[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 10, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H1904-H1907]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RESTORING THE RULE OF LAW AND REESTABLISHING THE PILLARS OF AMERICAN
EXCEPTIONALISM
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Iowa (Mr.
King) for 30 minutes.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As always, it's an honor to be recognized to address you here on the
floor of the United States House of Representatives.
I want to say to you, Mr. Speaker, that I come to this floor very
troubled here this evening. I am troubled at the current inertia that
seems to have been created in the minds and in the positions of a
number of people who are here in the House and in the Senate, primarily
those on my side of the aisle, who seemed to wake up on the morning of
November 7 and decided that Mitt Romney would be President-elect if he
just hadn't said two words, ``self-deport,'' and if he hadn't said two
other words, ``47 percent.'' They had done this analysis, apparently,
before there were any kind of exit polls that could have been
considered.
They persist in sticking with this opinion that something must be
done about immigration in this country and that there needs to be
comprehensive immigration reform passed and that, if that doesn't
happen, then there's going to be a kind of calamity that might
eliminate or badly weaken the bipartisan, two-party system that we have
in this country.
I reject those principles or those opinions, Mr. Speaker, because
what I know about the facts refutes them completely. There are no facts
that uphold such a position. It is true that the people in my party
have lost a growing share of the vote of the list of minority
coalitions that there are in the country. It's also true that the other
party has demagogued this issue mercilessly, and the effect of their
tens of millions of dollars has shown in the polls. My colleagues on my
side of the aisle don't seem to recognize that. Perhaps they haven't
thought this through, and I hope they do, Mr. Speaker. But the most
essential pillar of American exceptionalism that is affected by this
debate over immigration is the rule of law.
It appears to me that there are a number of people on my side of the
aisle who say--even though they recognize that the comprehensive
immigration reform agenda, which has been around since the George W.
Bush administration and perhaps before--they believe that somehow, even
though it's fifth or sixth on the list of issues that would be
important and relevant to minorities that look at the path to
citizenship and at a path to staying in the United States and working
and raising their families and being productive here, that jobs and the
economy are more important. A whole list of things are more important,
but it's fifth or sixth on that priority list. Those who advocate for
this Gang of Eight's version, which seems to be emerging from the
Senate in comprehensive immigration reform, seem to think that we
should do something, that we should pass some type of amnesty because
that's what's required to ``start the conversation.''
I took an oath to uphold this Constitution. This Constitution is the
supreme law of the land, and the rule of law is an essential pillar of
American exceptionalism; and if there are people in this Congress,
House or Senate, who are prepared to sacrifice the rule of law in order
to start a conversation, that's enough to get me to come here to the
floor tonight, Mr. Speaker, to start the conversation about restoring
the rule of law and reestablishing the pillars of American
exceptionalism and making sure that this great Nation that we are can
go on to our destiny beyond the shining city on the hill to a place
that actually does realize American destiny with all of the pillars of
American exceptionalism intact, not sacrificing the rule of law for
political expediency, which is the bargain that is being negotiated
over on the Senate side and behind closed doors here on the House side,
although not even publicly admitted to.
So, Mr. Speaker, in the earlier part of this discussion, I would be
very pleased to yield to a very strong leader on the rule of law, to
one who has led within his own community in Hazleton and who has been a
clear and articulate voice on protecting and defending America's rule
of law destiny, and that's the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Barletta).
Mr. BARLETTA. Thank you, Congressman King.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk in Washington about illegal
immigration. As the mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, after it was
estimated that 10 percent of our entire population was there illegally,
I created the first law of its kind in the country. Now, I don't need
to be briefed about illegal immigration--I have lived it. Because
Washington has failed to protect our borders, cities like mine have
been overcome. I had to deal with it myself because of Washington's
failure.
Our immigration laws were created for two reasons: one, to protect
the American people and our national security; and two, to protect
American workers.
