[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 20, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H1891-H1894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WHAT MEXICO REPRESENTS TO ALL OF US
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
O'Rourke) for 30 minutes.
Mr. O'ROURKE. Mr. Speaker, to listen to some in this country, and
certainly some of my colleagues, Mexico represents nothing more than a
threat to the well-being, the safety of this country, and to every son
and daughter in every community within the United States.
It is also a threat, some will tell you, to our economy, to our
financial well-being in our homes, in our cities, in our States. This
vision of Mexico and our relationship with that country and where the
two join at the U.S.-Mexico border is dominated by this kind of
anxiety, this scare-mongering, and an attitude of fear that neglects
the truth, the facts, and the opportunities that our relationship with
our closest partner on the world stage truly presents.
It is my hope tonight to share with my colleagues the facts, the
positive truth about what Mexico represents to all of us, certainly in
the communities along the U.S.-Mexico border, El Paso, Texas, the city
that I have the honor of representing and serving in Congress, the
State of Texas, where I will be joined by colleagues who represent
districts deeper into the interior of Texas, but really to everyone
everywhere in the United States.
When I listen to some of my colleagues, who can be forgiven much like
those in ancient history who, not having traveled to distant lands or
across the oceans, could only envision monsters or frightening things
that were going to come and get them should they venture past what they
knew and what was safe and what was home to them, those who do not know
Mexico, who do not live on the U.S.-Mexico border may understandably
have their thoughts and their concerns dominated by this anxiety and
fear.
It is my hope, as someone who lives in and represents part of the
U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border, to shed some light using facts and
using real people, real U.S. citizens, real Mexican citizens, and real
people from El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, which together form the largest
binational community in the Western Hemisphere and one of the largest
binational communities anywhere in the world.
When you hear people who are concerned about Mexico and what it
represents to the United States, that fear is often dominated by two
different areas. One is economic and the other is fear about our
security in this country. Let me lay some of those fears to rest. Let
me address some of those concerns at face value using the facts and
figures from the United States-Mexico relationship and, again, from the
district that I represent in El Paso, Texas.
Let me start with some of the economic concerns and address them with
the economic facts and the economic argument. Some of my colleagues may
not know this, but Mexico is our third largest trading partner. And for
some States--like the State of Texas, like the State of New Mexico,
like the State of Arizona, like the State of California--Mexico
represents our number one trading partner. For many other States deeper
into the interior, Mexico represents our second largest trading
partner.
But the volume of trade between our two countries is unlike any
other, even among our top trading partner, China, for with Mexico, for
every dollar of import value that we bring into this country from
Mexico, 40 cents of that dollar was value that originated here in the
United States, components, manufactured goods that were built here in
America by Americans, by U.S. citizens that were exported to Mexico for
final assembly and manufacture before reimportation into the United
States.
It is why when we export to Mexico, we win; when we import from
Mexico, we win. That volume of trade between our two countries is
responsible for one out of every four jobs in the community that I
represent, El Paso, Texas. It is responsible for more than 400,000 jobs
in the State of Texas, more than 6 million jobs throughout the United
States.
I want to make clear that our relationship with Mexico does not just
benefit border communities like mine or border States like Texas. You
look at New York, 381,000 people depend on our relationship with Mexico
for the jobs they go to each and every morning. In Ohio, the number is
224,000. In the State of Washington, 128,000. In fact, every single one
of our 50 States has a significant trading and jobs-based dependent
relationship with Mexico.
Were we to jeopardize that with harmful rhetoric or wrong-headed
policies, we would not just jeopardize this historic relationship with
our partner to the south, we would jeopardize the
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very well-being and lifeblood for 6 million American families spread
throughout this country.
In fact, if we don't do a better job of facilitating the trade we
have with Mexico right now, we run the risk of losing the jobs we
already have. The Department of Commerce estimates that for every
minute of delay on our international ports of entry that connect the
United States and Mexico, because we are not getting more trade into
the United States from Mexico and out of the United States into Mexico,
we lose about $166 million. For every minute of delay, $166 million
lost to the United States economy.
Now, let me talk about the security argument. I just heard from my
colleague from Iowa that Mexico and Mexican immigrants, whether they
are undocumented, whether they are pursuing a better life in this
country, whether they are--as almost all of them are--net contributors
to our economy, to our communities, to the safety of our cities, that
somehow they represent this terrible threat, the primary threat for our
country, and the sky and everything with it is falling should we not be
able to deport these 11 million undocumented immigrants from
communities like Washington, D.C., from El Paso, Texas, from Fort
Worth, from throughout the United States.
{time} 1830
I would like to share something with my colleagues and with you, Mr.
