Congressional Record, Volume 153 Issue 70 (Tuesday, May 1, 2007)

[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 1, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H4283-H4289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

IMMIGRATION POLICY

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cohen). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from California (Mr.
Rohrabacher) is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, today was May Day, and there were
demonstrations across America in favor of a more open immigration
policy, an immigration policy that I might add has already resulted in
15 to 20 million illegals being present in our society. The American
people need to pay very close attention to this issue.
Several weeks ago, the President of the United States took advantage
with Congress being out of session to give a major immigration policy
speech down along the border in Arizona. Flanked by dozens of border
patrol officers, President Bush stuck to the usual script, securing the
border, yes, but first a guest worker program must be set up that
includes giving Social Security benefits to illegals, to those people
who have been working here illegally, and of course, part of the
program must be to legalize the status of those millions of illegal
immigrants who already reside in our country.
I have observed in my 30 years in Washington that when a President
initiates a major policy speech on a controversial issue while Congress
is in recess, it usually is because what he is advocating is
indefensible and that he is seeking to minimize criticism.
While the President was posturing with the border patrol, we Members
were back in our districts listening to the pleas of our constituents.
The American people are begging their government to save their families
from the onslaught of illegal immigration.
Instead of meeting with America's elite who live behind gates and
work at corporate boardrooms and whose kids attend private schools,
President Bush should be talking to people who are watching their
children's public schools, their community hospitals and the security
of their own neighborhoods being brought down by a massive flow of
foreigners, illegally establishing themselves in our country.
If this President pushes through his so-called comprehensive
immigration plan, which will legalize the status of those who have
broken our laws and are in this country illegally, America's current 15
to 20 million illegal residents within a decade will mushroom to
another 40 to 50 million.
Wake up, America. We are about to lose our country. Wake up, America.
The President and Congress are not watching out for you.
The comprehensive immigration legislation that is being bandied
around town by this President and by Members of Congress will be a
green light to 100 million people throughout the world to do anything
they can do to get to our country because we do not have the will to
stop them. No matter how impenetrable the defense, no matter how
diligent the border patrol, there will be no stopping them. Give them
benefits, give them jobs, give them health care, give them every right
to the treasures that belong to the citizens and legal immigrants who
are in our country and they will come from overseas, and there will be
nothing that we can do to stop them because we have given them the
greatest incentive to come here, even though they are breaking our laws
in doing so.
Tens of millions of new illegals are bringing down the wages of our
middle class, some carrying disease right into our schools and
communities, some criminals, many in need of Social Security, education
and health benefits, all to be taken, of course, from the resources
that are dedicated to Americans so that our American people and legal
immigrants will have these resources available to them. That is where
all of that is going to come from. Who is going to pay the price? The
American people will pay the price, not the American elite, the
American people.
Wake up, America. You are about to be assaulted, and your elected
representatives are not on your side. No one will stop the horde if
this so-called comprehensive bill goes through. Who is going to stop
them? Not the border patrol.
And what about the border patrol, America's most important defense in
this battle against such an invasion? While the President stood with
border patrol agents down in the Yuma sector in Arizona, praising them
for their hard work, saying how proud he was of them, the border patrol
agents were painfully aware that two of their fellow officers languish
in Federal prisons. They are being held in solitary confinement for
doing their job, the job that the President claims he wants the border
patrol agents to do.
It is the President's appointees who have perpetrated upon this
border patrol the worst miscarriage of justice that I have ever
witnessed. Ignoring pleas for mercy and pleas for justice, ignoring the
clear misconduct of his protege, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, the
President has backed up his employees at the expense of border patrol
agents, especially these two, Ramos and Compeon.
The President has permitted his Justice Department to throw the book
at these two border patrol agents for stopping a drug dealer, and
perhaps, just perhaps, maybe there was some procedural errors that they
were involved in. This administration turned what is, at worst,
procedural violations, that they did not file the reports, even though
there are questions as to whether their supervisors should have filed
the reports or not; in fact, the rule states that the supervisors will
file such reports, that this administration has turned that lack of
proper paperwork into felonies that have put Ramos and Compeon, two
border patrol agents who have well-served our country, defended our
families with their lives, they are now languishing in prison for 11
years of hard time.
President Bush backs up his appointees who either incompetently or
maliciously chose to prosecute our law enforcement officers, while at
the same time, I might add, chose to grant immunity to the drug
smuggler who they stopped.

[[Page H4284]]

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton claims that he had no choice in this
matter, the biggest lie of all. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton had plenty
of choices to make, and as a prosecutor, that is what prosecutors do.
They make mistakes on who to prosecute. That is one of the fundamental
decisions they have to make. He was faced with a decision, either
prosecute the drug dealer who had $1 million worth of drugs that he was
smuggling into our country, or prosecute the border patrol agents by
turning their procedural mistakes into breaking the law, and thus, into
felonies for supposedly covering up the breaking of the law.
Our U.S. Attorney chose to give immunity to the drug smuggler who
was, of course, smuggling $1 million worth of drugs into our country,
but not to give immunity to the border patrol agents for procedural
missteps.

