[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 101 (Tuesday, July 16, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H4516-H4520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMMIGRATION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy) is recognized
for 30 minutes.
Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Speaker, tonight, we want to have a conversation about
immigration and immigration reform because we recognize that in 1986,
when Congress and the President came together for immigration reform,
it didn't work. It didn't work for immigrants; it didn't work for our
border; and it didn't work for America. Just recently, we've seen that
our Senate
[[Page H4517]]
has come forward with proposed legislation, and that too doesn't work.
It's a proposal that doesn't secure our border. It's a proposal that
won't work long term for America.
We're here to address the problems that we face in this country with
real solutions that work for people and work for our country. We're
here to say that we're with you. If you want to work hard and you want
to contribute to our American economy, we're with you. If you want to
obey our laws and if you want a shot at our free enterprise system,
we're with you. If you believe that America has a right to secure her
borders, to know who's coming in and out of our country, we're with
you. If you want to pay taxes and pledge allegiance to America,
we're with you. And if you want your shot at the American Dream, we're
with you.
We're a party that looks at the big problems in our country, and we
come out with big solutions to fix those problems. We're not a party of
``no.'' We are a party of solutions. That's why I'm honored to be here
tonight with a few of my fellow colleagues to talk about the solutions
in regard to immigration, solutions that are going to work. And that'
why I'm honored right now to yield to the gentleman from Illinois for
his thoughts on immigration.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
Wisconsin for organizing the time and bringing us all together. This is
an important discussion.
When I think back to somebody who's a big hero of mine, Ronald
Reagan, I think back to the eighties, of course, and I think of what
Ronald Reagan talked about. He discussed America as a shining city on a
hill, a city that everybody around the globe looks at and says ``I want
to live there.'' Or they look at the United States and say, ``that is a
country that I want my country to look like.'' That's frankly the
Republican Party.
And I understand that over the last few years, the Republican Party
hasn't necessarily done a great job of messaging that. That's our
fault. But I look at somebody like Ronald Reagan, and I look at the
vision he has put out for America and I say, You know what? That is the
Republican party that I joined. That's the Republican party that I
believe in, the party that believes that a kid in the inner city of
Chicago should have the same opportunity as a kid raised in the best
suburbs of Chicago. That's what we believe.
So when we talk about this really controversial issue of
immigration--you have Americans on both sides of the issue, and
Americans that have gotten ginned up on either side of this issue that
are speaking to this with anger--I think something we have to do as a
Nation and something that I think we need to do here right now is to
say, Let's have this conversation about immigration, but let's do it in
a way where we can discuss what America wants to be and what America is
about and how to give most people around the world the opportunity to
be in America.
I think most Americans would agree that the first thing we have to do
is ensure that we have a safe border, not only just because of the idea
of immigration and ensuring that we have a system that works for
everybody, but because--look, on a porous border you have an
opportunity for terrorists to come through with weapons that we don't
want in the United States of America. We've seen in our schools--I
visited a place called Rosecrance the other day in Rockford, Illinois,
that has teenagers that are suffering from drug addiction. Do you know
what the cheapest drug they can get a hold of is now? You'd think maybe
marijuana, right? It's actually heroin. Do you know where most of the
heroin is coming through? It's coming through the border of Mexico.
So I think when we talk about border security, we're not talking
about it in an angry way. We're just saying as a sovereign Nation, we
have a right to determine our immigration policy, and you can't
determine immigration policy with a porous border. Once we do that,
once we have honest border security and we're honest with the American
people, then we have to have this discussion about how do we
passionately and compassionately deal with folks that want the American
way, as well.
That's a conversation I'm looking forward to having tonight over the
next few minutes. And as we move on, I'd like to yield to the gentleman
from Colorado, a great Member of Congress, Mr. Cory Gardner.
Mr. GARDNER. I thank the gentleman from Illinois.
Mr. Speaker, we're all together on the same issue tonight on the
House floor as we discuss the important issue of immigration inform.