Speaker, about the effect that immigrants have on the safety of our
communities. As I mentioned, I represent El Paso, Texas, which, with
Ciudad Juarez, forms one-half of the largest binational community
anywhere in the world. Twenty-four percent of the people that I
represent were born in another country, most of them, the country of
Mexico. And I will tell you, it is not in spite of that fact that we
have so many migrants in our community but, in large part, because of
it that El Paso is this country's safest city of over 500,000.
So of all large cities in this country, from Los Angeles on the West
Coast to New York on the East Coast, El Paso is this country's safest
city. And it has been not just in the past year, but for years before
this last one; and for the last 10 or 15 years, it has been rated one
of the top five safest cities in the United States. And that is because
the relationship that we have with Mexico.
The migrants who come from that country are coming to this one to
build a better life for themselves, certainly; but more importantly and
connected to our relative safety, they are building a better life for
their kids. They are keeping them focused on their studies, on
contributing to their communities, on staying out of trouble and
getting ahead and doing better. That is what I want you to know when we
talk about security connected to immigration and when we talk about
security relative to Mexico.
I also want my colleagues, who themselves are taxpayers, and the
taxpayers they represent to know that today we spend $18 billion a year
to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. In the last 10 years, we have doubled
the size of the Border Patrol force, from 10,000 agents to 20,000
agents, and we are reaching, if not already past, a point of
diminishing returns where we can do no more good by spending more
dollars and by adding more agents to already swollen ranks of the
Border Patrol. Let me give you some facts that bear that out.
In the year 2000, we had 1.6 million apprehensions at our border with
Mexico. This last year, in 2015, we had 330,000 apprehensions.
Another way to look at this is that, in 2005, the average Border
Patrol agents on the southern border, our border with Mexico, made 106
apprehensions a year. Ten years later, 2015, last year, the average
agent made 17 apprehensions the entire year; and in El Paso, again, one
of the most critical sectors for our connection with Mexico, the
average agent made 6 apprehensions all year--not in a week, not in a
month, but 6 apprehensions for the entire year.
So El Paso is the safest city. Other border cities on our side of the
U.S.-Mexico border are much safer than the interior of the United
States. We are spending record sums, and we are seeing record-low
levels of apprehensions. We are literally seeing less than zero
migration from Mexico now, and we have been for a number of years.
When I hear my colleagues about securing the border before we proceed
with immigration reform or any other sensible, realistic, logical
policy with regard to Mexico, it begs the question when they ask if we
secure the border: How much more secure can we get? How many more
billions of dollars do you want to spend? How many more miles of walls
do you want to construct? How many more thousands of agents do you want
to hire? How many fewer apprehensions can we have? How far below zero
can our immigration from Mexico reach?
The last point on the security issue that I want to stress for my
colleagues is this one. Despite the rhetoric, despite the anxiety,
despite the fear that is often provoked on cable TV or even in this
Chamber, there has never been nor is there now any credible terrorist
organization, terrorist threat, or terrorist who is using the southern
border--our border with Mexico--to infiltrate the United States. And I
have that on public record from the Director of the FBI, the Director
for the National Counterterrorism Center, and the Secretary of Homeland
Security.
The danger of continuing to surge more resources where we don't have
a problem is that we take our eye and our money and our men and women
off those places where we know we have had threats in the past, like
our international airports. In fact, even at our northern border with
Canada, attempts have been made in the past, and certainly with
homegrown, home-radicalized terrorists or potential terrorists in our
communities.
That is where we know we have a threat. That is where we need to
pursue that threat. It doesn't mean that we do not remain vigilant
against the potential for a terrorist threat coming along our border
with Mexico; but I would argue that, with 20,000 agents, $18 billion
spent a year, drones flying overhead, 600 miles of wall, we are very
vigilant against the potential for any terrorist incursion from Mexico.
Before I yield to my good friend from Dallas-Fort Worth, I want to
talk a little bit about the people who actually live in this binational
community that I have been talking about, El Paso and Ciudad Juarez,
where, between the two communities last year, there were 32 million
crossings. Thirty-two million times someone crossed from El Paso into
Ciudad Juarez or Juarez into El Paso. I thought I would share with you,
through these pictures to my right, some of the remarkable people that
I live with in the El Paso-Juarez community and some of the amazing
people that I represent.
The first person that we are looking at is Armando. I started with
Armando at the end his day as he closed up the plant that he manages in
Ciudad Juarez. Even though he and his children live in the United
States, are U.S. citizens, and attend U.S. public schools in El Paso,
Texas, he crosses over the border into Mexico every morning. He works a
hard day managing a plant there; and then he comes back over into the
United States, where he pays his U.S. property taxes, his U.S. income
taxes, where he contributes by going and helping to coach his son's
soccer game, which is where we took this picture with Armando and his
wife. He is one of these 32 million people that is crossing the border.
He is somebody that has come from Mexico that is contributing to this
country, whose children are growing up here. He is someone that I am
very proud to have in my community.