{time} 2145

That was his decision. He decided, our U.S. Attorney decided to back
the drug smuggler and destroy the Border Patrol agents, and he knew
exactly how that decision would affect the lives of Ramos and Compeon.
Agents Ramos and Compeon should have been commended for their
courageous service in stopping an illegal drug smuggler from bringing
in over $1 million worth of drugs into our communities. If they had
stopped a terrorist with a nuclear bomb, I am sure by now they would be
national heroes. Instead, the President refuses to take a sober look at
the facts of this case and issue pardons for these men, the pardons
that justice demands and the American people are crying out for, and
the Border Patrol, throughout this country, is looking at as a sign
whether this President supports the job they are doing.
But, of course, they won't issue any pardon. Even to let these men
out on bond pending their appeal would require an admission that some
loyal Bush appointee was wrong.
Instead, the President continues to back his long-time buddy at the
Justice Department, Johnny Sutton, even though the decision he made,
instead of going after the drug dealer, to go after the Border Patrol
agents and destroy their lives, was obviously a bad call.
The President has ignored the rotten smell that is coming from this
case. He has ignored the fact that the Department of Homeland Security
operatives went to Congress and intentionally lied to Members of
Congress on investigative subcommittees, claiming that Ramos and
Compeon had joked about going out and shooting a Mexican the day they
intercepted this drug dealer and the incident ensued.
Ramos and Compeon are Mexican Americans. They are Americans of
Mexican descent. Their wives are Americans of Mexican descent. Their
children are Americans of Mexican descent. Yet we had members of the
Department of Homeland Security from this administration lying to
Congress saying these men wanted to go out and shoot Mexicans. They
lied over and over again, and this administration has lied over and
over again, dealing with the Ramos and Compean case.
What we have here is a situation where the supervisors who were on
the scene within minutes of them stopping this drug dealer, and when he
escaped over the border, those supervisors did not ask Ramos and
Compeon about the incident. Ramos and Compeon didn't comment, because
they knew that procedures were that they would have had to do 5 or 6
hours worth of more work, filling out more paperwork, bringing in the
FBI.
Both the supervisors and Ramos and Compeon knew that this would have
just created a lot more work for them on their own time. They decided
not to do it, because the guy had gotten away, so why report that shots
were fired, and they didn't even think they had hit him.
Well, making it worse, of course, as we know, the supervisors, who
were actually threatened by the U.S. attorneys, the prosecutors in this
case, were threatened that if they did not testify against Ramos and
Compeon, and claimed that, in fact, there was an attempt to cover up
this incident, rather than just being a case of where they were trying
not to have to put themselves in a position where they were going to
have to do all this more paperwork, they threatened the supervisors to
put them in jail. Of course, the supervisors buckled. They didn't want
their lives to be destroyed.
Well, let me put it this way. What we have got here, failure to
report, to file a report, is a procedural violation. It is not a crime.
This U.S. Attorney chose to go after the Border Patrol agents instead
of the drug dealer. He chose to make a procedural violation into a
crime, into a felony.
Again, threats were made against the supervisors, so what do you have
there? A witness being threatened by the prosecution. We have seen this
across our country. We know when prosecutors try to get somebody and
squeeze them to say what's the truth or not the truth in order to
protect themselves. They will stretch the truth.
So either they went along, the supervisors went along on the assault
on Ramos or Compeon, or they too would be prosecuted. Everybody hears
this, gets the picture. The whole thing stinks. Ramos and Compeon are
taking a fall to demonstrate to all Border Patrol agents that if they
use their guns to secure our borders, even from drug smugglers, they
will be destroyed. They will be targeted and destroyed by this
administration because that is this administration's policy.
Yes. Now, what does that policy mean? Where did that come from? If
Border Patrol agents can't use their guns at the border, how can we
control our borders?
Now, of course, the Border Patrol agents are afraid, and, rightfully
so, to get out of their car if they see a potential drug dealer driving
across. What a horrible message, what a horrible decision. Yet this
President has to stick with his appointees.
Clearly, border security is not a priority for this administration.
There may be well some other priority at work, some other agenda that
we don't know about. Granting immunity to this drug smuggler, granting
immunity to the people who smuggle drugs, human traffickers, which
happened in another case, I might add, where another law enforcement
officer ended up in jail, doing this, while granting immunity to the
human traffickers and the drug smugglers, suggests the bizarre nature
of this administration's border and immigration policy.
If anybody denies it or defies it who works for the Border Patrol or
anyone else in the government, this administration, through Ramos and
Compeon, through his prosecutors, have made it clear that anyone who
defies their policies will be vilified and destroyed. Note, U.S.
Attorney Johnny Sutton, Johnny Sutton, the U.S. Attorney labeled Ramos
and Compeon in the media as ``corrupt.'' There are quotes around
corrupt.
This is the U.S. Attorney himself, not the prosecutors who were
filing or arguing the case. The U.S. Attorney labeled Ramos and Compeon
corrupt, a clear lie. Neither of these two agents have ever been
accused of corruption.
Ramos, a 10-year veteran of the Border Patrol, an officer in the
Naval Reserve, had been nominated Border Patrol agent of the year. He
was nominated for that award. To be considered for that award, just
prior to this incident, this is a corrupt officer? Ramos and Compeon
are clean. They have never been accused of that. Yet the U.S. Attorney
is on the radio calling them corrupt.
Something stinks about that situation, doesn't it. U.S. Attorney
Johnny Sutton lied and claimed that Ramos and Compeon were corrupt, and
then he threw the book at them.
At the same time, he gave a professional drug smuggler a ``get out of
jail free'' card and had his prosecutors lie to the jury telling them
that the drug smuggler was a novice who was only trying to raise money
to buy medicine for his sick mother. That's what the jury was told when
the prosecutors at that time knew, they made that argument to the jury,
that this was a novice at one time to raise money for a sick mother,
they knew that drug smuggler had already been involved in a second drug
smuggling incident that they knew of.
This is while he was under immunity for the load that he had been
intercepted for bringing into the country by Ramos and Compeon. By the
way, it's not just Ramos and Compeon, of course. We are talking about a
border and immigration policy by this administration that is bizarre,
that is incomprehensible, that is totally confused

