[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 148 (Wednesday, September 17, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  (Mr. BACA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BACA. Mr. Speaker, I'm here on behalf of immigrant families who 
otherwise would not have a voice. There are those who insist that 
undocumented immigrants have broken the law, that they are criminals, 
but what image do you get when you hear that someone is a criminal? 
Your image is of a murderer, of a thief, of a drug dealer, of someone 
who intensely wants to hurt another person.
  These families who are wrongly called ``criminals'' come to the 
United States without the intent to hurt anyone. Yet there are anti-
immigrant attacks that continue to say otherwise. What happened to the 
Ten Commandments? to love thy neighbor?
  There are those who say that these families should play by the rules. 
The rules now are to form a line and to wait many years and to pay a 
huge fine, but the reality is the immigration process is so complicated 
that some of us would have a difficult time getting through it. We need 
comprehensive immigration reform to address the 12 to 14 million people 
in the United States to play by the rules and to also fix this broken 
system.
  I urge my colleagues to support comprehensive immigration.

                          ____________________