This next slide shows a picture of Israel. Israel lives in Ciudad
Juarez but attends school at the University of Texas in El Paso.
In its infinite wisdom, the State of Texas granted instate coverage
for citizens of Mexico to attend schools in our communities in the
State of Texas because we know that Texas will be the net beneficiary
of their talent and their human capital.
So Israel gets up very early every morning, sometimes before 5
o'clock, so that he can make it over the international bridge in time
to get to the University of Texas at El Paso, where he is an all-star
student and also works at the Keck Lab, which is one of the premier
additive manufacturing facilities at any academic community in the
United States. These are 3-D printing jobs that are the future of
manufacturing technology. And if we do right
[[Page H1893]]
by Israel, Israel is going to want to spend his life and his career and
add value and add tax base and add tax income and create jobs in our
country, in the community that I represent. That is why I crossed the
bridge with Israel to learn a little bit about him and his experience.
This slide shows a picture of Vicky, whom I joined in downtown Ciudad
Juarez. She is walking up Avenida Juarez. Another block or two and we
will pass the Kentucky Club, which I want everyone to know we did not
go into. It was before 5 o'clock. But Vicky, who is a Mexican national,
is carrying her shopping bags because at least once a month she comes
over to the United States, to my community, to spend her hard-earned
money in our local retail establishments and other stores to do the
shopping for her and her family.
In fact, Mexican nationals like Vicky spend about $1.4 billion in the
El Paso community annually. That supports tens of thousands of retail
jobs and small-business owners that I represent here in the House.
This is the face of the border, the face of Mexico, the face of our
connection. This was Vicky, with whom I crossed the border a couple of
weeks ago.
This next slide shows Manuel, who is driving a load of Werner
ladders.
Werner is the largest ladder manufacturer in the world. They
manufacture about 70 percent of those ladders in Ciudad Juarez. The
inputs for those ladders come from all over the United States. They are
connected to jobs in this country that go over to Mexico. They are
connected to jobs there and then reimported here for export for benefit
of the United States and Mexico.
Here he is crossing his load--his part of the $90 billion in U.S.-
Mexico trade that crosses our ports of entry that are connected to
those 6 million jobs spread throughout the United States.
If we could get those bridges moving a little faster, get more CBP
officers to facilitate that trade, we can get more loads of ladders
moving across, more jobs connected in the United States to trade and
manufacture in Mexico. It is good for my community, good for each of
the communities represented by the Members here in the Chamber tonight.
And the last slide I will show you is Lisa, and you can see that I
jumped into the backseat of her car as she left the plant that she
works in in Ciudad Juarez.
She moved down to El Paso from Michigan about 20 years ago. She has
been working in Ciudad Juarez every day with other U.S. and Mexican
citizens, creating value in both countries, economic growth in both
countries.
And so here we are in her car, about to cross back into El Paso,
Texas, where, again, she pays her taxes, where she contributes to her
community, and where she is the face of the U.S.-Mexico relationship
and why it is so important not just to preserve it, not just to respect
it, but to grow it and to capitalize on it and create more jobs, more
opportunities, more growth in both of our countries.
I thought these five El Pasoans and Juarenses, whom I have the
pleasure of living with in El Paso, the honor of representing here in
the House, might tell you a little bit of a different story than the
one that has prevailed and dominated from people who do not live on
and, frankly, do not understand the border or our relationship with
Mexico.
But someone who does and who is here with me tonight, represents a
congressional district in Fort Worth and Dallas, who understands the
importance of our relationship with Mexico better than almost any other
person that I have worked with, is Marc Veasey. I yield to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey).
Mr. VEASEY. Thank you very much, Representative O'Rourke. I really
appreciate your work on this issue. You have been doing a great job of
really kind of setting the facts straight about this issue.
There has been a lot of rhetoric out there about what immigration
means. And the fact that you have worked so hard to bring recognition
about the economic benefits that the border has, particularly to our
State of Texas, and you have been very tremendous in your efforts, I
really, really do appreciate that.
I wanted to just talk about the fact how important the relationship
is--the economic impact that you talk about all the time--how important
it is to Texas and the United States.
According to the United States Trade Representative, U.S. goods and
services traded with Mexico totaled an estimated $500-plus billion in
2015. Mexico was the United States' second largest goods export market
in 2015. In 2013, Texas, our home State of Texas exported over $109
billion in goods with Mexico, and that was a 63 percent increase since
2008.
It is really hard to argue with those numbers. It just shows how
healthy the relationship is with Mexico and about how incredibly
foolish it would be to try to create barriers between our two countries
that would cause economic harm to both Mexico and the United States and
our border State of Texas.
The United States' relationship with Mexico, again, when you look at
the economic picture, agriculture is something that people oftentimes
take for granted--how they get their milk, how they get their fruit,
how they get their vegetables.
