Immigration Reform

Floor Speech

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I just returned from visiting with hardworking Americans down on The National Mall, including Tom Weiss from Colorado, who are camped out and fasting in front of the Capitol on The National Mall. It is called the ``Fast for Families,'' a call for immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship.

Fasting this month are many fine Americans using their own suffering to send a clear message to us here in Washington--to their elected leaders--that the moral and economic toll of Congress' failure to pass immigration reform is simply too great. This is an economic cause, yes, a security cause, yes, but it is a moral cause to unite families, to allow people to give back to our country to make it greater.

Men and women from all corners of the country are pleading with us to pass comprehensive immigration reform. H.R. 15 here in the House reduces the deficit by close to $200 billion, creates over 100,000 jobs for Americans, secures our borders, unites families, makes sure that we have people with the skills we need to build a 21st century economy, and all that it requires is action here on the floor of the House.

There are many others in States, including Arizona, Nebraska, California, New York, and Pennsylvania, who are also fasting and depriving themselves of food to demonstrate their passion for fixing our broken immigration system.

I want to share with you the words of Jesus Ramirez, a 16-year-old high school student from Indianapolis, whose parents brought him to the United States when he was just 7 years old to escape the violence that was gripping his home country of Mexico. He says:

My family and 11 million families out there who are undocumented are living in the shadows and living with a fear that one day they will come home and not see a loved one.

Sadly, Mr. Speaker, every day until Congress acts, Jesus' worst fears come true for the 1,100 men, women, and children who are forcibly deported from the United States because our broken immigration system provides no recourse, provides no way under current law to get right with the law, no remedy, no line to get in for people for whom we say ``get in line.''

Immigration reform is about creating that line. The people who are here illegally will go to the end of the line behind people who are in process under our current immigration system.

Clara Cuesta of Philadelphia, who is also fasting, said that she has friends who deal with hostile and exploitive conditions in the workplace, but are afraid to report it or to change jobs because they are worried about being asked to produce documents that they don't have and, again, have no way to get under current law. According to Clara, she has friends that are yelled at and treated less than equal simply because there is no way for them to get right with the law.

There are women across our country, Mr. Speaker, who are victims of domestic abuse but don't seek the help they desperately need from authorities because they fear the risk of deportation from those very same authorities that should be there to protect them from harm.

Since 1994, there have been more than 6,000 reported deaths on the U.S.-Mexico border. Comprehensive immigration reform will finally secure our southern border. Let's heed the call of the fasters, of those who pray passionately for comprehensive immigration reform. As Reverend Jim Wallis, the president of Sojourner, said:

For people of faith, this is not a political issue, but a moral one; and for Christians, how we treat 11 million undocumented people, the strangers among us, is how we treat Christ himself.

I am sad to report, Mr. Speaker, it has been 145 days since the bipartisan Senate immigration bill passed with two-thirds of the Senate. It is rare, Mr. Speaker, here in my time serving in this body, that two-thirds of the Senate can agree on anything. But to agree on something of the importance of immigration reform, more than two-thirds of the Senate, sends a message that our friends on the other side of this building have heard the call of the people of this country to restore the rule of law, have heard the call of law enforcement to get real and enforce our laws, have heard the call of employers who want a highly skilled workforce, have heard the call of families who simply want to be safe in their homes as they work hard to make our country stronger.

That is why I am proud to be part of a coalition of House Members that introduced a bill similar to the Senate bill, the bipartisan bill, H.R. 15, the Border Security Economic Opportunity and Immigration

Modernization Act, which creates jobs, reduces our deficit, provides a pathway to citizenship, and unites families. Immigration reform will provide significant economic growth as immigrants will be able to contribute substantially to economic growth, increased wages, and productivity.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Senate immigration reform bill will lead to significant economic growth. Over the next decade, comprehensive immigration reform will increase our GDP by 3.3 percent. That means raising wages for Americans by $470 billion. That means creating an average of 121,000 jobs a year for Americans. Immigration reform also means that immigrants will pay more than $100 billion in additional taxes, including to State and local government, to support the services that they have been using all along.

It is not fair to our fellow Americans for people who are here without paperwork illegally to be using our public services without contributing with their taxes, and yet they support paying taxes. It is rare to meet people in this country who want to pay taxes, but, to a person that I have met with, they are ready. They are ready. They are patriotic. They are ready to contribute to our country, if only we will let them.