[[Page H4285]]

and leads to many, many questions. Why is, for example, why is this
President, if, yes, Border Patrol and immigration control issues are
important to him? Why is the President holding the security of our
borders hostage to, basically, making sure that we can't proceed with
defense and other border security measures unless we also pass a bill
that includes the provision of legalizing the status of 15 to 20
million people who are already in this country illegally?
What do those two issues have to do with one another? If he believes
in the security of the border, why is he demanding also that in order
to secure the border we have to legalize the status of 15 to 20 million
illegals, by the way, which will lead to a massive hoard of new
illegals, of course, that no fence will stop. No one is being fooled by
this call for a comprehensive reform.
It is a code word for amnesty, legalizing the status of those who are
here illegally. The President has destroyed his own credibility by
playing such word games as defining amnesty in a way such that nobody
accepts the definition. It is a totally unacceptable and irrational
definition of the word ``amnesty.''

Why the President has chosen over and over again to try to play that
kind of word game, I don't know. The chaotic and confused picture of
this comprehensive border policy, and the things that are going on in
our border, suggests that there are other forces that are at play. What
are those forces? There are certainly very powerful interest groups
that play here in Washington, and there may well be a hidden agenda
that is being foisted on the American people.
The President's own words suggest this. During the February 14, 2007,
press conference, President Bush said the following, ``I believe that
in order to enforce the borders, we need a temporary worker program so
that people don't try to sneak into the country to work, that they can
come in an orderly fashion and take the pressure off the Border Patrol
agents that we have got here so that the Border Patrol doesn't focus on
workers that are doing their jobs that Americans won't do, but are
focusing on terrorists and criminal elements, gun runners, et cetera,
to keep the country, both of our countries, safe, Mexico and the United
States, safe.''
Mr. Speaker, I am not really sure that it's the responsibility of the
United States government, to have a high priority of keeping Mexico
safe. Just what is being proposed, how will that affect Mexico at the
expense of the American people?
Just whose interest is our government representing? During his Yuma
speech, the President proclaimed the border ``should be open to trade
and lawful immigration and shut down to criminals and drug dealers and
terrorists and coyotes and smugglers and people who prey upon innocent
life.''
How does that square with the President's U.S. Attorney and long-time
friend and protege, Johnny Sutton, who he backs to the hilt, throwing
the book at our Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers
over procedural errors, but at the same time letting drug smugglers go,
letting people who are smuggling illegal immigrations into our country
go?
Of course, that is not the only thing, Ramos and Compeon and what's
going on with our law enforcement. The policies themselves are
incomprehensible.
According to a recent AP story, 98 percent of all illegal border
crossers are not even prosecuted, 98 percent. Between October 1 of 2000
and September 30 of 2006, nearly 5.3 million illegals were simply
escorted back across the Rio Grande and turned loose. Well, no wonder
they don't give up, and they end up coming back a second or third or
fourth time.
The Justice Department claims it has ``higher priorities than going
after ordinary illegal immigrants.'' They said they elected to pursue a
more elective strategy going after drug smugglers and criminals.
Really? Tell that to Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compeon, who are
languishing right now, right now as we speak, in solitary confinement
in Federal prisons, all because U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, close
friend and protege of the President, decided to grant immunity to the
drug smuggler in order to testify against the Border Patrol agents.
Not only did Sutton allow this criminal to get away with it once, as
I stated, this very same drug smuggler was involved with a second
shipment. He has probably been involved with many more shipments of
drugs.
But, they knew that he was involved with a second shipment even
before Ramos and Compeon went to trial, and that information was kept
from the jury. Let me repeat that, information that the very same drug
smuggler that had been stopped by Ramos and Compeon, that very same man
who now Ramos and Compeon are being tried for at that moment for
violating procedures because he was just a novice, a man who had never
done this before, this was his first attempt at drug smuggling. The
fact that they knew of a second load that would have already happened
by the time of the trial, that was kept from the jury.
The jury was presented by the prosecutor, a lie, that this man was
obviously a novice, and had never been involved in drug smuggling
before. The jury was told the drug smuggler was, as I say, first-time
novice, to pay for his mother's medicine.

