[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 8, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2287-S2290]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMMIGRATION REFORM
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I want to return today to the subject of
immigration. Today marks the 285th day since the immigration bill
passed right here in the Senate with almost 70 votes, and 285 days
later we are still waiting for the House of Representatives to act on
that bipartisan piece of legislation.
Every single day the House drags its feet on immigration, our borders
remain less secure, our visa system keeps us less competitive, our
economy suffers, and millions of families remain in the shadows.
Hard-working immigrants who came here to live the American dream and
who are part of the fabric of our communities all over the State of
Colorado and all over the United States of America are suffering
because Congress has not passed a bill, families such as Dulce Saenz's
family from Hudson, CO.
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When Dulce's father was deported, she and one of her sisters stayed in
Colorado to start college while her mom and younger sister moved to
Mexico to be with their dad. It was a heartbreaking decision for the
family to separate, but that is what they needed to do. Now all three
sisters have gone to the University of Denver in Colorado. They have
started careers in public service. But they rarely see their parents.
They worry about their safety.
It is clear to everybody I talk to here and at home that our current
immigration system is broken. It is also clear to me and I think to
many people that separating families does not reflect our history and
it does not do honor to the values that shape that history. So while
the House stalls, the Secretary of Homeland Security is reviewing our
deportation policy and exploring other ways we can help keep families
together. It is a good step in the absence of a bill. We should
prioritize deportation in a way that reflects our values as a country,
upholds the rule of law, and keeps families together. But in the end,
the only way to come to a full and permanent solution is to pass this
immigration reform bill.
Of course, this is not unusual in Washington these days when we have
become so used to getting the bare minimum accomplished, keeping the
lights on for another week or for another month. But what is so
frustrating on this issue is that we have bipartisan agreement that the
current immigration system is broken and that it is doing no favors to
this country.
The coalition we built in favor of reform is unprecedented. I was not
surprised. When we started this in Colorado, first I would travel
around the State and I would hear peach growers in Palisade say one
thing about what they hoped for in an immigration bill, I would hear
the cattle ranchers say something else, the ski resorts say something
else, our high-tech community, our immigrant rights community--
everybody coming together to say: You know what, it is long past time
to get this fixed.
When we brought this to the national level, working together with the
so-called group or gang of 8 on immigration, we were able to build a
coalition that really is unprecedented. In the 5 years I have been
here, I have not seen universal agreement on anything like we have seen
on the immigration bill.
In June of last year, right here in the Senate, we passed a strong
bipartisan bill--a bill that strengthens our economy and reduces our
debt, a bill that keeps families together, protects our borders and our
communities, and gives families who came to this country for a better
life a chance to earn citizenship and contribute to our economy and to
our society.
As I mentioned, I was part of that Gang of 8 who negotiated the bill.
For those who despair about the lack of leadership in Congress--and I
hear about this all the time, as I know all of my colleagues do--I tell
them that for my part, as one American, the greatest sign or signal of
legislative leadership that I have seen in the past 5 years was the
leadership provided by John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and
Jeff Flake, the four Republicans who sat at that table for 7 or 8
months and negotiated the immigration bill. It was a lot harder for
them to stay there than it was for the Democrats. But those four
Republicans sat at the table for 8 months and negotiated a bill because
they knew it was the right thing to do for the country and,
parenthetically, the right thing to do for their party in that order.
Yet here we are. After all that bipartisan agreement, after all that
bipartisan work, after a great bipartisan vote on the floor of the
Senate on one of the most immediate issues facing this country, 9
months after our bill passed the Senate we still do not have a bill at
the President's desk.
The House of Representatives is privileged to have the opportunity to
rise above politics as usual and to do something big, something real,
something consequential that will last for this country. The House of
Representatives has the privilege to show that stalemate does not have
to be standard operating procedure in Washington, DC.
This issue is completely bipartisan at home. I hear about this as
much from Republicans--maybe even more from Republicans in farm country
than I do from Democrats, the chance to do something important for our
Nation and for our future. But until the House acts, families, farmers,
and businesses all across my State and all across the United States
will continue to suffer, farmers such as Eric Hanagan and Michael
Hirakata outside of Rocky Ford, who cannot get the seasonal workers
they need and are forced to watch crops--in their case, melons--die in
the field.
Colorado's high-tech companies on the front range--ranging from
bioscience, engineering, and aerospace--cannot always find the
employees they need. In fact, they often cannot find the employees,
which introduces an entirely different subject that relates to our K-12
education system, but that is not the topic of the speech today.