Now, in 1986, Ronald Reagan had promised the American people that if
we'd give amnesty to 1.5 million illegal aliens that we would secure
our borders and that this would never happen again. After the
declaration of amnesty, that 1.5 million actually doubled to over 3
million. Now, a quarter of a century later, over 11 million people are
in our country illegally, and our borders are still not secured.
This isn't just about the southern border. There is a lot of focus
about, if we secure the southern border, our borders are secure. Forty
percent of the people who are in the country illegally did not cross a
border--they didn't cross the southern border; they didn't come across
Canada. Forty percent of the people who are in the country illegally
came on visas and overstayed their visas. In fact, one of the men who
was granted amnesty in 1986 was involved in the 1993 attack on the
World Trade Center. Now, my city is 2,000 miles away from the nearest
southern border, and I have an illegal immigration problem. Any State
that has an international airport is a border State.
[[Page H1905]]
{time} 1820
There are 22 million Americans who are out of work. We should not be
encouraging millions more to come here illegally when so many Americans
cannot find jobs. Medicare and Social Security are going broke, and yet
the Heritage Foundation did a study that said that if we give a pathway
to citizenship to the 11 million or more who are here, it will cost
over $2.6 trillion over the next 20 years. We should not even be
talking about offering amnesty. There should be no bill that talks
about a pathway to citizenship. We should be securing our borders
first.
This is something that we should all be able to agree upon, Democrats
and Republicans, the Senate and the House, if we are sincere, if we're
not trying to fool the American people a second time. We promised them
that we would secure our borders before we give amnesty. Offering a
pathway to citizenship will make matters worse. It will encourage
millions more to come here illegally.
You know, you don't replace your carpet at home when you still have a
hole in the roof.
Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for coming
to the floor to deliver this presentation, this hands-on presentation
from the gentleman, Mr. Barletta. If you would yield to a question, I'm
curious as to the percentage of the population of Hazleton that is a
minority population, perhaps Hispanic population, and how your election
results turned out the last time you ran for mayor of Hazleton?
Mr. BARLETTA. Sure. When I was mayor of Hazleton, over 40 percent of
the entire population of Hazleton was Hispanic, and I won with over 90
percent of the vote. And I don't know of anyone at the time who took a
harder stance against illegal immigration than I had at that time. So
this talk that you cannot stand up for the rule of law, that you cannot
stand up against illegal immigration and still welcome new immigrants,
new American citizens, is totally false.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Reclaiming my time, just doing a quick calculation
off of that, 40 percent of the population of Hazleton being Hispanic,
presuming that represented a percentage of the voting population that
was Hispanic, and you carried 90 percent of the vote, which would
indicate that somewhere in the area of 75 percent of the Hispanic
population voted for Lou Barletta for mayor of Hazleton; would that be
close to correct?
Mr. BARLETTA. I believe it would. And again, what I found in my
hands-on experience as a mayor in dealing with the problem of illegal
immigration, plus a city whose Hispanic population had exploded, for
example, to show you how fast our population had grown, in the year
2000, English as a Second Language, the budget for English as a Second
Language was $500. Just 5 years later, it was $1.5 million. So as our
immigrant population grew, we also realized that the most important
issues to those that were there were good opportunities, were good
jobs. It wasn't about granting amnesty or a pathway to citizenship.
They wanted good jobs and a good education for their children. They
came to America for that better life. Offering amnesty wasn't going to
make their life any better, and they understood that. They also
understand that allowing 20 or 30 million more people to come into this
country illegally is not helpful for people who are starting out, who
need the jobs that they came here for, or many Americans who can't find
work.
Mr. KING of Iowa. I'm curious, since you came to Congress here, Mr.
Barletta, and I'm going to presuppose that you have strong personal
relationships among the entire spectrum of the community of Hazleton,
have any of them in any appreciable number changed their position on
the immigration issue since they sent you to Congress? And can you
speak on some of your relationships with your constituents today and
those who were your constituents when you were mayor?
