[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 138 (Thursday, October 2, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H9195-H9196]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IMMIGRATION, OVERTIME, AND RUSH LIMBAUGH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McCotter). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, there are several items that I 
would like to comment on and share with my colleagues.
  We had a very powerful day today. Hundreds of immigrants and 
immigrant supporters, friends of this Nation, parents and sisters and 
brothers and neighbors of some of the young men and women that are now 
on the frontlines of Operation Iraqi Freedom came to the Nation's 
Capitol to speak to the issues of civil rights and human dignity. They 
came in what we call the Immigration Freedom Ride. They leave tomorrow 
morning on to New Jersey and then to go to the seat of Ellis Island in 
New York to be able to restate to all Americans that we all came from 
somewhere, and that this Nation is bountiful because each of us were 
able to contribute our own culture and the respect for human dignity. 
They ask simple things, Mr. Speaker, and that is access to 
legalization, the ability to reunite their families, and civil rights 
and civil justice. They came in the spirit of the Freedom Riders of the 
1960's and the first ones in the 1940's. They came in a spirit of 
Martin Luther King and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), our own 
colleague. They walked across the bridge in Selma, Alabama, the Edmond 
Pettus bridge. They realize that the two have now intertwined: their 
quest for civil justice and civil rights, as our quest, the Freedom 
Riders' in the 1960's quest for civil rights and civil justice. And 
they call upon America's goodness, just as we who are African 
Americans, maybe called colored, maybe called Negros in the early 
1960's pressed the case that we too were Americans.

[[Page H9196]]

  I believe it is time now for this Congress to put in place 
legislation that deals with earned access to legalization, to be able 
to say that if they have not committed a criminal act, that they are 
here working, they may be undocumented, they are paying their taxes, 
that they should have the access to being able to apply for 
citizenship. I believe we should pass 245(i) to reunite our families. 
And, yes, I believe that we should treat all people with human dignity.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind my colleagues that we are 
the people's House. We should open our doors to this voice and the 
voices that cannot be heard or the picture of the young lady that was 
shown to me who is suffering because she cannot access a kidney 
transplant, and she came here as a baby and is still here at 21 years 
old and dying with kidney failure. How unmerciful can we be? And I 
would ask that my colleagues consider a real immigration policy for 
this Nation that deals with the security of this Nation, the justice of 
this Nation.
  And then might I say very briefly, Mr. Speaker, we spoke today on the 
floor of the House about an untoward legislative initiative that would 
force hardworking Americans to overcome or to be able to eliminate 
their overtime. I said overcome. I wish we could overcome it. We won 
the instruction to the Labor-HHS conference to say that we do not want 
to eliminate America's overtime. Hardworking Americans, our first 
responders, restaurant workers, white-collar workers, people who are 
putting their children through college, the only way they do it is 
through overtime. What an insane proposition that we would even believe 
that is the right thing to do with the economy stumbling as it is.
  And then, Mr. Speaker, I come to say something that I wish I did not 
have to do. That is to bring to task Rush Limbaugh, who has been 
blessed by being in this country, having the freedom to say anything he 
desires to say. The first amendment gives anyone the right. It protects 
free speech. It respects sometimes hostile speech. Rush Limbaugh 
decided that he had the latitude to be on ESPN and to castigate an 
African-American quarterback. And as I stand here today, I insist that 
he has the right to free speech. He has castigated those of us in 
public life every day of the week. He spoke with great insult of 
President William Jefferson Clinton. Not that he has no right to say 
that, but he disrespected, from my position, the position of the 
Presidency. But what Rush Limbaugh does, and what is an insult, is that 
he continues the stereotypes and stigma and does not respect the human 
dignity of all people.
  Rush Limbaugh, I say to you, you have a first amendment right, but 
you have no values. You have no ethnic respect. You have no dignity and 
no integrity, and you do not know what it is to hurt people.
  All I can say is that it is time now that we stand up against this 
kind of bigotry and hateful speech, and I stand, today, against it.

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