Immigration Reform

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, tonight we will be talking about a very important accomplishment that this body, the House of Representatives, could make on a bipartisan basis for our country, and that is immigration reform.

By refusing to act on comprehensive immigration reform, there is great cost to the American people in jobs, the undermining of the rule of law, and destruction of the opportunities that will arise by tackling this head-on. The longer we delay passing comprehensive immigration reform, the greater the cost of inaction in both economic, human, and security terms. Every week that Congress is in session for the rest of the year, I will be here on the floor, talking about the cost of inaction on immigration reform.

There is a clear path forward. There is a comprehensive immigration reform bill, a compromise. It took a little give-and-take from both sides, a compromise supported by the business community and labor, by the faith community, by the law enforcement community, by farmers, and by farmworkers, that has passed the United States Senate with more than a two-thirds majority.

We have introduced a similar bill, H.R. 15, here in the House with a growing number of bipartisan cosponsors and are encouraging the Speaker and the majority leader to bring this bill to a vote, where we have confidence that it will pass.

Our economy will suffer tremendously if we fail to pass comprehensive immigration reform. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, immigration reform helps grow the economy, creating between 500,000 and 1 million jobs, reduces the deficit by over $200 billion, bolsters job creation, and strengthens the viability of Social Security and Medicare. What is not to like?

Let's restore the rule of law to our country. Let's improve our security, and let's unite families. In human terms, the cost of inaction is inflicting a heavy toll.

Over 135,000 deportations have taken place since the Senate passed immigration reform last June, including thousands of people who are noncriminals who would have benefited from immigration reform and, instead, became a cost to U.S. taxpayers to the tune of more than $10,000 each to deport.

Take a few examples from my district of people that immigration reform will help today. Dianna and Kathia are two young women from Larimer County in my district. They are high school students who were brought here from Mexico as young children by their parents. They are excellent students, both straight-A students. They want to go to college. Kathia wants to go to medical school, and Dianna wants to study cinematography.

Both of these young women are applicants to the President's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, and we hope that they receive their DACA permit soon, but that is only a temporary fix for a limited period of time. They are both ambitious, capable young women who want to give back to our country and make it stronger, if only we will let them.

It is time to find a way for Kathia and Dianna and the so many like them to pursue their dreams and contribute to our communities without having to live in constant fear because of lack of status.

Another woman in my district who feels the pain of our current broken immigration system is Norma. Norma came to the U.S. over a decade ago, like so many of our ancestors, including my great grandparents, in search of a better life. She is the mother and primary caretaker of twin boys who are U.S. citizens. Both of her children suffer from medical conditions, and she works incredibly hard to ensure that her kids have access to what they need. She is a hardworking, honest person, a leader in her community, doesn't have any criminal history or pose any kind of threat to national security. All she wants to do is to give back to our country, to pay taxes, and contribute like every other American.

Nevertheless, Norma was placed in deportation proceedings last year following a traffic stop. If we don't reform our broken immigration system today, how many more families will be torn apart?

People like Kathia, Dianna, and Norma feel the negative impact of this House of Representatives' failure to act on the Senate immigration reform bill every single day. There is no excuse for inaction. We need to finalize and pass immigration reform this year.

I will be talking more about the cost of inaction in a few moments, but I want to yield to my good friend and colleague from Florida (Mr. Garcia), the sponsor of H.R. 15.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I thank the gentleman from Miami, a leader on the effort to reform our broken immigration system.

I want to talk about the overwhelming public support for immigration reform.

More than 70 percent of the American people support immigration reform, including majorities of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. The American people know that what we are doing now isn't working, and by failing to act and only continuing to perpetuate the undermining of the rule of law, a population of over 10 million people that are here illegally and a system that is out of whack with reality, will only continue to hurt the American people.

With that, I am happy to yield to the gentleman from California

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I thank the gentleman from Miami.

I want to talk a little bit about supporting Colorado.

Colorado is a purple State. It is middle of the road, with four Republicans and three Democrats in our congressional delegation. It is a State that is affected by immigration. We have a strong tradition of immigration in our district, a strong exchange of economic ties with our neighboring countries.

Here are some recent polls in a few of our congressional districts in our State:

In the Third Congressional District, represented by my friend, Congressman SCOTT TIPTON, a recent poll showed that 77 percent of the people in the district--this is the district including Pueblo, Grand Junction, and Aspen--support immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. Only 17 percent oppose it.

In the neighboring district of my good friend Cory Gardner, the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado, 76 percent support immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship.

In the district of my friend and colleague Mike Coffman of Aurora, Colorado, and Douglas County, 74 percent support immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship.

Failure to act and avoid this issue is, in fact, not delivering for the American people. One cannot speak out of both sides of their mouth forever and say that in some abstract sense we are for immigration reform but not give this body the ability to pass immigration reform. The American people, Mr. Speaker, are smarter than that.