{time} 2200

And the U.S. Attorney knew that he had already been involved in a
second drug load, and that was kept from the jury. Something really
stinks about this case. This is the same U.S. Attorney that has been
claiming all along, along with the prosecutors, that the drug smuggler
wasn't armed.
Now, we know that both of the Border Patrol agents suggest that as
the drug smuggler is running away from them to get across the border,
he turned in a way that appeared to be aiming something in their
direction, and they didn't have much time to think about it and they
fired their weapons. Now, whether or not he had a gun is impossible to
prove. He got away. He went across the border. We have only the word of
the drug smuggler that he was not armed. And, again, the drug smuggler
is not only believed, but his story is backed up by the U.S.
prosecutors over the word of two veteran law enforcement officers, one
who served this country for 10 years in the Border Patrol, the other 5
years, both of them veterans of our military. And they believed the
drug dealer, in order to destroy the Border Patrol agents. And then,
again, we hear over and over again, and presented in trial, that the
drug smuggler was unarmed. Yet it is only his word that suggests that.
And I might add this; the drug smuggler's family has stated to
journalists that this drug smuggler had always been armed when
smuggling drugs, and he had been doing so since he was 14 years old.
Now, let's put that in perspective. Does anyone really believe that a
drug smuggler in that area is going to be in possession of a $1 million
asset, these drugs, and he won't have anything there to defend those
assets on either side of the border? Our U.S. Attorney believes the
drug smuggler when he says he is unarmed, and destroys the Border
Patrol agents when they say they thought he was aiming something at
them. To this day, the smuggler is free from prosecution. He has never
been charged with a crime, and is awaiting a potential settlement in
his $5 million lawsuit against the Border Patrol.
Now, let's recap. Two Border Patrol agents are languishing in
solitary confinement in Federal prisons for 11 years, while the illegal
drug smuggler whose van was abandoned contained $1 million worth of
narcotics, he was granted immunity; he has been given free medical
care, and provided an unconditional border crossing card, which was
more than likely used when he smuggled a second stash of drugs into the
United States before Ramos and Compean went to prison. And we are
supposed to believe that this President wants to free up our Border
Patrol agents from just normal duties so they can go after the real
criminals?
By the way, at Ramos and Compean's trial the prosecutor belittled the
Border Patrol agents for thinking that they should be out trying to
stop drug smugglers. And that prosecutor, belittling them in front of
the jury, said if they wanted to stop drug dealers, they should have
joined the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency. This is our prosecutor
that is supposed to be representing us belittling these two men for
stopping a drug dealer with $1 million worth of drugs, saying that they

[[Page H4286]]

should have gone and joined the DEA if they wanted to stop drug
dealers. To suggest all of this represents a confused, chaotic, and
contradictory border strategy and immigration policy is to put it
mildly.
During the Ramos and Compean trial, the lead prosecutor bragged how
section 1325 cases are not even prosecuted. What are 1325 cases?
Improper entry by an alien. It states any alien who enters or attempts
to enter the United States at any time or any other than as designated
by Immigration officers shall be fined under title XVIII or imprisoned
for not more than 2 years, or both.
The law is clear, but the law is not being enforced. The law isn't
being enforced. Our Border Patrol agents are under attack even if they
stop drug dealers, much less other people. The other people who are
just coming across, we are not enforcing that. Millions have been
returned without having to pay any penalty at all. So why not come back
a second and third time until they succeed?
And why isn't the law being enforced? And because the law hasn't been
enforced, the situation at the border is out of control. Surprise,
surprise. If you don't enforce the law at the border, it's out of
control. Tens of millions of people are here who shouldn't be here.
Now, who is to blame? Yes, I think the top person in our government
and all the people in our government who have been supporting these
policies are to blame. Whether it is President Bush, President Clinton,
or Members of leadership in Congress, the law hasn't been enforced, and
it has been very clear that it has not been enforced. This has not been
an accident that we have 15 million to 20 million illegals in our
country creating horrible situations for driving down wages, destroying
education, et cetera, et cetera. More and more people are coming across
our borders without any type of consequence because it has been a
policy not to enforce that law, the policy of this administration for
the last 6 years. Of course, who did they prosecute but the Border
Patrol agents if they didn't do their paperwork right.
Well, what is going, of course, we have more and more people crossing
the border. Those who are here and get here illegally begin to realize
that they are able to find work, and they are actually getting jobs
that pay them more money than they would have in the countries from
which they come, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, China, and elsewhere.
So they realize they can get work here and get paid more. And they also
realize that they are able to get free services from the Federal,
State, and local government. The taxpayers of the United States are
going to provide them services they could never get at home, health
care, education, housing, et cetera. It is a bonanza for these people.
Now, they are not bad people. Let me state for the record and be very
emphatic about this. A huge proportion, maybe 90 percent of all illegal
immigrants coming to this country are likely to be wonderful human
beings. If we were in their spot, we would be coming across the border,
too. They are not at fault for wanting to come here, and they are not
at fault for coming here to better the lives of their families, to
better their own lives. That's not their fault. We don't dislike them
for that at all. The people to blame here, the people to be upset with
are the policymakers who permitted this massive flow of people into our
country; because, even though these are good people coming in, they are
having a horrible impact on our society. A horrible impact. And it is
up to us to represent the interests of the people of the United States,
even though these good people who would like to come here by the tens
of millions all around the world are good people. And my heart goes out
to them. But my job and our job should be to protect the interests of
the people of the United States. And there is nothing wrong with that.
There is nothing selfish with that. There is nothing selfish with
wanting to protect our children and make sure the health care and
resources go to our children and our families.
But the word has gone out all over the world that they can get jobs,
they can get benefits. And I will tell you this. If the word goes out
that we are going to legalize and we end up legalizing the status of
those who are here illegally, the flow of illegals that is now coming
into our country will turn into a tidal wave. We have trouble
controlling our borders now. If we legalize the status of 10 million to
15 million illegals in our country as what is being advocated in this
supposed comprehensive immigration plan, it will make the situation so
much worse, so much more out of control, it will be a catastrophe for
this country. Ten years from now, we will have lost our country to tens
of millions of new people who are consuming all of the resources we put
aside for our elderly, for our young people, for our children, for our
families.