Agriculture is how we eat in this country. I have met with different
organizations that represent agriculture. I just had some cattle
raisers from the Fort Worth area here. They talked about the fact that
we don't have a comprehensive immigration reform bill and how we need
to improve our guest worker program and how it is really hurting their
industry.
{time} 1845
And these are conservative Republicans that are telling me this,
Representative O'Rourke. These aren't liberal Democrats or advocacy
groups. These are people that are concerned about economic growth and
prosperity in the United States and in border States that are saying
that, hey, we have a huge problem here in agriculture.
One of our conservative institutes in the State of Texas, Texas A&M
University down in College Station, did a study back in 2012 that
looked at dairy farms and found that the dairy farms are very heavily
dependent upon migrant labor. Three-fifths of the milk in this country
is dependent upon migrant labor.
I think that that speaks in and of itself.
Without these employees, the study predicts economic output would
decline by $22 billion, and 133,000 workers would lose their jobs. And
what are we going to do if that happens? Like, what are we really going
to do? What are Republicans going to do if that happens, if they were
able to create borders and barriers between our southwest border?
They are certainly not going to make it up with any sort of social
services to help people because they are always hollering about how
they don't want to expand government. So what are they going to do if
we lose all of that money? They are going to do absolutely nothing, and
it would be very detrimental.
Then there is also immigrant entrepreneurship. In addition to
providing a reliable workforce, immigrants are also a boost to local
economies when they open up businesses in their communities. More than
40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies here were founded by immigrants
or by their children according to the Partnership for a New American
Economy.
I want to highlight one of my friends that has a business in my
district, Gloria Fuentes. She was actually my guest, Representative
O'Rourke, at the State of the Union earlier this year. She was someone,
back in the 1970s, that was fleeing her home country of El Salvador.
She immigrated to the United States, and her visa expired. Later, she
became a permanent resident in 1986. And because of her hard work,
working extra jobs, going to nightclubs at night to sell tamales and
tacos, now she has a restaurant chain of 15, all across the State of
Texas. That was done by someone that came here as an immigrant.
Why wouldn't we want to make it easier for people like Gloria to
migrate to this country? Why wouldn't we want to make it easier for us
to be able to exchange and trade ideas with people from countries that
are south of our border?
We are really moving too slowly on the immigration issue. And again,
the rhetoric about the southwest border is
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really hurting our country, particularly when you look at the net
migration and how many people have decided that--you know what?--they
don't want to live in the United States anymore just because of all of
the rhetoric, the hateful rhetoric that is out there, mainly coming
from the Republican side. I think that it is time that it stop because
I think that our country--I know that our country--is better than that.
I just want to thank you for getting this conversation started. I
want to thank you for your expertise and depth on this issue.
Particularly with you coming from El Paso, it is certainly great to
have you talking about this so much and reminding people about the
facts, because there are a lot of things out there that are floating
around the Congress--again, coming from the Republican side--that are
completely untrue and deliberately false and meant to spread fear
across our country. But the fact that you are here and you are
educating the country on this very important issue means a lot to our
State and to the United States. So thank you very much, Representative
O'Rourke, and thank you for letting me share this time with you.
Mr. O'ROURKE. I thank my friend from Texas, amidst all this heat and
the rhetoric around Mexico, our relationship with that country, the
cost or benefit of immigration, that he is able to shed some light
using the facts, sharing the truth, so that we understand our shared
interdependence, shared benefit, and the value of the relationship
between the United States and Mexico.
Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time remains?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has about 3 minutes remaining.
Mr. O'ROURKE. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues who have used the
excuse--because they believe it--that we must first secure the border
before we can do anything else, before we can improve our relationship
with Mexico, before we can capitalize on the shared production platform
that is the United States and Mexico today, where 40 percent of the
value of everything that we import from Mexico originated in this
country, is connected to jobs in this country; I invite my friends who
use securing the border as an excuse not to move forward on immigration
reform, despite the fact that we have 11 million people here who are
living in the shadows, who, despite that, do their best to contribute
to this country each and every day in service to this country and
creating jobs in this country, in serving those in this country; I
invite you to see the truth, to look at the facts, and to understand
that our relationship with Mexico has never been more important, our
border with Mexico has never been more secure, by any metric we want to
look at.
Whether it is apprehension, whether it is the total spent on the
security of that border, whether it is the number of men and women,
20,000, who are patrolling that border with our closest partner--
certainly the closest trading partner in the State of Texas, I would
argue the most important country for the United States--whether you
look at it economically, demographically, historically, or culturally,
I hope these facts, this truth, this light that we are working to shed
on the issue, will help my colleagues to make better decisions, better
policies, and move forward in the self-interest of this country, every
district, and every person we represent, to do the right thing when it
comes to Mexico, to do the right thing when it comes to immigration
reform, and to do the right thing in the interest of the United States.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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