Many of us elected in 2010 and elected in 2012, we came to Congress
because we wanted to find ways to make America work, to get this
country working again, to find ways to get government out of the way
and create an economy that's strong and growing so people can find the
jobs that they want to help feed their families, to send their kids to
school without putting themselves into bankruptcy, and to make sure
that we do indeed have a better tomorrow than we do today.
So it is starting with those fundamental beliefs that we all came
here to achieve, to build a stronger country, to make life work for the
American families, that we recognize a Nation of immigrants, a Nation
that provides an opportunity for people around the world, that beacon
of hope to be a place for families to succeed, to achieve their dreams
about the American Dream and indeed the American spirit.
So it is through those very values of compassion for the poor,
compassion for people who want to build a stronger Nation here at home,
and the fairness that we know we can do it with to build a system of
laws that will stand strong not just for 1 year or 10 years or 20
years, but moving forward beyond that, a system of laws that we know
will make sure that people who want to be a great part of a healthy
American economy indeed have that very opportunity.
Tonight, as we kick off a discussion on immigration and we join
people around the country who have differing opinions, as the gentleman
from Illinois recognized, differing opinions on what to do, how to do
it, when to do it, recognizing, though, that indeed we must do
something to address a system that is broken in a way that meets those
objectives of American values: compassion, fairness, and maintaining
the rule of law in this country.
I look forward to our conversation tonight, and I look forward to
solutions for the American people that we can all be proud of, knowing
that this is not going to be an easy task, but one that we will address
with all due and necessary urgency.
We are joined tonight by our colleague from North Carolina (Mr.
Hudson).
Mr. HUDSON. I thank my colleague, Mr. Speaker. It's an honor to be
here tonight.
I'm a new Member of Congress. I was elected just last year. I ran for
Congress the first time I had ever run for office because I want to
come up here and fight for people, because there are folks back home
that are frustrated, they feel like their government is not being
responsive to their needs. So I'm here to represent them and be a voice
for those people.
I think of the homebuilder in Monroe, North Carolina, who told me
he's just struggling to keep his head above water and he'll take any
kind of work just to keep his crew intact so he can keep them together.
He'll do remodeling work or anything. He's not even worried about
profit so much as being able to keep afloat.
I think about the families across the Eighth District of North
Carolina who are looking to us for solutions. That's why I'm here
tonight to join this conversation, to talk about immigration reform.
The key to immigration reform, as far as I'm concerned is, we've got to
look at compassion and we've got to look at fairness.
When it comes to fairness, we are a Nation of immigrants, but we're
also a Nation of laws. So we've got to make sure we're enforcing the
law in this country and we're respecting the rule of law when we're
looking at making changes to immigration policy.
We also need to look with compassion on those who have come here to
the United States seeking that American Dream when we try to determine
what we're going to do going down the road.
But I think the key to this is the approach we're taking here in the
House
[[Page H4518]]
of Representatives. The Senate has passed an immigration bill. It's a
bill that was cobbled together behind closed doors. It was a bill that
in my opinion went too far too fast. We're taking a much more
thoughtful approach here in the House. We're going to go through the
committee process. We're going to bring legislation to the floor so
that we can debate these key issues affecting immigration as single
issues and let the American people take part in this conversation and
tell us what they think about issues like border security.
Now, the key to immigration reform in my opinion is we've got to
secure the borders first, and any legislation that we pass out of this
Chamber, any agreement we make with the Senate on immigration, we've
got to have a trigger so that no other pieces of this immigration
puzzle fall into place until we've got that border secure. So we're
going to work hard to make sure that's part of our solution.
There are actually five pieces of legislation that have already
passed out of the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees. I serve
on the Homeland Security Committee. We passed the Border Security
Results Act of 2013.