Wake up, America. You are being betrayed. We are being told that our
Border Patrol agents are going to secure our borders: Just pass the
comprehensive bill, then we will secure the borders. Well, first of
all, those are two unrelated issues. But then, on top of it, we know
now that our government is prosecuting the Border Patrol agents or
anyone else who gets in the way of the hordes of illegals that are now
flooding into our country at this level. This is total insanity and is
already doing, as I say, great harm to the people of our country. And
no doubt, even though the President was there with our Border Patrol
agents, our defenders in the Border Patrol and elsewhere are
demoralized.
And it is not just Ramos and Compean why our defenders are
demoralized. What about the case of Edwards County, Texas? Deputy
Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez, another American of Mexican descent.

{time} 2210

He too was prosecuted and imprisoned under the direction of Johnny
Sutton. Anybody catch a pattern here?
In this case, Deputy Hernandez tried to protect himself from a van
full of illegals who tried to run him over after a routine traffic
stop. He shot out the tires, and in the process, an illegal hiding
behind the van's wheel well sustained a minor injury.
Once again, our government chose to ignore the immigration crime
there of human trafficking. You had human trafficking laws that were
being violated by those illegals who were driving that van and taking
those people in. And our U.S. attorney chose to go after the deputy.
Not only did the coyotes get away, the injured illegals have already
been rewarded with $100,000 and green cards to match.
Deputy Hernandez now sits in prison. The illegals are now living in
Austin, Texas, $100,000 richer. This is bizarre. This is twilight zone
stuff.
These aren't idiots that have designed this policy. These are people
who have the wrong goals in mind, who are not representing the
interests of the people of the United States, and are certainly not
appreciative of our defenders.
We're being told that the Justice Department's priority is to pursue
criminals and human traffickers, yet we hear about that case that I
just mentioned.
Our defenders are afraid to defend us. And they're not afraid to
defend us. That's not just a policy that just happened. It's not just
happening that they are afraid to defend us. This administration and
the powers that be have set out to intimidate the Border Patrol and to
make them fearful to enforce the law.
At the same time we are emboldening those who would break our laws.
So it's been the policy, perhaps for a decade, perhaps more than a
decade, but certainly during this entire administration, to intimidate
those who are defending us at the border and embolden those who would
cross the border illegally.
By the way, in both of the aforementioned cases, our Justice
Department determined that the illegal aliens coming across this
country, one, a drug smuggler, the others coyotes smuggling illegals
across the country, that their civil rights were violated.
There's something wrong with this picture when our government is
protecting the so-called civil rights of people who are smuggling drugs
into our country and carrying loads of illegal immigrants into our
country in violation of our law. Something is totally wrong with this
picture.
If controlling the borders is a priority, why is this President,
again, using border security as a wedge to

[[Page H4287]]