We know that almost one-quarter of STEM graduates from Colorado's
STEM--math and science graduates from Colorado's leading universities
are immigrants who are graduating in the United States, many of whose
education has been subsidized by us. Instead of saying to them,
``Please stay here; build our business here; go work for one of our
high-tech companies here,'' we are saying to them, ``Go home. We would
much rather have you compete with us from India. Go home. We would much
rather have you compete with us from China.'' It is ridiculous. It
makes no sense.
The Senate bill, the bill we passed, changes that. The bill we passed
says: If you are a STEM graduate from another country and you graduate
from an American university and you have a job offer in the United
States of America, we will staple the green card to your diploma.
That is what we need in this country. That is what the high-tech
industry in Colorado needs out of the House of Representatives.
I mentioned tourism at our ski resorts. They will continue to suffer.
This is Colorado's second largest industry.
There are a lot of reasons to act, there are a lot of economic
reasons to act, but I think there are also fundamental reasons that
have to do with who we are as a country. It is often said that America
is a nation of immigrants. Of course that is true. There is literally
no other country in the world for which immigration is so central to
its history and to its identity.
I have heard enough speeches in this Chamber to know that for a lot
of us, for a lot of the 100 of us, it is very personal as well. I am a
first-generation American. I know there are many others who are here.
There is not a person in this Chamber who does not have immigration as
part of their family's history.
But this is not just a theoretical idea, that we are a nation of
immigrants. I want to take a moment to reflect on what this really
means. This is a photo I am proud to say I actually managed to take
with my cell phone. My daughters would be shocked to know that I was
able not only to get the picture taken, but it is not even blurry.
I had an occasion--I hope the Presiding Officer has had the
opportunity to do it--to do something I never imagined I would ever
have the chance to do. I attended a naturalization ceremony held for
Active-Duty servicemembers at Fort Carson, CO. Let's be clear. These
are men and women who are serving the United States of America in
uniform. On that day they became citizens of the United States. Until
that day they were not citizens but still they were serving and are
serving in our Armed Forces. The 13 soldiers and spouses who became
U.S. citizens that day represented 12 different countries. This is a
picture of them--12 different countries among the 13.
I am going to read the list. I was so blown away by the list that I
asked one of the people from the INS who was there to give me what is
called the oath ceremony nationality report from which they read the
names of the countries. It is an astonishing list. Here are the
countries these folks are from: China, the People's Republic of China,
Colombia, Haiti, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines,
South Korea, Togo, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom--12 different
countries.
Every single one of them came here in pursuit of the American dream,
just as generations of people from around
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the world have sought out the United States to build their future.
These are the people--and people just like them all across the United
States of America--who are going to determine our future, just as every
generation of immigrants has helped us to determine our future. Whether
it is refugees fleeing persecution, whether it is parents seeking
opportunity for their children, it is those stepping forward to
sacrifice for our shared values, as all of these young men and women
are, who make America the country we love. There is no way to argue
that our current immigration policies reflect that history or our
values.
Let me paint a picture of what our country would look like if this
immigration bill were passed. Just to be clear, again, it is not
imaginary; we passed the bill in the Senate.
If people on the other side have issues with the bill, what I say is
we have no monopoly on wisdom. Bring your ideas; improve the bill. I
can think of some things I would do to improve that bill, but you can't
just do nothing. You can't do nothing, because if we pass the bill in
the House, those who come to this country for a better life, including
young people--whose parents brought them here as children, and they are
here through no fault of their own--would have the opportunity to enter
a tough but fair path to citizenship. With a path in place we would
then see higher wages, more consumption of goods and increased taxes.
It would reduce our debt. This bill--and this is not me talking,
Michael Bennet from Colorado, this is the Congressional Budget Office--
would reduce our debt by nearly $1 trillion over 20 years. I am unaware
of any other piece of legislation that has passed with a bipartisan
majority in the Congress that reduces our debt by $1 trillion but this
would. It wouldn't do it in across-the-board cuts. It would do it
because of the growth it would create in our economy, the incremental
economic growth. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office has said that
if we pass this bill, we would see an increase of almost 6 percent of
incremental GDP growth over this 20-year period, 3 percent in the first
10 years and 5 percent in the second 10 years.
Second, our bill would put into place an efficient and flexible visa
system that would catapult our competitiveness in a changing 21st
century economy. Canada, our neighbor to the North, is figuring out how
to attract the world's talent to its shores. That is what they are
spending their time doing. We, a historic nation of immigrants, are
saying please go home and compete with us from someplace else or maybe
go to Canada and compete with us from there. Talented entrepreneurs and
innovators from around the world would have the opportunity to stay if
we passed this bill and create jobs to fuel our economy. It is well-
documented how many Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants,
but millions of small businesses across the United States have been
started by immigrants as well. High-skilled workers in science,
technology, engineering, and math and lower skilled workers in
industries such as hospitality and tourism would come into the country
to fill jobs where there are no available U.S. workers. This was a bill
that labor and the chamber endorsed. That is the first time that has
happened. It was a difficult and painful negotiation, but we were able
to get it done, and they agreed we ought to get it done.