Mr. BARLETTA. The position has not changed. And, in fact, I believe
the fact that I stood up for the rule of law and I speak for the
importance of protecting our national security and our American jobs
here, it has allowed me to win elections, getting both Democrat and
Republican support. I ran in a district that was 2:1 Democrat, and I
won by over 10 percent of the vote. I really believe the fact that I
was able to stand up when Washington had let us down was really the
reason why Democrats, Republicans, immigrants, and non-immigrants
supported me.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Reclaiming my time, the individuals that come here
to this Congress from various districts, and surely there are many that
come from blue collar-type districts--I'm going to presume that's a
fair amount of the Democrat constituency that you represent, me being a
blue collar kind of a guy and a hands-on fellow--I started out as an
earth-moving contractor, actually in the labor part of the construction
business--how do you suppose the constituents of other Members of
Congress that don't have this same position that you have on the rule
of law and immigration and protecting legal immigrants, what are they
hearing do you suppose in those similar districts to the one you have?
Mr. BARLETTA. I believe that people all over the country understand
what I'm saying, that illegal immigration is crushing our cities. Our
population in Hazleton grew by 50 percent, but our tax revenue remained
the same. Our population grew by 50 percent, but our tax revenue
remained the same. Small cities, small towns like Hazleton,
Pennsylvania, are crushed by the burden of illegal immigration.
I was sued for creating the first law of its kind in the country, and
I couldn't find politicians to come near me, to be honest with you. It
was pretty refreshing because nobody came to Hazleton. And I thought I
was standing there alone until I started getting cards and letters and
checks from people all over the United States. In fact, I got checks
from every State, including Alaska and Hawaii, to help defend our city
in that lawsuit. We raised over half a million dollars, most of it in
$10 and $20 donations, from people all over America who felt the same
way. I am not alone. The American people understand what illegal
immigration means. It doesn't mean that we roll up the welcome mat to
new immigrants. We ask them to come here through the proper channels,
respect the rule of law, and then give them the opportunity that they
came to America for.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Reclaiming my time, I remain curious to the wealth
of experience that the former mayor and the gentleman from Pennsylvania
has provided here, Mr. Speaker. I would ask also, of the illegal drug
distribution links that exist in this country and that which I'm going
to presume also shows up in Hazleton, illegal drugs and violence, and I
will make this statement into the Record, Mr. Speaker, and that is, in
my meetings with the Drug Enforcement Agency and a number of others
that are involved in enforcing the laws against illegal drugs, they
tell me that at least one link in every illegal drug distribution chain
in America, at least one link in that chain, is carried out by someone
who is unlawfully present in the United States. The cost of those
illegal drugs to our society, I don't know has been quantified. That
trade itself has been estimated to be something above $40 billion,
perhaps something above $60 billion a year, and I would ask the
gentleman from Pennsylvania if his experience would reflect that to be
true?
Mr. BARLETTA. Well, it is absolutely true. I'll give you an example.
We had arrested a young man for selling cocaine on a playground. The
man was in the country illegally. It took our detectives 5 hours to
determine who he was. He had five Social Security cards. He had five
identities. Law enforcement has no idea who they are dealing with;
many, many are here under fraudulent documentation. Those who are
involved in the criminal element, in the gangs or drug trade, I don't
believe will be coming forward no matter what laws we pass here. And we
can pass all the laws in the world; if we don't enforce the laws of
this country and if we don't allow States and local law enforcement to
work in harmony with the Federal Government, we will never stop the
problem of illegal immigration. But what we shouldn't do is make the
same mistake we made in 1986 and give a green light to people all over
the world to come here illegally while our borders are still open.
[[Page H1906]]
{time} 1830
If you were a family waiting to come to the United States because you
wanted to obey the law, but you hear a declaration like we're hearing
here in Washington, offering a pathway to citizenship and protection
while you're here, why would you wait? Why would you wait with your
family?
It would be a green light for people to come. That's why the problem
will become worse.