{time} 2130
What this does is it requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to
develop a comprehensive strategy to secure the border. What a radical
concept: let's actually have a plan. And so what we're saying in the
House is: give us a plan. We want the Department of Homeland Security
to work with the border sheriffs to come up with a plan to secure that
border and come back to Congress and say, here's what we need. Here's
the sections where we need fences. Here's the other types of
technology, whether it be drones or other types of technological
monitoring. These are the pieces of the puzzle we need to secure the
border.
And a key to this is we have to have a metrics so we can measure
whether the border is secure or not. Currently, we know the numerator,
but we don't know the denominator. We know how many folks we're
stopping coming across the border, but we don't know how many we aren't
rounding up. And if you talk to any of the border sheriffs, you'll know
that we're not anywhere close to being secure. So that's a key
component of this legislation.
I look forward to talking more about some of the legislation that
came out of the Judiciary Committee, some of the pieces of this
immigration reform puzzle that we need to discuss.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. I thank the gentleman for your statements
and everybody here for your statements. I am a member of the
International Guard. Just 2\1/2\ months ago, I actually did missions on
the border between Mexico and Texas. I fly a reconnaissance airplane,
and the goal was to look for folks who had crossed illegally. In most
cases, we were looking 60 miles into Texas. We were finding dozens of
people. Each time we would look somewhere, we'd catch 60 to 100 a
night.
I felt bad for the folks who were hunkered down, who had crossed the
border that were told by some coyote that they paid their entire life's
saving to, told by some coyote that ushered them over that once you
step foot in America, you'll be just fine. And then they realize that
the journey actually begins. What you'd see in many cases was the
Border Patrol, who do very tough, hard work, would apprehend most of
these folks. In some cases, a couple of them would scatter, and they'd
be left alone. They'd be left 15 miles away from the nearest town, with
no water, with no food, and with no idea where to go.
I think of that, and I think of the administration saying the border
is already secure. I think what that leads to is there is an epic lack
of trust in Washington right now. That's why actually the four of us
came to Washington, because we recognize there's a huge lack of trust
in D.C.
So this idea that we're going to say from on high in Washington,
we're going to just deem the border secure at some point, when the
administration has already deemed it secure, is I think where the lack
of trust is and why there's so much emotion tied into this. I think
this is a beginning step in having a great discussion about how to
actually tackle this problem in a way that both sides can agree with
and that is fair to the American people and to folks who want to live
the American life.
Mr. DUFFY. It is that very point. It is that lack of trust with the
American people and Washington, D.C. That's why we want to go through a
step-by-step approach, analyzing immigration and immigration reform.
The gentleman from North Carolina said we're here to fight for
people. We're here to fix a broken system, and we're here to make it
work. We want to have a reform bill that is going to actually be fair--
be fair to those who have come to participate in our economy, but be
fair to people who are Americans that say we are a country of laws, and
we also are a country of immigrants.
I think the key first step is border security. We have to debate,
negotiate, discuss what does border security mean. Once we agree on
what border security is, and once we secure the border, we can go to
the next phase, which is to say we have millions of people who have
come into our country, what's the fair way to treat them. In my
opinion, and I am open to hearing feedback from all kinds of people as
we have this conversation and debate, I haven't dug my heels in. But,
number one, we have to say, do you get to go to the head of the line
and become a U.S. citizen when you've come here without documentation?
I don't know that that's the first step after border security. But what
I do think we have to say is if you've come here and you've
participated in our economy, we can offer some kind of legal status, a
legal status that isn't citizenship, but it's a legal status that says
we're not going to arrest you in the middle of the night. We're not
going to separate you from your grandparents or your kids. You can stay
in our country because the border is secure. We're not going to have to
address this problem 10 years from now or 20 years from now or 25 years
from now. We've addressed the border, which means that we've addressed
the inflow of people coming to our country illegally.
When that happens, we can offer those without documentation a status
that says you can stay here and you can work; but if you want to become
a citizen, you're going to have to get to the back of the line. You
don't get a special pathway into the front of the line. You can go to
the back and you can become a citizen, but you can stay here legally.
