitment to ending racial discrimination.
However, according to the Washington Post, the Trump administration's immigration policies separated more than 5,400 children from their families, sending families to Mexico to await the chance to make asylum claims and seeking the chance to detain children indefinitely.
My amendment, the ``Grant Relief for American Children's Elevation Act'' or ``GRACE Act,'' would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to establish certain family separation as an exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has noted that ``highly stressful experiences, like family separation, can cause irreparable harm, disrupting a child's brain architecture and affecting his or her short- and long-term health.
This type of prolonged exposure to serious stress--known as toxic stress--can carry lifelong consequences for children.''
Just last year, two pediatricians wrote in the Houston Chronicle that ``this kind of stress makes children susceptible to acute and chronic conditions such as extreme anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, hypertension and heart disease.''
As we take into consideration the long term negative psychological effects of family separation as the result of immigration, it becomes abundantly clear that we cannot move forward until this cycle is stopped.
As a Member on the Homeland Security committee, and more specifically the Border Security and Enforcement subcommittee, I interact with those at the border and migrants frequently.
I believe that a comprehensive approach is needed to find a lasting solution to the current immigration crisis.
However, I think it is essential that migrants are brought and allowed into the country through legal immigration.
Under the Jackson Lee Amendment, 15, the Immigration and Nationality Act would have no longer subjected human beings to extreme trauma by separating a family member who is a United States citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or an individual lawfully admitted to the United States and a family member who is subject to deportation or removal from the United States.
And the Jackson Lee Amendment 16 strikes one word--``not'' from Sect. 2(a) such that it reads as follows:
In General:--As a condition on receipt of Federal financial assistance under applicable program by a public elementary school, a public secondary school, or an institution of higher education, the facilities of the school or institution may be used to provide shelter or housing for specified aliens.
Thus, my amendment strikes the very language preventing the use of school facilities for the purpose of providing shelter or housing to individuals as defined by section 101(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)) who has not been admitted (as so defined).
I am a strong proponent of humanitarian aid efforts in the immigration context, from preventing the breakup of individual families because of a wrongful deportation to ensuring that victims of civil wars and national disasters around the globe receive a temporary protected status under the U.S. immigration laws.
We should not condemn the use of public elementary or secondary schools provide shelter for non-U.S. nationals who are not admitted into the United States.
Whenever appropriate, space in our schools should be made available for humanitarian aid purposes, such as allowing migrants to stay there while they wait for processing and paperwork to conclude their legal residency status.
Other exceptions need to be reviewed, such as whether migrants could stay at schools when school is in session, but humanitarian aid should not be overlooked in the immigration context.
As a leading country on the global stage, it is our duty and responsibility to assist who we can in a legal manner.
More importantly, when it comes to schools in America, we should be addressing critical issues that are truly impacting our educational system--namely, the hostile state takeovers of majority-minority school districts--as is what is happening in my district with the Texas Education Agency takeover of the Houston Independent School District.
State takeovers in other districts have led to school closures, layoffs, and no improvements in test scores.
The vast majority of school districts that have been taken over by state agencies (TEA included) have not improved but declined.
With data ranging back to the late 1980s, researchers found that most state takeovers don't translate to academic improvements.
Republicans provide no evidence that the academic progress of students are negatively impacted simply by attending a school which houses migrants.
H.R. 3941 is distractive, it is uninformed, it is pointless, provocative, inflammatory, and at best, an absolute waste of time.
Using the facilities of a public elementary or secondary school to provides shelter for non-U.S. nationals who are not admitted into the United States should not be politicized, as this is humanitarian issue and failure of our broken immigration system.
Instead of denying innocent people temporary humanitarian relief we should focus on stopping the State from meddling in and overstepping the boundaries our educational systems--causing further harm and damage to our communities.
Lastly, the Jackson Lee Amendment 19 was offered to add the word ``freeze'' to be included in the definition of ``specified disaster''.
This definition is particularly important to signify the dangers of deadly and disastrous weather conditions without snow.
In February 2012, my home state of Texas experienced an unprecedented deep freeze that crippled our state as temperatures dropped to as low as six degrees.
The freeze triggered the worst energy infrastructure failure in Texas state history, leading to shortages of water, food, and heat.
More than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, some for several days and at least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly, with some estimates as high as 702 killed during the crisis.
These Jackson Lee Amendments 13, 15, 16, and 19 would have ensured that unaccompanied minors and migrants in need of temporary relief may be provided emergency shelter or housing using institutional facilities where appropriate.
It is a shame that we not made in order, and that we here with such an offensive and counterproductive bill, and that we are spending time on ineffective efforts instead of focusing on real immigration reform and resolutions for our nation's broken pathways for citizenship.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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