Immigration Reform

IMMIGRATION REFORM -- (House of Representatives - July 16, 2009)

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Mr. POLIS. Over the 4th of July weekend, I toured a detention facility in Aurora, Colorado, where I met dozens of law-abiding immigrants. There are more than 30,000 immigrants like them throughout the country who find themselves in detention. Some of these individuals include teenagers, torture survivors, and the elderly. Others are asylum seekers who asked for protection upon arrival in the United States due to persecution in their country of origin, only to find themselves locked up for months or years like criminals at taxpayer expense.

For thousands of immigrants in similar circumstances throughout the country, even if the Department of Homeland Security ultimately rules in their favor, while they wait we are paying $132 a day to feed them, clothe them, house them. They want to be out working, paying taxes; but we insist that they avail themselves at our expense.

While at the Aurora detention center, I met immigrants who were placed in detention following a minor traffic infraction or a car accident that wasn't their fault. Due to the complicated nature of our current immigration system, many of them are stuck in the nebulous gray area between being lawfully and unlawfully present as they await the decision of an immigration judge. But regardless of the final outcome, separating parents from their American children by placing them into detention at taxpayer expense goes against our most basic values as Americans.

As Congress works toward comprehensive immigration reform, I urge my colleagues to deal with the detention issue as part of that.

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