[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 148 (Monday, December 8, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H8863-H8866]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Walorski). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman
from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) for 30 minutes.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Madam Speaker, let me offer my congratulations to
those who have served our country in the Congress who now will be
retiring and moving on. All of us will get there sometime.
This is a noble job if we make it such, and many people who have
served here have done great things for the United States of America.
Why? Because they, number one, believe in the principles of the United
States, what were set down by our Founding Fathers. Even more than
that, what we have had here and what we need more of in America are
leaders who care specifically about the American people and what impact
they are having on the American people and what impact those policies
that they advocate will have on the American people.
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All too often, people come to Washington, and pretty soon, what they
care about is this or that specific special interest. Or they have a
special idea, special interest or special ideas. They have a
philosophy. They have a vision that goes beyond what the benefit to the
American people is, what they are going to establish because of this
philosophical commitment to some ideal.
Well, both of those are enemies of the well-being of the people of
the United States. If people who are elected by the population come
here and are loyal to special interests that have to make a profit in a
specific area, even though it might be detrimental to the American
people as a whole, or people come here and they don't care about the
American people--they want to see their dream come true, their
intellectual and philosophical ideal put into place--well, the American
people get left out with that type of leadership.
And what we are doing today, one of the most important issues that we
have been facing for almost a decade now, with constant pressure to do
something about--what? About immigration policy in the United States.
And what we do, what we finally do on this issue will tell us whom we
care about and what are our ideals and who we care about more. Do we
care about special interests? Do we care about some ideal notion that
is not so tangible? Or do we care about what policy
[[Page H8864]]
will do specifically to the American people?
For years--and especially on this election year--we have heard
repeatedly about the plight of the people who are here in this country
illegally, over and over again about how these poor souls, how we need
to give them legal status. We need to reach out and do something for
them because they are in a bad situation. And, yes, they came here
because there was a desperate situation in that land from which they
came.
Unfortunately, when you hear people constantly talking about how we
are going to help these illegal immigrants who are here in our midst,
you don't hear about how what is being recommended to help the illegal
immigrants will impact the American people. This is what we should be
talking about. This is what needs to be discussed. The people elected
by the American people should talk about what is going to happen to the
American people if this policy that is being recommended is put into
place.
Yes. We would like to help people who have come here illegally, and
we would like to help people all over the world. There is no reason not
to, if we care about the people who have come here illegally, thumbing
their nose at our law, but they are human beings, and we care about
them.
By the way, they are also people whom we can identify with because if
we were in their spot, we would do the same. We care about them.
But you know what? We have to care more about the American people. We
have to care about them if they care about the things that we are doing
here. Or maybe they will just write off their government because their
government is more concerned about a foreigner who has come here
illegally than about the well-being of the American family and the
American working people.
We hear this word ``comprehensive.'' Over and over again, we have
heard, We have to have comprehensive immigration reform.
``Comprehensive immigration reform,'' what does that mean? Why do we
hear that over and over again?
Because they can't use the word ``amnesty.'' And they know that,
really, comprehensive immigration reform means one thing and one thing
only because there is really not any type of a real argument about
making our system better. But to them, when they say ``comprehensive
immigration reform,'' they mean changing the status, legalizing the
status of those millions of people who are here illegally.
They claim that there are 11 million. That is an old number, and that
number has not been updated. And almost everyone I talk to believes
that it is more like 20 million illegals who are here, not 11 million.
So there is not any real problem on our part with the idea of
``comprehensive reform,'' if we were to say, let's make the system more
effective. Yes, we need border control, for example, and we need to
restructure the visa system because there are a lot of people who are
not only coming across the border illegally but who come here and
overstay their visas. In fact, the largest number of illegals now--
people keep thinking that we are talking about just people from Latin
America. No. We have got people coming in from all over the world--many
of them on visas, many of them sneaking across the border--who have
come here illegally and are currently residing here. That number of
people have an impact on the well-being of the American people.
So, yes, let's make the system better. But let's realize that we are
not talking about things that we disagree on. It has all been about
whether you legalize the status of people who are here illegally.
But let's just note this: We have no apologies to make about the
generosity of the American people with our current system of
immigration. Yes, it needs to be reformed and made more efficient. But
we provide for over a million immigrants to come into our country
legally every year.
