[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 4 (Thursday, January 27, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H10]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ACT AS AMERICANS WITH FAMILY VALUES; RETURN ELIAN GONZALEZ TO HIS 
                        FATHER AND GRANDMOTHERS

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I do not have a prepared text 
this morning, and I would really rather be discussing the issues that 
this Congress needs to address for the American people, school 
construction, the idea of a Patients' Bill of Rights, and opportunities 
for Americans who have less than many of us. But having spent over 2 
days with the grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez, today I come simply to 
plead to America and to plead to this Congress.
  As the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, 
I simply ask, as a mother and as a parent, let us all put the angst of 
divisiveness aside and let us rule not with our political interests but 
with our hearts and ask ourselves, if it was us, our child, our 
grandchild, how would we want a Nation, a government to respond.
  Mr. Speaker, we should not move on the citizenship legislation or the 
permanent residency. We should act as Americans who believe in family 
values. Return Elian to his grandmothers and his father.

                          ____________________