achieve other goals? And his other goals, of course, amnesty to those
who are here illegally and setting up a guest workers program.
Again, whose interest is our government representing?
Economist Robert Samuels pointed out some of the horrible impact of
this policy that we have had that has brought so many illegals into our
country. He claims that what we are doing, you know, some people say we
are bringing in cheap labor, but he suggests we are importing poverty,
and that that importation of poverty is having a dramatically negative
impact on our country. If this country continues to allow uneducated,
unskilled workers to come here illegally, it will bankrupt America, and
we are in the process of bankrupting America.
According to a report released by the Heritage Foundation, 50 to 60
percent of illegal immigrants are high school dropouts. 4.6 million
U.S. households are headed up by immigrant dropouts. The Pew Hispanic
Institute Center estimates that 49 percent of high school dropouts are
illegal immigrants.
The Heritage report estimates that the cost to the American taxpayer
over the lifetime of a high school dropout is $1.1 million per dropout.
Because of the government benefits they receive versus what they pay
back into the system in taxes, the net cost, per year, for all of these
illegal alien dropouts that are coming here, high school dropouts,
these poverty-stricken people, the net cost to us per year is $397
billion, almost $400 billion a year.
Put that in perspective. Of all the things we try to finance in this
Congress and can't find an extra $25 million for breast cancer
research.
Put it into the context with the millions of illegals who are working
here in the United States off the books, who do not pay their share of
the taxes, but will still reap the benefits of government programs,
from welfare to health care to Social Security to public schools and
housing.
This is a catastrophe, a catastrophe not just in the making, but a
catastrophe in reality that we are living right now. I see it happening
in my own Southern California district every day.
And what are those consequences? Let's just note. In my area, the
schools, the quality of education is going down. For the ordinary
people who depend on public schools, their kids are getting
shortchanged. The emergency rooms in hospitals are closing up and
health care's going down.
Our criminal justice system is being inundated and, we have, I'm not
sure the exact number. I think it's 50 percent of all the felons, it
might be 75 percent of all the felons where there are warrants of
felons that they are looking for are illegal immigrant felons.
It's breaking down our criminal justice system. If you get raped or
murdered or run over by a drunk in California in my area, it's likely
it's been done by someone who should never have been there legally in
the first place.
Our government is betraying the interest of our people. It's not
protecting our people. Yet, politically, our government is dominated by
powerful forces who want these high levels of immigration, legal or
illegal.
This has been no mistake. People didn't just close their eyes and
say, oh my gosh; there's 15 to 20 million people here illegally. No, it
has been a policy decision made by people that we will support, that
they will support the policies that have created this monstrous threat.
It is not an accident. It is not something that just happened. The
policy decisions were made by an elite, but the American people were
kept in the dark about these decisions.
Now, who was it? Who's behind this flow into our country?
First of all, business wants cheap labor. When I say that, that
doesn't mean that they just want cheap labor from people who are coming
here illegally. That means they want the people who are coming here
illegally to bid down the wages of our own people.
So not only are the illegals working for less money, but now the
American working people have to take less money, because their job will
be given to an illegal. So big business wants cheap labor. They want
the illegals to depress wages. That is a very powerful force.
The liberal left coalition, which runs the Democratic party, wants
more illegals as well. They want the political clout that a massive
influx of low class and highly manipulated immigrants will provide
their power structure. So you've got big business interests and
business interests and the liberal left democratic establishment. Now,
that is a one heck of a tough coalition. And it's about as tough as it
gets.
And yes, the political and economic elites have benefited from this.
Yeah. The democratic elites have got their political tools. And the
businessmen have the people who cut their lawns, be nannies to their
children, change the sheets in their hotels, do everything that they
need to have done at a much lower wage, and give them the opportunity
to give themselves huge pay raises. They give themselves levels of pay
that CEOs never would have gotten years ago.
You know, CEOs used to get about 10 times as much as working people
in their companies. Now they give themselves hundreds, if not thousands
of times more than the people working in their company.
But of course the people in their company can't really push too hard
because they can be replaced, many of them, by people from overseas. We
can get H1B visas and flood the market with Pakistanis or Indians to do
computer work. If our people won't accept 50 or $60,000 we can flood
the market with H1B visas and we can make sure that the computer people
from our country, you know, that they are going to have to accept lower
wages, or we'll give it to the Pakistani or the Indian.

{time} 2220

That is illegal. What about the legal people who come here who even
work for less than that Pakistani or Indian who comes in with an H-B1
visa?
These elites who, as I say, live behind closed gates and don't have
their kids in public schools, they are doing things that destroy the
well-being of their fellow citizens.
We see cities that are not only turning a blind eye to illegals, but
they are welcoming illegals into our country. Recently, San Francisco
Mayor Gavin Newsom vowed to maintain San Francisco as a ``sanctuary
city'' for illegals, and he will do everything he can to provide
sanctuary for those illegals. He is discouraging Federal authorities
from conducting any immigration raids. Well, in whose interest is this
mayor watching out for and the others who talk about these sanctuary
cities? There are hundreds of these sanctuary cities across our
country. The employers know it. Rental companies know it. The illegals
know it. The word is going out all over the world. There are sanctuary
cities. If you can make it there, you have got it made. And there will
be a treasure of benefits for you as well, and the local government is
going to protect you. Well, by proclaiming their moral superiority in
protecting illegals, what are they doing? They are in reality
committing a monstrous crime not just against the American people but
against all those people overseas, perhaps 100 million people now
waiting in line overseas to come here legally. They are waiting in line
to come here legally, but yet we have got the mayor of San Francisco
who is siding with the guys who cut in line in front of those people
who are waiting to respect our laws and to come here to be Americans in
the legal way.
If the people who are here illegally have their status legalized and
if we have people protecting those people who are here illegally, what
does that tell the millions of people who are waiting overseas? It
tells them they had better not wait. They are fools. This mayor of the
city of San Francisco isn't protecting illegals. He is actually
accosting, actually committing a crime against the people who are
waiting in line overseas. He is favoring those people to break the law
over those who stand in line and wait to obey the law. He is siding
with the lawbreakers rather than siding with those immigrants from
overseas who would like to come here and follow our laws. He is not
just protecting the unfortunate people of the world. He is siding with
that group of people over those unfortunate people who would obey our
laws and come here.
The prosecution of Ramos and Compean has not gone unnoticed, as

