[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 107 (Thursday, July 16, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  (Mr. POLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POLIS. Over the 4th of July weekend, I toured a detention 
facility in Aurora, Colorado, where I met dozens of law-abiding 
immigrants. There are more than 30,000 immigrants like them throughout 
the country who find themselves in detention. Some of these individuals 
include teenagers, torture survivors, and the elderly. Others are 
asylum seekers who asked for protection upon arrival in the United 
States due to persecution in their country of origin, only to find 
themselves locked up for months or years like criminals at taxpayer 
expense.
  For thousands of immigrants in similar circumstances throughout the 
country, even if the Department of Homeland Security ultimately rules 
in their favor, while they wait we are paying $132 a day to feed them, 
clothe them, house them. They want to be out working, paying taxes; but 
we insist that they avail themselves at our expense.
  While at the Aurora detention center, I met immigrants who were 
placed in detention following a minor traffic infraction or a car 
accident that wasn't their fault. Due to the complicated nature of our 
current immigration system, many of them are stuck in the nebulous gray 
area between being lawfully and unlawfully present as they await the 
decision of an immigration judge. But regardless of the final outcome, 
separating parents from their American children by placing them into 
detention at taxpayer expense goes against our most basic values as 
Americans.
  As Congress works toward comprehensive immigration reform, I urge my 
colleagues to deal with the detention issue as part of that.

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