To put that into perspective, that is more than all of the legal
immigration into other countries, into every country of the world,
combined. So we permit more legal immigration than every other country
of the world combined. But yet over and over again, we are made to feel
guilty, that we in some way should feel guilty about our immigration
system and about the fact that you have people who are here illegally
and we won't legalize their status.
Well, what would legalizing their status do? What would it do? We
know what it would do for them. These people who are here illegally, if
they have illegal status, they would then be able to perhaps be
eligible for government programs, maybe as part of that. Certainly
their relatives would be or their children would be.
Right now, even the people who are here illegally are the recipients
of government benefits. Of the people who are here receiving--for
example, their children have health care, emergency health care. And
then, of course, an emergency becomes anything that someone is sick
with. And they also, of course, are here, and their children are
educated here. And we have government benefits that people have
managed, if they end up coming here illegally and have one child--one
child then justifies a wide variety of Federal assistance and other
welfare assistance programs to these individuals who are basically here
illegally.
Well, what does that mean? At a time when we are $500 billion more in
debt every year, we are borrowing money from overseas in order to take
care of these people who have come here illegally? That doesn't make
any sense at all. And it especially doesn't make any sense when we know
that our own government programs, our own government programs today, we
are struggling to make ends meet, to make sure these programs stay
vital, to make sure that they have money to function and do their jobs
efficiently.
The Veterans Administration, we have heard so many problems about how
the Veterans Administration had not been doing its job. Well, the money
that we spend on people who come here illegally comes right out of the
pool of money that should be going to Americans or should at least be
going to reduce our debt so that in the future, our American children
aren't going to have to pay it off.
Now, we have nothing to be ashamed of in terms of the overall number
of people coming here legally. But even now, when the people who are
here illegally, their impact is incredibly detrimental, as I just said,
in terms of how much money is being spent by the government on services
to them rather than services to the American people.
And we also know that illegals, of course, do take jobs. They are
working at jobs, most of them. And they are hardworking, good people.
But what impact are they having on the jobs that American people want?
They have actually taken jobs that should be--well, let's say
Americans wouldn't want to work at that pay level. But the pay level
that we are talking about is the pay level that happens when you have
tens of millions of illegals in the country willing to work for a
pittance. They have come to our country and bent down the wages of
America's lower-income people. They have bent them down and taken jobs
that should have gone to Americans.
For example, I know that the hotel and restaurant industry is very
upset with the idea of not legalizing the status of these people. And
let me just note that once you legalize the status of these 20 million
illegals that are in our country, well, what will happen, of course, is
that they aren't going to work for the pittance wages anymore. And they
will start making more wages. And then there will be another wave of
illegals that will come in and underbid them. So these particular
people will earn more money, but the American people will earn less and
less.
And right now, there are many women in the United States who are
single mothers, many urban women who have families and live around big
hotels, but the hotels hire people who have come here illegally to
clean the rooms when there are many thousands of single mothers who
would love to drop their child off at school, clean that room in the
middle of the day--which are the hours that they need them at the
hotel--and come back by the end of the day to pick up their child. But
they are not willing to do it now because those people who work in
those hotels, if they are illegals, are paid a pittance. And the
American people--no, they won't work for a pittance. And they
shouldn't.
[[Page H8865]]
And it will be a good thing if it increases the price of a hotel room
by $10 a night in order to make sure that we have American citizens who
are paid well and are able to take care of their families. Yes, that is
the policy we should have.
We shouldn't have a policy that, instead, brings down the cost of
that hotel room by a certain amount, increases the profit of the hotel
by a certain amount, and is paid for by the fact that American women no
longer can take those jobs because there isn't enough being paid for
them to take care of their family.
Now, of course, if you live as many illegals live--three or four
families to a home--they might be able to succeed or at least survive.
That is not the kind of society we need to build here. That is not what
America was all about. And what our policy should be is aimed at people
who are American citizens who would like those jobs. And if we don't
permit this illegal flood into our country, wages will go up, as
compared to if we don't. And, yes, we should be happy that American
people are making more money.