It is very important for Colorado and a lot of other States. We would
stabilize the challenges facing our agricultural industry with a new
streamlined program for agricultural guest workers that is more usable
for employees and protects our workers.
Again, this is the first bill ever. We call this portion the AgJOBS
bill, the first one--first one--to be endorsed by the growers and the
farm workers. That has never happened before, but working with Senator
Rubio, Senator Hatch, and Senator Feinstein, we were able to get that
done.
Finally, and more importantly, our borders would be more secure with
new fencing, double the number of border agents, and increased spending
on new technology. We have what they call full situational awareness on
the border to allow us to interdict threats rapidly and successfully--
and, very importantly, with a mandatory employment verification system
and more effective entry-exit system, we would prevent future waves in
illegal immigration so we don't end back up in the problem we are
facing today. Then our small businesses all across the country can stop
being the INS and concentrate on building their businesses. These are
all changes our Nation urgently needs, and there are more.
I am not here to argue for some partisan piece of legislation that
didn't attract votes on both sides. This bill was entirely bipartisan
from beginning to end. I have heard a laundry list of excuses out of
people in the House why they haven't addressed immigration reform, but
at some point it is time for those excuses to stop and for the stalling
to stop. If they want to show the country they are serious about
growing our economy and keeping families together, then they need to
show us they are serious about immigration reform.
I actually think the Speaker wants to pass a bill. In fact, I think
he could pass a bill if he put it on the floor tomorrow and let the
House work its will. But it is not my job, obviously, to try to tell
him how to do his job. It is no one's job in the Senate to tell him how
to do his job, but I suppose it is our job to give him encouragement,
to say we will be there to support you if you can find a way to get
this bill passed.
If they want to show the country they are serious about growing our
economy and keeping families together, then they need to show us they
are serious about immigration reform. It doesn't have to be a carbon
copy of what we passed, although if they look at it, what they will
find is the elements that are in there hang very well together.
Look at this photo. Again, this is what America looks like. This is
what Colorado looks like. This is what America looks like. It is what
it is all about. These are faces of people who want to contribute. This
diversity is how we thrive as a country, and it is how we are going to
thrive in the future. It has always been our strength, and it is what
sets us apart in many ways from countries all over the world.
These new citizens want to contribute to our economy and to our
communities. They want to serve our country, they want to pay taxes and
abide by the law, and they want to build a better life here for
themselves and their families.
This picture is exactly why we need reform. These brave men and women
say it all. They say it much better than I do.
I see my colleague from Pennsylvania is in the Chamber, so I will
wrap up.
Let me say that two of the things that set us apart from countries
all over the world, two of the essential components that make us the
United States of America, are our commitment to the rule of law and our
understanding of ourselves as being a nation of immigrants. Almost no
other country in the world can say what we can say about that. I can
tell you no other country in the world was having that naturalization
ceremony the day we were having it at Fort Carson.
This bill gives us a chance to reaffirm those two ideas that we are a
nation committed to the rule of law and that we are a nation of
immigrants.
I had the chance this weekend to spend some time in my wife's
hometown in the Mississippi Delta. It is one of the poorer parts of the
country, and it has been for a very long time. It is a tough place in a
lot of ways. We have a lot of great family there. After we finished, we
went to Memphis to visit the civil rights museum, which has just
reopened. If anybody has the chance to go, they should go to visit it,
because what you see is the history of a struggle from the 1600s
forward--generation upon generation--trying to perfect this country and
keep it true to the idea that in this case we are all created equal.
For a long time we weren't able to perfect that. We still are having
to perfect it. We are making progress, and that is what we are meant to
do. Today we have that chance. The House has that chance tomorrow or
next week or next month to make sure that we honor our commitment, this
generation's commitment to a generation of immigrants and to the
generations that are coming after them. I hope they will take up that
challenge.
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I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania and the Presiding Officer as
well for his patience.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. I wish to say a word of commendation for the remarks the
Senator from Colorado just made about a very important issue, and that
photograph he took is, indeed, an inspiration to all Americans. Each of
us can be inspired by that photograph, what it represents, by the
sacrifice that undergirds that photograph, and also for his reminding
us about those sacrifices and those commitments, so we want to thank
him.
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