[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 37 (Thursday, March 14, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H1402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Barletta) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to talk about the important, 
compelling issue of illegal immigration.
  We've heard from the Gang of Eight in the Senate and now the Gang of 
Eight in the House. When we talk about illegal immigration, as a mayor 
I know what it did to my city. Aside from the crime and violence, it 
took a great toll on the economic vitality of the population. Our 
population grew by 50 percent but our tax base stayed the same. People 
who are here legally, especially the new American citizens, are looking 
for jobs. And they are scarce. Twenty-two million Americans are out of 
work. And now the proposal is to wave the carrot of citizenship to 
millions more? And when we are talking about giving amnesty to 
millions--maybe 20 million illegal aliens--how much more scarce will 
those jobs become?
  Mr. Speaker, we have heard these proposals before. In 1986, we said 
that if we granted amnesty, there would only be about 1.5 million 
people who would be included. In truth, it turned out to be twice that 
amount. We were also told that it would never happen again. Our borders 
would be secure and this problem would never occur again. In truth, it 
was not true.
  So now, 27 years later, our borders still aren't secure and here we 
are doing this all over again. Well, we got fooled once. By news 
reports, we are told that there are 11 million illegal immigrants in 
this Nation right now. By using 1986 as a yardstick, we can guess that 
by offering amnesty there might be twice that many.
  Mr. Speaker, we were told in 1986 that none of this would happen. But 
it did. Now we're talking about brand new expenses at a time when we 
really have no money to spare. This means Social Security, Medicare, 
unemployment compensation, ObamaCare, welfare, food stamps, you name 
it. The Heritage Foundation projects that currently illegal immigration 
today costs us $55 billion a year, or $550 billion over 10 years. 
Illegal immigrants today receive $55 billion more in government 
benefits than they pay in taxes, based on the 2010 census. Worse, after 
so-called ``amnesty,'' the net deficit resulting from illegal 
immigrants will be $75 billion a year, or three-quarters of a trillion 
over 10 years.
  We have no guarantee that these new millions of legalized aliens will 
not be on the public social programs. Nothing in any of these proposals 
from these ``Gangs'' or the White House can convince me otherwise. All 
told, The Heritage Foundation projects that if that's true, it will 
mean $2.5 trillion in new costs to the taxpayers over the next 20 
years.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit that in this time when we are looking for every 
dollar to save, we should not be giving away the bank at the same time 
that our borders are not secure and 22 million Americans are out of 
work. We should be talking about border security first. There should 
not and cannot be a discussion of amnesty until we secure our borders 
first.

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