[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 19, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H6081]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REASONABLE IMMIGRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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, I thought today was a 
particularly relevant day to talk about protecting America against 
terrorism and reinforcing what I believe is a belief of all Americans, 
that immigration does not equate to terrorism.
  I say that, Mr. Speaker, because this morning we heard a brilliant 
message from the Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister Singh, who 
talked about a new day in America's relationship with India. As we are 
called the oldest democracy, India is called the largest democracy.
  In his conversation, he talked about democracy empowering women, he 
talked about the reasonable use of nuclear energy, the need that India 
had in promoting the use of civil nuclear energy as opposed to any use 
of it for weapons and their commitment to nonproliferation. But he also 
talked about the cultural exchange and the value of the Indian-American 
community and the Indian community in India, and the United States 
building on a relationship.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, what that means is that we have a reasonable 
response to immigration because in order to have that cultural 
exchange, certainly those individuals from India would have to utilize 
visas to come to this country, for example, the J-1 visa which helps 
bring physicians to the United States to serve in rural and underserved 
areas.
  So I say to this body, we cannot hide in the sand on the question of 
immigration. And I believe the American people are reasonable people.
  The ranking member on the Subcommittee on Immigration on the House 
Committee on the Judiciary, I have called for a full hearing on all of 
the bills that have been offered by my colleagues, the Kennedy-McCain 
bill which I support, and of course many others.
  Today and yesterday, two bills were offered by our friends, the 
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) and Senator Corzine. I would say 
that all of those bills need to be heard; but I would caution, you 
cannot have an immigration bill that is only about enforcement, because 
so many of us come from immigrant backgrounds and we understand the 
value of reuniting those who are here legally with their family 
members. Because our system of immigration is broken, we have not been 
able to do that. That creates illegal immigration.
  Even in a document that talks about America's views on immigration, 
it says in terms of protecting us against terrorism, Americans do want 
to have closed, secure borders and they want the borders to be 
protected. Twenty percent say that. But in terms of be careful about 
those who enter this country and pay attention to immigration, it is 
not overwhelming, though it is certainly 13 percent of Americans say 
pay attention to immigration. That does not say close the doors to 
immigration. That is why I offer a commonsense answer to immigration 
reform.

                              {time}  1845

  My bill is called H.R. 2092, Save America Comprehensive Immigration 
Reform Act of 2005. We cannot solve immigration by putting military on 
the border. We cannot solve it by the Minutemen. We cannot solve it by 
a bill that says deport everybody; that you do not want to have anyone 
to be a guest worker other than those who are already here legally.
  We can solve it by protecting our borders and adding more resources 
to border protection. We can solve it by giving more dollars to 
Immigration, Customs and Enforcement, providing us with more than 800 
of those so that we can have internal immigration reform or protection.
  We can do it by doubling the amount of family visas, so that those 
individuals who are here, taxpaying immigrants who want to bring a 
mother, a daughter, or a husband will have the visas which will allow 
them to do so.
  We can do what we call earned access to legalization. That is not 
amnesty. What it says is, if you are undocumented and here in the 
United States, get in line. Let us provide you with a method of earning 
access to legalization; no criminal record, be here 5 years, do 
community service and petition to be a citizen.
  Mr. Speaker, are we not safer, is it not the right common-sense 
approach to protect us against terrorism to know who is in our country? 
Do my colleagues think we can deport the 8 million to 14 million who 
are here working in hotels and construction and as aids around America? 
Yes, the system was broken in order to allow the growth of such, but 
many of these people now have family members that are citizens and who 
have invested by buying homes and paying taxes.
  So it is important to recognize that if we were to work and try to 
deport the 8 million to 14 million, only about 32,000 are done a year 
in terms of deportation hearings. All of them are subjected to appeals. 
You would be centuries trying to deport 8 million to 14 million who are 
here, and maybe that number is not even the number.
  So my legislation, H.R. 2092, the Save America Comprehensive 
Immigration Act, provides for the reunification of families by 
increasing the visa number. It also provides for the reuniting or the 
citizenship of children. It protects women against violence. It 
provides for the border security provisions, as I have mentioned, and 
it fixes this broken system of deportation. So that if you are in a 
deportation proceeding because of some small offense you created as a 
teenager, you would not be deported to a place you had never seen in 
your life. We need diversity visas, helping Haitians and Liberians.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope we have a full debate on immigration, and I am 
delighted that the American people are common-sense and reasonable 
people. They know that immigration does not equate to terrorism; that 
in fact we can have a full debate, fix the broken system, work with 
those who have come to this country for opportunity, secure our 
borders, and fight against terrorism, but not condemn immigrants who 
are here, hard working. For many of us, many of us, some came in the 
bottom of the belly of a slave boat, but many of us came first to this 
country as an immigrant.

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