And by staying here legally, you can pay your taxes, but that doesn't
mean you can vote. And it also doesn't mean that you can collect off
the entitlement system that we have here in America.
I think as we have that conversation with those who are here without
documentation and those who care about the laws in America, we can have
a conversation that actually works for everybody and everybody can
agree to. I look forward to that conversation, on finding a pathway and
a consensus forward that works for everybody.
With that, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.
Mr. GARDNER. The gentleman from Wisconsin brought up a great point,
and that is the issue of a step-by-step process. That is exactly what
the House is undertaking. There are at least four bills right now that
are working their way through the Judiciary Committee, dealing
with everything from an E-Verify system that can actually work and be
used by employers around this country to know that they are hiring
people who are legally eligible for employment in this country. But we
also have the opportunity to address one of the other concerns that I
hear at town meetings and in private conversations in grocery stores
across my district, and that's so many people who say, Do we need to do
anything other than just enforcing existing laws? Do we really need new
laws?
We have to give serious consideration to that question because the
answer is, yes, we do need immigration reform. Because of the 11
million people in this country who we believe are undocumented today,
42 percent of them are here, they came here legally, entered the
country legally, but overstayed their visa. So how do we reform the
visa system to actually make it work so we know the integrity of the
process is what it needs to be?
How do we create a system for those in agriculture to know that they
have
[[Page H4519]]
a workforce that is readily available to harvest that fall's crops? Or
if you're a dairy farmer, there's no one season for a dairy farmer,
it's year round, so the availability of a workforce with the skills
that they need, but the certainty that they need. It's those laws that
we have to reform to enforce and rebuild the trust of the American
people in a step-by-step process. Because if we do this, we can
actually create a system of laws that avoids the mistakes of the 1986
law through enforcement first, border security first, and making sure
then that we deal with the situation at hand and the people who do want
to be a part of a healthy American economy.
Mr. HUDSON. I appreciate my colleague pointing out some of the
legislation that the Judiciary Committee has already passed because I
think it is important to understand that the House of Representatives
is taking a different approach when it comes to immigration reform. So
we passed the Border Security Results Act out of Homeland Security. We
have also passed the Legal Workforce Act, which is the bill that
reforms the E-Verify system, which gives us a much more workable E-
Verify program, that gives our employers the certainty and the
assurance that they can verify the citizenship of potential employees.
The second piece of legislation that came out of the Judiciary
Committee already is the Skills Visa Act. This has to do with what's
called the H-1B visas. These are for your high-skilled workers. These
are for folks in math, science, and technology who may come to the
United States to go to university to learn these skills and get on this
career path, but then they don't have a visa to stay here. Most
industrialized nations in the world, 80 percent of the visas they give
out are based on work skills and needs of the workforce. Here in the
United States, it's about 12 percent of the visas we give out. We have
a lottery to give out visas; and to me, that's ridiculous. We need to
reform the system so we're giving out visas to the type of people that
we want to attract to this country. So the Skills Visa Act is
legislation we're considering here in the House that will do that.
The third piece of legislation is called the SAFE Act. One of the
issues we've talked about, we have to enforce the rule of law. Frankly,
we don't have enough Federal agents enforcing the law. So what we need
to do is empower States and municipalities, local governments that want
to enforce the immigration law to be able to do that. That's what the
SAFE Act does.
And then the fourth piece is the agriculture guest worker, AG Act.
That is a critical piece for our economy. There are at least 11 million
undocumented workers here in this country that we know of. Many of
those folks don't want citizenship. What they want is the ability to
work here legally. If we have an ag worker program that actually works,
this is the H-2A program. Frankly, when I'm home, and I go home every
weekend and meet with our local folks and I see farmers across our my
district, I ask them, How many of you are using H-2A program? You'd be
amazed how few use the program, because it's not workable.