Mr. KING of Iowa. And reclaiming my time, it was reported to me today
here on the floor, a Representative that represents an area very near
the southern border said to me that the illegal border crossings are up
20 percent since the dialog on comprehensive immigration reform, that
euphemism began.
So the encouragement for people to get into the United States on the
chance that this Congress will pass some kind of an act that would
ultimately be amnesty is bringing more people into the United States.
But I wanted to circle back and ask another question of the gentleman
from Pennsylvania, and that is that there's a GAO study, a General
Accountability Office study, of about 2 years ago that went back
through our prison system and asked the question, a number of questions
about the population of our prison system that are criminal aliens. And
that number was at least 28 percent. Some numbers show 30, depending on
how you define that.
But there also was a number in there that was stark to me. The people
in prisons in the United States, both Federal and State, all together,
who have been convicted of homicide, now that prison population,
according to that study, was 25,064. And when I think of a number that
large, multiples of all of our casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, that
is American population, most of it, that's a number, but it's human.
It's very, very personal.
And I would ask the gentleman from Pennsylvania if he would have any
personal accounts that might reflect a component of that 25,064.
Mr. BARLETTA. Well I did, actually. The final straw for me that made
me realize that I needed to do something to protect the people in my
town actually happened on May 10, 2006. It was a day that I'll never
forget.
Earlier in the day we had arrested a 14-year-old for shooting a gun
into a crowded playground. The 14-year-old was in the country
illegally. And it was interesting: he had his lawyer on speed dial on
his cell phone, which I thought I don't know how many 14-year-olds
carry their lawyer on a speed dial.
I remember going home that day and telling my wife that I had--I
didn't know what to do anymore. We were losing control of the city. We
didn't have the resources to deal with the problem.
That same night I got a call from the chief of police, 1 o'clock in
the morning, a 29-year-old city man, father of three children, was shot
in the head. He was shot by one of the gang members in the city.
That one homicide, it took our police department 36 hours to bring
the people forward that committed that crime. We spent half of our
yearly budget in overtime in the police department on that one murder.
And enough was enough. If the Federal Government wasn't going to do
anything, then I had to. I took an oath, and I had an obligation to do
so. And that's what began my crusade.
I was sued, by the way. I was sued for creating the law. In fact, the
plaintiffs that sued the city of Hazelton, many of the plaintiffs were
admitted illegal aliens who sued the city. They had their identities
kept confidential. They had asked if their identities could be kept
confidential, which they were. We were not allowed to ask their names.
They then asked if they could be excused from showing up at the trial
because they were in the country illegally and didn't want to go to a
Federal courthouse. It was granted.
I never saw our accusers. I took the stand for 2 days. I testified
for 2 days, but never saw the people that sued the city of Hazelton. I
felt that illegal aliens were given more rights than a United States
citizen would be given. You cannot sue your city and remain anonymous.
I vowed to appeal this and fight this to the Supreme Court, which we
did.
So what brings me here is a life of experience as a mayor who tries
to balance a budget, provide a good quality of life for the people that
live there, and realize what happens when illegal immigration, not at
the border, not just at the border, not just in Texas. I'm 2,000 miles
away from that southern border.
We have good reason to enforce our immigration laws, and we should
not be encouraging people to come to this country illegally by granting
amnesty. We did it in 1986, and we're talking about this again.
Why obey our immigration laws if we have an administration that won't
enforce the laws and a Congress that wants to give amnesty every time
the problem comes up again?
We need to enforce our laws. We need to make E-verify mandatory.
Protect American jobs. We need to make sure we're protecting our
national security. There are people around the world that want to harm
us.
And we need to give the immigrants that come here the opportunity
that they waited for, those immigrants that stood and waited because
they wanted to obey America's laws and they are here, and we are
stealing that opportunity away from them. Yet we're telling them we're
doing this for the immigrants that are here.
They're smarter than that. And that's why immigration is not the most
important issue to the people that are here. They want that education;
let's give it to them.
All the programs that the Heritage Foundation talks about that will
be impacted by this pathway to citizenship are programs that the most
needy need to live. Why are we going to hurt people that need these
programs?