[[Page H4288]]

well as the sanctuary cities I am talking about, the actions of the
mayor of San Francisco. Yes, couple that with the prosecution of Ramos
and Compean, and what we have got is there are good people all over the
world as well as some bad people, but good people even who are saying
that they can come here now. Let's get to the United States because the
United States doesn't have the will to stop us. These are good people,
but they will consume our resources that we should have for our own
people, and they will depress the wages of the American worker, and
they will bring diseases right into our schools that we have a long
time ago conquered. And the breakdown of our borders will have been
lost not only just to the good people who will flood across and be out
of control but to drug dealers who have noticed Ramos and Compean and
the Border Patrol agents and also to terrorists. You can bet that the
terrorists around the world have noticed the chaos on our southern
border.
Mr. Speaker, in the coming weeks, Congress will begin debate on the
Flake-Gutierrez bill. This flawed bill almost guarantees a legalization
of the status from 12 to 15 million illegal immigrants already in the
United States. The bill requires illegals to pay fines and sit through
English classes in order to claim that it doesn't qualify as an
amnesty. However, the 1986 Immigration Reform Act required the exact
same thing: a waiting period, fines, mandatory English classes. And no
one can deny that that was an amnesty bill.
The bottom line is the Flake-Gutierrez bill, if it passes, you can
skip the line, skip it totally, all those people waiting in line
overseas, and buy your citizenship for a whopping $2,500. Under this
legislation right now, illegals who seek amnesty do not have to pay
back taxes nor do they have to wait the current 10-year period before
re-entry into this country after they have been caught here illegally.
Flake-Gutierrez will permit the newly minted residents, legal residents
now because they have now been made legal residents, to apply for
billions of dollars in public assistance. The Heritage Foundation
estimates the fiscal cost to the taxpayers of such an amnesty will be
$30 billion a year. Newly legitimized residents, legalized residents,
will also receive Social Security benefits based on their work while
they have been here illegally. Since most illegal immigrants worked
under fake Social Security numbers or stolen ones, it will create
unknown costs to the Social Security Administration.
And, of course, President Bush has already made a secret agreement
with Mexico that we had to dig out of the administration with Freedom
of Information requests. That secret agreement was that any new
legalization of status will include giving those illegal Mexicans who
worked in the United States Social Security benefits for their time
when they have worked in the United States, but that has been kept hush
hush.
By the way, Social Security isn't just a retirement plan. It is also
a survivors' benefit. And you can imagine how many morticians from
around the world are going to be sending their letter into Social
Security, saying somebody worked in your country illegally for this
year. He died and please start sending your thousand dollar checks to
his children at this address. This is a catastrophe not only in the
making. This is a catastrophe that is already before us. This bill
could pass and destroy our Social Security system.
Perhaps the worst element in this is that, contrary to claims
otherwise, the bill does not send illegals back to the back of the
line. Currently, there are over 3 million aliens who have already been
approved for green cards but are still waiting overseas, waiting for
sometimes up to 23 years, to come here legally. Under this bill
millions of illegals who claim to have been here illegally since 2006
can keep working legally now in the U.S. and will be eligible for
permanent residence. So they will be here legally, and then they can
apply for permanent residence in 8 years. People who have played by the
rules will still have to wait for their green cards oversees. So why
should they wait in line at all?
As I say, this is going to give us tens of millions of new illegals
pouring into our country, destroying our social infrastructure, our
schools, our hospitals, our retirement systems. The last amnesty in
1986 resulted in 15 to 20 million new illegals pouring into our
country. This amnesty will give us 50 million or more. The Heritage
Foundation estimates that 100 million new people will be here after 10
years as a result of this immigration reform. Wake up, America. We are
losing our country. We are being betrayed. Who is representing the
interest of the American people?
The President has often mentioned the reason most illegals come here
is to do work that most Americans won't do. However, Flake-Gutierrez
specifically allows employers to lay off Americans and replace them
with new foreign workers as long as those Americans were laid off 90
days before they decided to bring the new people in. Employers are also
absolved of any form of civil or criminal liability related to the
prior employment of illegals. And as long as the incentive to work and
benefits exist, illegals will flood into our country.
I have been a consistent advocate for tough employer sanctions. Yet
Flake-Gutierrez prohibits State and local governments from punishing
employers who have hired illegal immigrants or from requiring them to
use an employment verification system or from requiring that that
system be used to verify the legal status of renters or public benefits
applicants or people who are undergoing background checks.