And so as my colleague from Colorado asked the question that he hears
at town hall meetings, Do we really need to do immigration reform, yes,
we do. We can't just secure the border with a fence and technology if
we still have that attraction, that need for illegal workers to fill
jobs in this country. We've got to have a pathway to bring in legal
workers, whether it's in agriculture or home-building, or some of the
more high-skilled types of jobs. We need a legal pathway to fill those
positions; otherwise there's going to be this tug of illegals that will
continue to happen.
So we can build a 10-foot wall, but someone is going to invent an 11-
foot ladder. So it has to be a comprehensive approach. That's why we
need the ag guest worker program, as well. So as you can see, we in the
House are looking at this step by step. We are looking at what are the
actual problems so we can address them in a very thoughtful way so that
we aren't just rushing to get a big bill, as was once said by a former
Speaker of this House, Let's pass this bill so we know what's in it.
Well, we don't want to make that mistake again. We don't need a big,
huge, comprehensive bill. We need to look at these issues in a very
thoughtful, comprehensive way.
Mr. DUFFY. I appreciate the gentleman from North Carolina's comments.
And you look around at immigrants that come to America, why do they
come? They've come for the American Dream. They've come for a better
life for themselves. They've come for a better life for their children.
They've come to the land of opportunity because they want that
opportunity. They want to work hard.
I'm from Wisconsin. Many people may not want to recognize this, but
if you look at our dairy farms around Wisconsin, there are a lot of
immigrants who have come here without documentation that work on our
farms. And it's hard, tough work; and they do it because they want an
opportunity.
I travel around and do a lot of town halls, and I know my colleagues
do town halls and coffees. I would ask the gentlemen from Colorado and
Illinois what you guys hear in your town halls, what people think
about immigration and the problems and the solutions you face in your
communities.
Mr. GARDNER. I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin. The conversations
I hear are from all angles. So whether it's from somebody whose family
came here when they were very young--I know of an instance of a young
woman who came into this country with her family when she was a baby.
She has gone to school in the same class, same school system for 12
years, eventually graduating as a senior, number one in her class. She
was brought here as a child. When she asked me about what we were going
to do, I said, Your situation is an example of why we need immigration
reform, so have secure borders and we know the laws are being enforced
and to avoid putting you in this situation.
Years later, that conversation is repeating. We don't have the reform
yet, and we are still looking for that reform. And how many years have
to go by before we can actually say we have secured the border, we are
enforcing the law? And we know in 10, 20, 30 years, the visa program is
solved, the E-Verify system is working. That labor needs, whether it is
housing construction, agriculture, are being met in a system that
encourages compliance with the law as part of a healthy American
economy instead of an underground or a way that does it in a law-
breaking fashion.
I will tell you one other story. There's a doctor in the eastern
plains of Colorado who was here with all of his proper documentation.
Unfortunately, his mother was ill and he needed to leave the country or
was hoping to leave the country to say good-bye to her. But under our
system of laws, if he left this Nation, he couldn't come back. The only
doctor in the county, but he couldn't go away to say good-bye to his
mom because he couldn't return. We need some common sense.
Mr. DUFFY. That's a powerful story.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. That's a great story. I just had a town
hall meeting in Rockford, Illinois, yesterday. You get folks from all
ends of the political spectrum. That is the great thing about our
democracy is we can have that respectful conversation.
You have everything from folks who say, Look, all you have to do is
enforce existing laws, put more people on the border. Then you have a
lot of people who say, Hey, we need to not have any more border
enforcement and just allow everybody here to become U.S. citizens.
I think the answer is, frankly, in the middle of that. When you talk
to folks, and it doesn't matter if they're on the right or left or
somewhere in between, everybody has a heart. Everybody cares about
people. And when you talk about the fact, as Mr. Gardner mentioned,
there are people here who are 5 years old, through no fault of their
own, sometimes 12 years old, or now they're getting ready to go to
college and they realize they're not here legally, this is something we
ought to have a lot of compassion for and understand.