I feel very strongly about this issue. I feel very strongly, and
that's why I'm here to speak up.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Reclaiming my time, I very much thank the gentleman
from Pennsylvania for coming to the floor and voicing his opinion. And
I know that he's also occupied with a very tight schedule, so I
appreciate that a great deal.
Mr. Speaker, the attention that I've given Mr. Barletta, I hope that
you and America have given Lou Barletta as well. And I hope that he's
rewarded, not only by his constituents, but by a policy of protection
of the rule of law that can be re-established here in this country.
The idea that we should somehow suspend our good judgment, and we
should waive the rule of law, all for some idea of political
expediency, is not compatible with the principles of our political
party. And sacrificing the rule of law for political expediency seems,
to me, to be a foolish idea.
It needs to be precious to be an American citizen. Citizenship should
be valuable. And throughout all of the years that people have come into
the United States legally--and the distinction between legal and
illegal has been conflated by the open-borders crowd, both Republicans
and Democrats.
But you'll watch, Mr. Speaker, how they conflate the language. A few
years ago they started blending the term ``health care'' and ``health
insurance'' till it became one thing, and we got ObamaCare out of that,
because people could no longer draw the distinction between health care
and health insurance.
And we've also watched during a similar period of time, as the dialog
of the distinction between illegal immigrant and immigrant, the
distinction--immigrant means someone who came to the United States
legally and followed our laws, that saw the image of the Statue of
Liberty, was inspired by that image, and found a way to come to America
to exercise all the God-given liberties that are here, that were
defined so well in our Declaration of Independence and protected in our
Constitution. That's ``immigrant.''
That's where the vigor comes from, for the American population and
civilization, among our brothers. It's God-given liberty, but it's also
the vigor of those who were inspired to come to America.
So, Mr. Speaker, I recognize there are only about 3 minutes left, but
I'd be very happy to yield to the gentleman from Texas, who is very
reliable and a very clear voice, as much time as there may remain.
Mr. GOHMERT. Well, thank you. And I'll just take a moment because
what you're talking about is so very critical.
[[Page H1907]]
And just to reiterate the point that's been coming out in a couple of
hearings, I was shocked that 34.9 percent of all prosecutions by this
administration were not for drugs; they were for people reentering this
country after they've been deported.
{time} 1840
They're prosecuting people for illegal entries. You don't even
prosecute--this administration--people that just come across one time.
And when you think about all the detention, all the prison, the jail
space, the prosecutors. We pay for the defense attorneys. You think
about all of the prisons around America which contain so many people
who came in illegally, when this administration says it cannot afford
to secure the border, then they have not taken stock of how much money
that this country is having to spend on prisons, prosecutors, jails,
defense attorneys, all of the costs that come with that, because
they're not doing their job.
And I know it goes back to the Bush administration. That is not a
defense. And they need to take care of their job--and I hope and pray
they will--instead of using the issue of a secure border as ransom. No,
we will only secure the border if you will give us amnesty so people
can vote for Democrats. That is outrageous. And Jay Leno had it right.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Reclaiming my time and thanking the gentleman from
Texas, I add up those numbers and it looks like a number approaching 60
percent of the resources used by the Federal Government to prosecute
have to do with something coming cross the border, whether it's people,
or it's 90 percent of the illegal drugs consumed in America is the
other component of that presentation. So if we control this border, Mr.
Speaker, we can control the 34.9 percent of the prosecutions about
reentry. We have roughly a quarter of that prosecution that has to do
with illegal drugs. And the Drug Enforcement Agency does tell us that
between 80 and 90 percent of the illegal drugs consumed in America come
from or through Mexico.
If there's a universal position on this side of the aisle, Mr.
Speaker, it has to do with secure the border, prove you secured the
border, establish that, reestablish respect for the rule of law. At
that point, we can have a conversation about some of the ideas that are
emerging over on the Senate side and in the secret meetings here in the
House of Representatives.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________