[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 20, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H4480-H4481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, last week, Tom Donahue, the president of 
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said that if House Republicans fail to 
pass an immigration bill this year, the Republican Party should ``not 
bother to run a candidate in 2016.''
  Even with a majority of Republican voters supporting immigration 
reform--and yes, a majority of Tea Party voters in support--the 
positions Republican candidates feel they must take in order to win 
over their base make them unelectable when they face the American 
people in the general election.
  Latino voters are repelled, and the loud but small contingent of 
immigration opponents have backed the Republican Party into a corner 
that they don't have the courage to break out of.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I give you George W. Bush, the man who will go down 
history as the last Republican President in American history.
  Tom Donahue is right. There is a demographic reality that will make 
Republicans a footnote in history, just like the Whigs and the Know-
Nothings, unless they do something to get the immigration issue off the 
table.
  Look, there are only 18 legislative days before the July 4 recess, 
before the campaign season takes over, but you still have time to 
change history.
  If you do nothing on immigration, I guess you can take comfort in 
knowing that, from Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush, you had a pretty 
good run. Freeing the slaves, winning the Civil War, interstate highway 
system, those all go in the highlight column; and there have been a few 
lowlights as well.
  All our grandchildren will ever know of Republicans as a national 
party will be what they read in the history blogs, and they will look 
at 2014 as the year it all slipped away, unless you act soon.
  With or without immigration reform, Latino voters are a force that is 
growing faster than Republicans can withstand and are tilting more 
towards the Democrats with each day Republicans stand in the way of 
stopping deportations that are breaking up immigrant families.
  Today, Tuesday, 2,000 Latino citizens born and raised in the United 
States--right here in the United States of America--will turn 18 and 
become eligible to vote. That is 2,000 today and every day until 
Election Day 2016.
  But wait a minute. That will continue for the next 30 years. That is 
65,000 citizens a month, with or without immigration reform for the 
next 30 years.

                              {time}  1015

  Throw in women, younger voters, Asian voters, and others who are 
strongly in favor of immigration reform, and the Republican Party has 
dug quite a hole for themselves by standing with Steve King of Iowa.
  Two million more Latinos voted in 2008 than in 2004 and tilted 
heavily to the Democrats after the Sensenbrenner bill, a Republican 
enforcement-only bill that criminalized immigrant families. Two million 
more Latinos voted in 2012 than in 2008 and tilted even farther to my 
side because of Romney's anti-immigrant message. And we aren't even 
registering the citizens in our community in the numbers we are capable 
of, but we are getting better at it with every passing year.

[[Page H4481]]

  Right now, I think House Republicans are at a crossroads. Many, 
including the Speaker, I think, want to get the immigration issue 
resolved before the 2016 elections. They know that the next few weeks 
offer the only chance Republicans have to both solve a tough American 
issue and get some of the credit for doing so.
  Others are already crouching in their anti-Obama bunkers and want to 
play it safe this year, regardless of the consequences for the future. 
Conservative columnist Juan Williams calls this the ``trap'' Obama is 
setting for the Republican Party. Williams knows, as I do, that 
President Obama can act with or without Congress, given the latitude he 
already has under existing immigration law. Williams wrote in Roll 
Call:

       The House's lack of action could open the door for Obama to 
     take unilateral action on immigration reform.

  And I will tell you, he will take unilateral action.
  He goes on to state:

       The political result would be to make heroes of the 
     President and his congressional allies while leaving 
     Republicans to explain why the Tea Party element in the House 
     refused to deal with the immigration crisis.

  He further states:

       Such an outcome would cement political loyalty between the 
     growing Latino vote and Democrats. It would also stir the 
     Democrats' liberal debate for the 2014 midterms.

  Williams is right. You have 18 legislative days to write the policy, 
whip the votes, and pass the bill. That is not a lot of time.
  Let us work together to put my 200 Democrats together with 60, 70, or 
80 Republicans that we can get on board to get a bill--or a series of 
bills--passed, and let's get it done for the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I suggest to the Republican majority that they do it for 
Abraham, they do it for George. Do it for any little boy or any little 
girl in America who wants to grow up to be a Republican President. But 
most of all, do it for our country.

                          ____________________