{time} 2230

It dramatically reduces the civil penalties for employers who
knowingly hire or continue to employ illegals, or who fail to comply
with the employment verification system already approved by the last
Congress. As a matter of fact, section 301 of the bill, employers can
avoid using the verification system altogether simply by saying they
are hiring private contractors.
This legislation is tantamount to the surrender of America's ability
to control our territory from any foreigner who wants to come here. It
is an immigration catastrophe, a nightmare for America's most
vulnerable, our vulnerable middle class, a nightmare. Frighteningly,
President Bush is supportive, as are many corporate-minded Republicans,
and almost every Democrat that I know, although there are a few,
hopefully, coming over to our side who understand how this is hurting
their constituents. As I say, a handful of Democrats have signed on to
the bill to pardon Ramos and Compean.
But by and large, the Republican leadership, the President, the
Democratic leadership, the Democratic Party and most Members of
Congress are in favor of this type of ``comprehensive bill'' and have
not been helpful in saving Ramos and Compean.
Who is watching out for the American people? Well, it is up to us,
the United States. And what we can do is make sure that everyone talks
to their representative and talks to their Senator, and does so
aggressively, not in a low voice, but in an aggressive voice because
you're protecting your families and your children and you're protecting
your country in the future.
We are up against a powerful political coalition. They are using
examples saying, oh, we need these illegal aliens to work; there are
jobs Americans won't take. There are jobs that Americans won't take at
the pay level that these big businessmen want to give them. And don't
tell me that if we paid janitors more money, that we can't find people
to be janitors. I was a janitor years ago. You go back, and janitors
are making the same amount of money as I made when I was a janitor 40
years ago, yet the income of our country, the GNP, has quadrupled. They
have been left out because a horde of illegals have come into this
country and bid down their wages.
Now, why is it that people who are janitors or people who work with
their hands, people who work in regular middle-class jobs shouldn't be
able to enjoy the fruits of our country, that their wages should be
depressed, they should be frozen out of having a better living for
their family? Then they say, well, there are jobs they won't even do,
like picking fruits and vegetables. We've got more people between the
ages of 18 and 40, young, healthy men housed in prisons in the middle
of our agricultural areas who could profit by working. They could earn
enough money to pay for their own incarceration and

[[Page H4289]]

pay for a little restitution. But those ideas are too creative. No, no,
no. Instead, let's just bring the illegals across, that will keep
everybody's wages down and we can control them and they will be off the
chart.
Well, let me suggest this; we've been given a false dichotomy saying
that we have to offer a legalization status, an amnesty, or we have to
have massive deportations. It's either legalization or deportation.
That is the most serious of all of the lies that are being told today
about immigration because that is not true. We do have an alternative;
there is an alternative to just deporting. We don't want to have sweeps
of law enforcement through foreign neighborhoods, but we can just make
sure that we have ID cards, we have Social Security cards, that we have
ID cards that can't be tampered with so we can prove who we are dealing
with. We can have a verification system so that employers will know who
they're employing and we can hold those employers accountable. And we
can also make sure that illegals who don't have the benefits cards,
these identities that show they are eligible, cannot get the health
care, the education, the housing, the Social Security and retirement
benefits that are due to American citizens and people who are here
legally.
If we do not give the jobs and the benefits to people who are here
illegally, they will go home. Just as soon as you give it to them, they
will come. If you don't give it to them and they find trouble earning a
living, supporting their families, they will go home. It's called
attrition. That is the decision we have to make. Creating a false
dichotomy, saying it's either going to be legalization or deportation,
that's the type of word game that is unfair in this debate. It's just
like calling amnesty something that it isn't, saying that this is not
an amnesty when it clearly is.
We must be able to say no to people who are using the scarce
resources that are meant for our people. These resources belong to the
American people, whether it is our education establishment, our health
care, job training, housing, retirement benefits, these are things that
belong to the American people. We must protect the interests of our
people and say no to people who would consume those things that are
meant for our own people.
This is not mean-spirited selfishness. And probably that is the
greatest debate of all, because people are playing on it as if we're
trying to push us into letting more and more illegals come in here and
destroying our system, like just to say, if you try to stop it, you're
being mean-spirited and nasty. Americans don't like that. Americans
don't like it at all, of course they don't. We are as generous as any
people in the world. But it is not selfish to take care of your own
family. It is not selfish to take care of your own community. It is not
selfish to take care of your own country before you expend the
resources and take care of people elsewhere in the world. It is not
selfish, it is being responsible.
And we, as representatives of the people of the United States, owe it
to the people of the United States to be watching out for them,
watching out for their interests. If we don't do it, no one is going to
watch out for the interests of our people. I am afraid that tonight
it's up to us, the people. Either we will speak out; we will rise with
a righteous rage and oppose this immigration travesty that is about to
be foisted upon us or we will suffer grave consequences. Within 10
years, our country will have been lost. Ten, 20, 30, 40, 100 million
new people here, some of them terrorists, some of them criminals, most
of them good people, but still, people who don't deserve to be
consuming those resources that we have built and saved and created for
our own people.
So with that, I close and ask the American people to wake up and pay
attention.

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