[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 20, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H6]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REAL IMMIGRATION REFORM

  (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, the State of the Union will be 
an opportunity for the President to push his issues and to explain to 
the American people how we can work together.
  I think there is no doubt that there are those of us who understand 
that this Nation was first built on the opportunities for immigrants to 
come and to seek, if you will, a better life.
  We do need real immigration reform in this Nation, but I am 
disappointed and saddened by the offering of the President of which I 
have said this is not an amnesty plan, and so I defend him from the 
perspective that this is a first step of recognizing the needs for 
immigration reform, but we really need to focus on earned access to 
legalization for those millions of immigrants who are here paying 
taxes, working every day and wanting to provide for their family and to 
get in line to be able to earn their right to be a citizen of the 
United States of America.
  What happens to a guest worker program? It literally disappears into 
the night because when the program ends after 3 years, there is some 
suggestion that these individuals will go home. They will not.
  Mr. President, work with this Congress, work with the Democrats in a 
bipartisan way to lift up the values of this Nation, that we are a land 
of immigrants, to allow the immigrants that are here to get into the 
system of earned access to legalization.

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