[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 3 (Thursday, January 8, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H107-H108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, if you live in Rhode Island, Texas, New 
York, New Jersey, or Florida, I am looking forward to seeing you in the 
coming weeks, and my friends in North Carolina and South Carolina, too.
  When I am not here or in my district in Chicago, I have half a dozen 
events lined up over the next few weeks, and I am going to be going 
from town to town, State to State, talking with people about the 
President's immigration executive actions and what it means for them, 
their families, and their communities.
  In congregations and community centers and schools, and with local 
elected officials, I am going to be doing outreach to educate the 
community of immigrants and also to mobilize the multitude of allies at 
the State and local level who will help millions of our immigrant 
neighbors come forward and register with the government.
  I will not be alone in this effort. Next week I will be with the 
distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island, David Cicilline, and with 
his mayor in Providence holding an event to get people the information 
they need so they can get ready to sign up with the government.
  From Charlotte to Houston to Los Angeles, my colleagues here in the 
House are pulling together events to educate their own communities, and 
I hope to attend as many as I can.
  Evangelical congregations across the Nation, the Catholic Church, and 
my own archdiocese in Chicago are stepping up to organize and host 
events and begin laying the groundwork for millions of people who work 
and live and raise families in the U.S. to come forward and pay to be 
temporarily spared from deportation.
  Labor unions, corporations, small businesses that want to help 
families remain together, hey, they are preparing, too, and mayors, 
lots of mayors across the country. Apparently when Mayor Rahm Emanuel 
from the city of Chicago steps forward to say he will help facilitate 
the enrollment of families and individuals with the Federal Government, 
other mayors say, ``Me, too,'' and good for them.
  We can all help by playing a role in implementing the immigration 
executive actions taken by the President that will help millions of 
people. Congress refuses to pass laws that channel people into legal 
immigration with visas, and Congress refuses to address millions of 
people who have lived and worked here for a decade or more, and they 
refuse to address any meaningful enforcement like E-Verify or at the 
borders and ports of entry because they would rather play politics and 
play to the talk radio audience.
  But at the White House and on our side of the aisle, we are actually 
taking steps on immigration that will address the anxieties of the talk 
radio audience and not just inflame their frustration with the current 
mess. Remember, not doing anything, the Republican strategy, that is 
amnesty.
  We are going to make sure that millions of American citizens can live 
with their family members and that we not place American citizen 
children in foster care by the thousands because we are deporting their 
parents.
  We are going to make sure that more of the employment and tax base of 
the country is on the books, working legitimately for employers who 
have to follow the rules, and that employers will not get to pick 
between a legal job market and an illegal one that is not protected by 
labor laws, wage protection, safety regulations, and, yes, tax 
compliance.
  We are getting accurate information out to people to tell them that 
what the President announced is not immigration reform, it is not a 
permanent but a small step in the right direction within the confines 
of current law.
  As I said during the last Congress--and I am repeating it again 
today--I will work with anyone in either party who has a legitimate 
idea on how to make our immigration system more secure, more legal, 
more orderly. Most of my fellow lawmakers in this body support legal 
immigration, and to make progress we need to break with the group 
opposing legal immigration.
  We need a modern visa system that takes America beyond the current 
system crafted in the 1980s and 1990s. We

[[Page H108]]

need a modern enforcement with an electronic verification system that 
replaces a paper-based system of documentation. We need modern border 
security that works hand in hand with modern visa and enforcement 
systems so that we channel traffic through ports of entry where 
commodities, cargo, and people are inspected efficiently.
  More militarization, more deportation, and narrower legal immigration 
channels have not given us greater control over the immigration process 
and have led us to a number of problems.
  If you are serious about border security, legalization enforcement, 
legal immigration, then my door is always open. Tell me what you need 
to move forward. Do you need more fences? More high tech visas? More 
immigration judges? Tell me what it will take to get this Congress out 
of the current rut.
  In the meantime, I and a lot of my colleagues are going to be out 
there around the country protecting American families from destruction 
and protecting millions from deportation.

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