It has been 123 days since the Senate has passed an immigration reform bill. And you know what? We have H.R. 15 in the House. We want that to come to a vote. But there may be other immigration reform packages. I know there has been a bipartisan group that has been meeting for awhile. Recently, some of the Members have pulled out. If there are other ideas, let's put them on the table. But inaction for 123 days is inexcusable--inexcusable.

The time for action is not now. It wasn't just yesterday. It was last year. It was 5 years ago. It was 10 years ago. We can't afford to continue to wait day after day, week after week, year after year, without taking action. The American people, Mr. Speaker, have had enough and are demanding more.

There is something that we know for sure. The enforcement-only approach has failed. It hasn't worked. The number of people here illegally has only increased. We have increased the budget of the Border Patrol by 10 times, and the number of unauthorized people here illegally increased by 3 times during that same period.

So what does that mean? If we increase that budget 20 times, does that mean the number of people here illegally will quadruple? Maybe. But that is clearly not a solution; just look at the data.

And there is a human toll, Mr. Speaker. From 1998 to 2010, over 5,000 people died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border looking for a better life, just as my ancestors did, Mr. Speaker, and just as your ancestors did.

From 1998 to 2007, over 100,000 parents of U.S. citizen children were removed from this country. Yes, little Johnny, little Sara coming home from school, they are American. They were born here. They will vote some day. Coming home from school and, Sorry, Mom is in deportation proceedings. Your mom won't be here for you, little Johnny or little Sara. What did she do? A taillight out on her car or 10 miles over the speed limit.

I got a speeding ticket last year, Mr. Speaker. I have a 2-year-old son, Mr. Speaker. To think something like that could force me to be ripped from my family--not for months, not for years--forever.

There is something called the lifetime bar, Mr. Speaker. Forever being taken away from my family, Mr. Speaker, I would risk crossing that border and dying--like 5,000 people did--to be with my son, Mr. Speaker. And that is an American trait. That is what a good American would do. That is what a good American parent would do, Mr. Speaker.

Let's let people give back to our country and provide for their families. That is an American value, and we can do that now.

My colleague, Mr. Takano, talked about a governing majority. There is a governing majority for passing H.R. 15, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, now.

I can't tell you whether it is 25 Republicans or 45 Republicans or 80 Republicans, but they will join nearly every Democrat, if not every Democrat, in passing comprehensive immigration reform now.

I ask my colleague from Miami if he has ever seen this kind of coalition of business and labor and faith-based community and agriculture and farm workers--unlikely suspects--coming together around something that is such common sense. Have you seen this kind of unprecedented coalition of public support on any other issue, and what do you think it means for immigration reform?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I represent a district with two fine universities--the University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado State University. Both have excellent graduate programs--engineering, physics, environmental engineering, the biological sciences, you name it. Like many of our institutions of higher education, a high number of students there are foreign nationals who are studying under student visas.

Under our current immigration policy, Mr. Speaker, at our public State institutions, we provide this world-class education for people who fill a need in the economy--they are going to be great engineers; they are going to be great mathematicians; they are going to be great computer scientists. Guess what? They graduate with a master's, and they graduate with a Ph.D., and what do we tell them? Oh. Go back to another country, and compete against us.

Compete against us. We are telling them to compete against us. How does that make sense, Mr. Speaker?

What we need to do is to provide a way--and the Senate bill and H.R. 15 do this--for people who graduate with advanced degrees in these fields to be able to stay here, keeping the jobs here, because guess what? Today's companies don't care where the jobs are. You can be a computer programmer in India. You can be a computer programmer in France. You can be a computer programmer here. Out of convenience, we would rather have you here, but the job is going to follow you. It is not the other way around.

In addition, if we act with H.R. 15, it will lead to over $5 billion in additional tax revenues. It will reduce our deficit by over $200 billion. It will create between three-quarters of a million and 900,000 jobs for Americans--jobs for Americans that are created under H.R. 15. It includes provisions around startups and entrepreneurs--people who want to come here to found companies and hire Americans. Don't we want that? Don't we want jobs for our brothers, our sisters, our friends, and our neighbors, jobs for Americans? H.R. 15 is the biggest jobs bill for Americans before the House of Representatives, and that is another reason we need to pass it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

So we can improve our security, and we can restore the rule of law, and we can create jobs for Americans, and we can reduce our deficit--all in one bill? What is not to like?

I yield to my colleague from probably the longest congressional district in the country. I don't know if it is the largest in area, but I think it is probably the longest in the country. I yield to my good friend from Texas.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I thank the gentleman from Texas for his words.

This is 123 days. That is 123 days too long. Let's pass immigration reform now.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Source