The bill also expands the number of H-1B citizens from 65,000 to 110,000 and allows the cap to rise as high as 180,000, depending on the U.S. economy, to ensure that businesses don't have to compete for oversubscribed visa slots and can access the workers they need so we can grow the next great generation of companies here. When a company is hiring in the technology field or a computer programmer, they are going after the person. If they can't bring the person that they want here to fill that job, they will fill that job in India, they will fill that job in England, they will fill that job in South America. It is a global economy. As Americans, we want those jobs and that economic productivity here.

The House refusal to take up immigration reform has cost this country over $5.3 billion in potential revenue so far. The cost continues to go up every day that we fail to act.

One of the issues in the contentious budget discussions about restoring fiscal solvency to our country is how we can repair our entitlement programs, make them secure for the next generation of retirees. Take the solvency of the Social Security trust fund, for example. The Social Security trust fund is already paying out more in retirement benefits than it receives in taxes. From an actuarial perspective, that is scheduled to get worse as baby boomers age.

But as the Social Security Administration estimates, close to two-thirds of the 8 million people who are here illegally currently work in an underground labor economy where neither their employers nor they are declaring their earnings or paying payroll taxes. Imagine that, 8 million more people paying into Social Security to make sure that it is there for Americans who have worked hard all their lives. We owe that to so many Americans who have paid in that it is there for them, and comprehensive immigration reform will ensure that that happens.

Today, only about 37 percent, it has been estimated, of people who are here legally pay into Social Security with payroll taxes. Experts are estimating that our Nation loses about $20 billion a year in payroll taxes. I want that number to be 100 percent. I want people who are working here in this country to pay their fair share to ensure that Americans who have worked hard and paid into Social Security their whole lives are able to retire with the benefits that were promised to them and that they planned their lives around.

While people who are here illegally are already helping to support Social Security to the tune of $12 billion a year, we are foregoing $20 billion a year, which is what it has been estimated they would pay in if only we let them. If we can provide a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people who are here illegally, they will contribute hundreds of billions of dollars more to our Social Security system--$606 billion over the next 36 years. That funds a lifetime of retirement benefits for almost two and a half million Americans just from those.

We are not talking about letting new people into the country. We are not talking about changing the way that people get here. We are talking about people who are already here and working. We are just saying, Pay your taxes. Pay your taxes like other Americans do.

Let's talk about health care costs. While people here illegally pay into some of the health care programs to the tune of $115 billion for Medicare--again, we are foregoing the revenue--health care costs will continue to rise for American families because of the cost of the uninsured.

As the Center for Immigration Studies estimates, the current cost of treating uninsured immigrants who enter this country without documentation is $4.3 billion a year, mostly at emergency rooms and free clinics. So again, costs are being shifted to American citizens to pay for the health care of those who are here illegally.

The answer is simple. Make them pay for it themselves. H.R. 15 does that. Let's bring it to the floor. How much longer must we continue to subsidize the health care for people who haven't even followed our laws in working in our country?

If we can pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that brings our underground economy out of the shadows, many of these immigrants, some of whom have been here for decades, who are currently receiving benefits without paying for them, will be required to pay for their benefits. They will be required to purchase health care or get insured through their employer.

In doing so, our labor market will be healthier, more productive, and generate economic growth. The people who are here illegally will no longer be able to undermine wages for American workers because they are willing to work under the table and take public benefits from others rather than paying for it themselves, and that is why it is time to pass H.R. 15.

There are only 10 legislative days left in 2013 for the House of Representatives to pass immigration reform. Thousands of men and women across the country who are fasting should send a strong message to this body. We need to ask immediately to pass comprehensive immigration reform that provides a pathway to citizenship and helps rebuild our economy.

The average work week is an example of many of the hardworking immigrants in our country. On the farm worker side, it is 53 hours a week. The average wage of a noncitizen worker is $318 a week. Until we can find a way to bring the underground economy out from the shadows, illegal immigration will continue to exert a downward pressure on wages for American workers, reward businesses that skirt the law, that hire people illegally, and provide a drag on our overall economy and job creation.

There is no other bill that I know of that will create over 100,000 jobs for Americans, reduce our deficit by close to $200 billion, improve our national security, decrease the terrorist risk to our homeland, and unite hardworking families. Immigration reform will do that.

The economic case is compelling. We have gone through some of the numbers here tonight. The security case is compelling in terms of making sure that people in our country cooperate with law enforcement investigations, that we know who is here, and they are accountable for following our laws.