{time} 2145
And I think we've got to take some of the anger out of it on all
sides of the aisle and just have a grown-up discussion and say, What do
we have to do to fix the problem here? What do we have to do to fix the
issue? Because, frankly,
[[Page H4520]]
I don't know how long I'll be in politics, but I don't ever want to
have to address this again. And I think that's the thing. And that's
what I hear at my town hall meetings is, you know, when you really get
past kind of the initial arguments, folks say, We just really don't
trust Washington, but, unfortunately, you're the ones that have to
solve this problem.
Mr. DUFFY. And I hear similar things, and that's why people say, Take
it slow. Talk about it. Talk to us.
Let's do what's right. Let's do what works for the very people that
you talked about. Some call them the Dreamers, people who are here at
17 years old or 14 years old and know no other country, but they're
here. They're part of our communities, our society, and our schools.
Let's do what's right by them, but also let's do what's right for our
next generation by securing this border.
I want to talk about just one story. I have a good friend back in
Ashland, Wisconsin. He came here legally, but it goes to the work ethic
of those who come for opportunity and the American Dream.
It's Bah Lee. He owns a nail shop in Ashland, Wisconsin, and he was
raised in an orphanage in Vietnam. And the sister nuns, as he tells the
story, saved money in the orphanage and they sent him to America. And
he couldn't speak the language, and I think he was in Texas where he
got a job in a fast-food restaurant.
And from fast-food, he got a job as a painter. And all the painters
got mad at him because he was such a fast painter and they were, like,
Slow down. You're making us all look bad. He said, No, I'm here to
paint. In very short order he was the highest-paid painter; doesn't
speak the language very well, from Vietnam, but man, could he paint.
He saved money, sent money back to the sister nuns in Vietnam to help
the orphanage but saved money himself, and he opened up a nail salon.
And after that nail salon, another nail salon, and he sold them and he
built them and he sold them.
Eventually, he said, I don't like the hot weather anymore, so he
moved up to northern Wisconsin, where he bought a building on Main
Street, Ashland; right? And he opened up California Nails.
And during the day, Lee does nails, and at night--it's an old 1900
building. It was barren up there. He built five apartments, by himself,
at night, in the upstairs of his office building. And then in the
downstairs, which was not the nicest location and smelled, he ripped it
out and built new apartments downstairs.
But a guy that worked all day and all night for his shot at the
American Dream, helping his people back at home, but helping our
community, showing what immigrants do to make America better. And it's
that story, which is the American story, that I'm fighting for, to have
a system that actually works for people who are here legally and people
who want a shot at what we have to offer.
And with that, I yield back to the gentleman from North Carolina for
his comments on what he hears in his town halls on where we need to go
with regard to immigration reform.
Mr. HUDSON. I appreciate that. And I think it's many of the same
things.
First of all, people don't trust Washington to actually address this
problem. We've got a pretty bad track record here in the Congress.
I think the other thing, though, I hear from my farmers, from my
homebuilders, that they need labor, and we've got to have a legal
pathway to get that done. And so we've just got to do it in a way
that's fair and respects the rule of law.
If any of you would like to close, I believe we're getting near the
end of our time.
Mr. DUFFY. For a few more moments, I'm going to yield to the
gentleman from Illinois.
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. Well, thank you. And as we do wrap up our
time, I just want to say thank you to those paying attention today and
to my fellow Members here.
This is an important issue. This is the very beginning of a long
discussion that we need to have because this is too important to get
wrong. This is too important to rush, because America's the greatest
country in the world and this is something we ought not ever forget.
And in the process of doing that, we ought to remember that we're an
America that many of us come from immigrants and an America that,
frankly, is proud of where we've come from.
So with that, I want to thank the fellow Members of Congress here
with me to talk about this. And this is the very beginning of, I'm
sure, a long discussion about where we go from here.
Mr. DUFFY. I know our time is short, and I appreciate the discussion,
and I'm about to yield back to the Speaker. And we may have a few more
minutes we can actually continue this discussion tonight, but my time
is done.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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