Over the last 20 years, we have actually seen the wages of the
American people in real terms go down as we have had illegals pouring
into our country. Well, whose side are we on? Who do we care for? And
that is what this is all about. We are being told that we are heartless
because we don't care enough about the people who are illegally in our
country to legalize their status when, in fact, we need to make sure
that we are not doing anything that will hurt the American people who
are struggling right now.
And what will happen if we legalize the status of those people who
have come here illegally? What will happen? Let's say there are 20
million here. I know officially it is only 11 million. But every one of
those people that we legalize the status for are then going to be
eligible for family reunification. There are tens of millions of others
who are going to pour in.
It is estimated, from just the legal people coming in after the
amnesty, that we are talking about 40 million new people, mainly poor
foreigners coming to our country. Does anyone think that it is not
going to have a huge impact on the economy of our country, on our
economic system, on our neighborhoods, on our schools and the well-
being of working people? Does anyone think that 40 million foreigners--
And that is what is going to happen.
When you hear ``comprehensive immigration reform,'' think legalizing
the status, which will then eventually bring into our country 40
million new foreigners, mainly poor people. Well, that is what this
debate is all about.
I would submit that it is not wrong for people, and it is not
hateful, it is not being too concerned about money and material things
to think in our hearts about our own people before we think about the
well-being of foreigners.
What keeps America together? Look, we don't have one race. We don't
have one religion. We don't have one ethnic group here. What we have
got are people who have come here and are a part of the American
family.
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We have to care about what happens within the American family because
we don't have that sharing of one race or one religion or one ethnic
group. What is it going to do if we bring in 40 million foreigners now
to those people who are now part of our American family?
Well, someone says that we should expand the American family. Well,
yes, we could just say: Hey, anybody in the world who wants to get
here, we are going to make them an American and just forget about what
that does to the 300 million Americans who are out there depending on
their government to watch out for their interests.
What would happen if we have that situation? We will have a very
harmful decline in the well-being in their communities, in their jobs,
and in the government services that they are able to collect of the
American family.
Again, that doesn't mean that illegals who are here are bad people--
they aren't--nor are the poor people around the world who will flood
into our country--because, if we legalize the status of those who are
here, you will see a flood into the country.
Just think about this, just the discussion of what they call this act
that was being aimed at legalizing the status of people who were
brought here when they were younger, just that discussion of that issue
brought 50,0000 to 60,000 people swarming in. They sent their children
to the border.
Whatever happened to those kids, by the way? What happened to those
60,000 kids who were down on the border? Well, they are all over the
United States now. And do you know what? In schools in California, we
have children coming in illegally from other countries, and some of
them are carrying diseases. This is a horror story.
Who is watching out for our children? We do care about those 60,000
kids that were there and the millions more kids that will come in if we
legalize the status of our own illegal immigrants here. We care about
our own kids first, and there is nothing wrong with that. We don't have
to apologize about it, and we don't have to apologize also that we have
the most generous legal system in the world.
By the way, for those people who always talk about, Well, immigration
really helps our country and helps our economy, if you look at the
statistics that are being presented, often what you are being told
about are the effect of legal immigrants, which is true. They do add,
and I personally would like to go on the record in saying that I
believe in legal immigration.
I believe that our million people, we can absorb that, 300 million
people, we certainly can absorb 1 million more legal immigrants, we
should refine our system, so that those legals that are coming in are
people that have a means and a skill or an education level, so they
will be contributing to the wealth of the country rather than consuming
it.
There are a lot of businesses that say they need some specialists.
Yes, let's try to structure the legal immigrants in that way so it
meets the needs of America, as well as brings in very highly-educated
people into our country.
When we bring in people who are not that, when we bring in people who
are not producing wealth, but instead are consumers, that means there
is less wealth in our society, and that means that especially America's
lower-income people are worse off.
Now, when I was a kid, I mowed the lawns in my neighborhood. It was a
good thing. You get a work ethic when you are mowing the lawns. I
actually painted houses and dug fence posts. I was an ice-cream scooper
at Marineland snack bar, and those are the jobs kids did, but today,
one of the factors of illegal immigration--and especially if we
legalize the status and draw even more illegals in because now, all
over the world, they know, Hey, all we have to do is get here, and we
can outweigh them--all these entry-level positions, these positions
that are actually giving young people a chance to get some work
experience, many of these jobs are being taken by people who are here
illegally.