The moral case for immigration reform is what is driving this to national prominence. Moral issues always trump our day-to-day concerns. When something is right or wrong, Americans know that. They know that in their minds. They feel it in their heart, and Americans are good people, Mr. Speaker, and they want a country, they want to live in a country and be part of a country that reflects their values as Americans. Americans know that the way we handle immigration today does not do that.

It is not moral to take a hardworking mother who plays a critical role supporting her family away from her American children and put her in indefinite detention. It is not right to allow thousands of people to die at our border rather than secure it, and not let people who shouldn't be here through. It is not right to force millions of people to live amongst us in a secret and underground manner, risking exploitation, risking being found out at any turn.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, the faith-based community--from the evangelical coalition for immigration reform to the Catholic bishops to the Jews and Muslims to nonbelievers--has joined together not just to support immigration reform but to be the strong, moral voice for comprehensive immigration reform. It is simply the right thing to do by our people, for our values.

We are a Nation of laws, and we are a Nation of immigrants. We need those two to be consistent. We need to reflect our American values as a Nation of immigrants, in our laws that welcome those who want to work hard and play by the rules to our shores. Yet today we have people who have worked hard every day for years, for decades, who have American kids who have gone through our schools and are as American as you or I, while their parents or their uncles or aunts are still forced to live underground and in secrecy. Despite being American in fact, they are not yet American in word.

Again, there is no pathway, there is no line for people to get right with the law. Many people face what is called a lifetime bar, meaning that if they even try to come forward, they would have to live in some other country they might not have even been to for decades, and don't have a job and don't have any family there, and very likely never be able to return to where their kids are. When you ask that of people, they are not going to self-deport. That is not a good deal. What parent is going to want to leave their kids for the rest of their life and go to a country that they haven't been in for decades and don't have a job and might not even have family or friends there. It doesn't meet the real life needs of people in our country.

What does is making sure that we hold people accountable for following our laws. Let's create provisional status so that eventually they can earn a green card. It is also important to know that H.R. 15 and the Senate bill don't grant citizenship to anybody. There is nobody who is granted citizenship under any of these immigration reform bills we are talking about. It is about creating the line, creating the pathway, creating the way that people can get behind in line those who are already in line, a minimum of 13 years before they are even eligible to take the test or become a citizen.

I have had the opportunity in Estes Park and in Centennial, Colorado, to be at the new citizenship ceremonies where we administer the oath of citizenship to new Americans from across the world. It gives me great pride as an American, as a great grandchild of immigrants, as a Member of Congress, to be able to participate in welcoming people from Holland, Kenya, Israel, Brazil, from Mexico, to name just a few of the many countries represented at the two ceremonies I got to be a part of. There are many more that would like to work hard beside their American brothers and sisters to make our country stronger.

Through acting on immigration reform, we can create jobs, reduce our deficit, improve our security, and most importantly, reflect what we know to be right and our values as Americans.

I have been speaking every week on the floor of the House since the passage of the Senate immigration reform bill and since we introduced the House immigration reform bill about the need to pass immigration reform in the House. I believe we have the votes, Mr. Speaker. I believe H.R. 15, which has strong bipartisan sponsorship, if it was placed on the floor of the House, I am confident it would pass. I am confident that the Senate would accept the improvements that the House has made to the border security provisions. We have moved to an outcome-based model to hold border security accountable, and I am confident that President Obama would sign that bill.

There are 2 more weeks here, Mr. Speaker, 8 more legislative days. I think America would like to see Congress work a little harder here. We have 40-some days left in the year. Most Americans have to work more than 8 days out of 40. I think Americans would like to see us work 10 days, 12 days. I mean, God forbid, 25 or 30 days out of 40. That is what most Americans do. If we do that, I know we can pass immigration reform, whether it takes a day, a week, a month. We owe it to our country to try.

I have been disappointed to see the types of bills that we have been spending days debating here on the floor of the House these last few weeks. While these are, of course, issues that people care about--last week we talked about asbestos torts; this week we talk about BLM fracking regulations, certainly an issue that affects Colorado near and dear to my district--I can tell you that the number of people from my district who have written in or called in on immigration reform has been, I think, 100 times. We were talking about asbestos reform last week. I didn't have a single constituent who had called in saying what I really want Congress to tackle is asbestos reform. I haven't had one in the years I have been here saying this is an issue they want us to deal with.