They are willing to work at a very low level, and they don't just
become entry-level jobs. That is the job they stick with. That means
that job is no longer available to an American kid who wants to get
some experience in the workplace, a box boy or someone who works at a
fast-food restaurant or something like that.
We are actually hurting our young people, we are hurting our poor
people, the people at the lowest end of the scale, and of course, we
are hurting the people who are dependent on government programs.
Before I go on to that, there are a group of people in our country
that would like to be self-sufficient. They have skills, but they have
some sort of physical disability. Those people are struggling to come
out and have some self-dignity in earning their own living.
Those people are being replaced by people because, Oh, well, we will
just hire this illegal, even if we can hire a disabled person, we can
get an able-bodied illegal in here for the same amount, so why have
someone who has a physical disability?
The people at the very lowest level--where is unemployment the
highest? In our black community and in the Hispanic American community.
These are the people who will be the worst hit if we legalize the
status of those who are here illegally.
If there are tens of millions more who pour into our country--and as
I
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say, it will be at least 40 million--and then when the word goes out
all over the world that we have this surrender of our borders, you can
bet there will be even more than that. It will be a massive betrayal of
the regular people and lower-income people in the United States, of
American citizens--again, the disabled people, lower-income people.
What about those people who have worked all of their lives for
government, who made sure that they pay their taxes, knowing that the
government is going to have certain things to back them up as they got
older or whether there are things that they would need in cases of
emergency, or how about the education of their family and things such
as that?
No, these programs will have so many tens of millions of more
illegals come in because we have legalized the status of those who are
already here, those programs now which are suffering, some of them will
break down.
So how can, with a straight face, people in this body say they are
backing the President's efforts to provide 5 million--this is his first
step now--5 million work permits to people who are here illegally?
This is at a time of high unemployment. We are defining who we care
for. We have already defined who we are as a Nation on how we have set
down a rule of law and whether we try to be fair. We are an imperfect
society. We know that. We know we have got some real problems we have
to solve and work together on.
We are a multiracial, multiethnic society, but our society as it is
will disintegrate if we have tens of millions of illegals pouring into
our country. That is just the way it is.
Again, the poorest of the poor will be hurt, and when we give 5
million work permits at a time when we have such high unemployment,
when we give 5 million work permits to people who are here illegally,
we are actually betraying the American people who are struggling at the
lower end of the economic scale. We are betraying them. It is something
we all need to think about.
We need to say to the American people: we are on your side, and we
want to do things that are right for you. I have been dismayed by that
element of just sort of, not disdain, but a frivolous overlooking of
the well-being of the American people when those people are advocating
comprehensive immigration reform.
Let us also just note that immigration is something that is on our
agenda. We keep hearing about it, but there are special interests at
stake here. The reason why it is being pushed is not just this
humanitarian special ideal, this humanitarian philosophical thing which
I say we have to make sure that those special ideas that they think
they become more human, to give our money away to various peoples of
the world, that it doesn't hurt Americans, but there are also special
interests who are profiting from this.
It is not only a bad idea and a bad ideal that is driving this toward
these decisions, but we have special interests that want cheap labor.
We have people in the business community that want cheap labor. Now,
don't tell me that Americans can no longer work as carpenters or as
plumbers or as roofers. The construction industry slowly, but surely,
now is evolving into where they are hiring illegals. That is wrong.
There are people who can do these jobs, but they will take the lower
pay alternative--of course they will.
There are people that claim that they have to hire illegals because
they can't hire Americans at that. No. If people were being paid more
money, they could hire Americans at those jobs, but we have special
interests that want lower pay, and we have special interests on that
side of the aisle who want political pawns to come into this country to
serve them when election day comes in the future and you have got 40
million new people here over a 20-year period that they will be voting
for their political party.
That is just how cynical it is. Low wages and political pawns are
being pushed. That is the factor that is pushing this comprehensive
program that will be dramatically harmful to the well-being of the
American people.
I would hope that we postpone any decision on that until next year
when we Republicans can debate this issue, go to the American people,
and get their guidance on what policy that they want our country to
have when it comes to immigration into our country.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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