Fracking, frankly, my constituents have asked me to take action on, but it is not the action that the House considered with the BLM. It is more like the bill that I sponsored, the Breathe Act which we offered as an amendment, and was not allowed in the Rules Committee. Even that, even though my district is home to fracking issues and BLM lands, the numbers of letters and calls we have gotten to act on that issue is dwarfed by the overwhelming demand for immigration reform. There has never been an issue like it in the public's desire and passion for Congress to act. It is an issue that our municipal governments can't fix, our State governments can't fix. Only our Federal Government can secure our borders. Only our Federal Government can require workplace enforcement. Only our Federal Government can determine who is here legally and who is here illegally. These are not things that cities or States can do.

With a void of Federal leadership, States are around the edges trying to do what they can. They are talking about in-State tuition. They are working with deferred action kids. The President has moved forward with deferred action programs that provide a 2-year respite for young de facto Americans who know no other country, but only Congress, only the lawmakers, can address this issue and actually replace our broken, immoral, nonsensical immigration system with one that works and is enforced to restore the rule of law to our Nation.

This problem won't go away until Congress acts. It won't resolve itself. We can wait. We can wait, and in 5 years, maybe there will be 14 million people here illegally instead of 10. Maybe there will be a whole new generation of people who are here working illegally because we refuse to enforce the laws, refuse to require that employers verify that people who work at their companies are here legally. We don't do that in this country. We have a program, it is an optional program. So guess what? Most employers don't do E-Verify. You are an employer, why would you do it if it is optional? I think under 10 percent of companies use E-Verify, so it is not a burden on small business, but we need to make employment verification required, which H.R. 15 does. I mean, if we are ever going to get serious about ending the demand side of illegal immigration, which is people coming here for jobs--if they can't get the jobs, they are not going to be here. We need to be serious about that. H.R. 15 does that.

We need to be serious about securing our border. Now, another important thing for Americans to know is securing our border is very important, but it is only about half of the issue. About half of the people who are here illegally came legally and stayed and worked illegally. So locking down that border, you are never going to get 100 percent, but 99 percent, whatever you get down there, that can reduce illegal immigration by about half. But the other half came here legally, meaning they were on a student visa and they stayed illegally and worked illegally, or they flew on a tourist visa and they stayed and worked illegally. There are a number of different ways where it is perfectly legal to arrive here, but then they stay illegally.

So we have to deal with both sides of that, which is why border security is great, but it is not enough. In the best cases, it reduces the number of people who enter our country illegally by about half. It doesn't do a darn thing about the fact that there are 11 million people already here illegally, it doesn't do a darn thing about people who will keep entering illegally because they actually enter legally and stay illegally.

There are a lot of moving parts to this immigration boondoggle that the country will continue to find itself in until Congress has the courage, the integrity, and the desire to act.

If there are other ideas, we are happy to hear them. We put H.R. 15 on the table. There have been many ideas from the Senate bill. I know there are a number of bills that have passed out of the Judiciary Committee. There might be a way to bundle some of those together in what has been called ``piecemeal reform,'' if we can create a holistic system that works.

If there is a piecemeal approach, Mr. Speaker, we need to start having a meal of the pieces and seeing what the pieces are. I was in the software and Internet industry before I was elected to office, and we used to have a word for products that were much hyped and never delivered upon. We called it ``vaporware.'' I fear that this piecemeal approach could become vaporware if we don't start seeing some action soon.

God forbid we work more than 8 days out of 40. If we don't see action by the end of the year, I know we are here in January for 3 weeks. What an excellent time to take up immigration reform, something that I feel can unite this body, the good and proud men and women who make up this body, who care deeply about restoring the rule of law, who care deeply about ensuring that our Nation has a prosperous future, reducing our deficit and creating jobs for Americans on both sides of the aisle, which is why more than two-thirds of the Senate joined in a rare bipartisan vote of support for immigration reform and has challenged this House to take similar action.

We can do it, Mr. Speaker. We need to schedule the floor time to do that. We need to get the ideas that Members from both sides of the aisle have on the table. We think H.R. 15 is an excellent bipartisan vehicle. If the leaders of this body have other solutions, we are happy to talk about them. But the most important thing that the American people already know about immigration, and I hope the leadership of this body recognizes, is that it is not an issue that solves itself, and it is not an issue that goes away. It is an issue that only becomes more salient year after year that Congress fails to act.

I call upon this body to bring forward H.R. 15 and to pass commonsense immigration reform.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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