[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 11, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H304-H305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, we hope for the 
best from the new President, but we must prepare for the worst.
  Everyone who has looked at the record of the key advisers to 
President-elect Trump on the issue of immigration has reason for very 
deep concern that the new President is going to follow the advice of 
some of the most extreme voices in the immigration debate.
  As for the new President himself, he is a bit of an unknown because 
he changes his mind on key issues just as quickly as his Twitter feed 
refreshes. He says he has a plan for this and a plan for that, but they 
are secret plans, and, as far as we know, they are even secrets to him.
  He knows more about computers and the Internet, ISIS and terrorists, 
Russia and NATO than all of the policy experts put together, and he 
thinks of himself as kind of the ultimate Presidential adviser to the 
new President.
  But it is Trump's lieutenants who worry most of us. They are the most 
clearly ideological and dangerous set of leaders ever assembled in 
American Government on immigration and any number of issues we care 
about.
  They are vindictive when it comes to our immigrant community. The 
truth is that among the new President key advisers are some of the 
staunchest opponents of legal immigration. They are against legal 
immigration. That is right.
  While we all oppose illegal immigration, and some of us have been 
working for years to upgrade the American system so that immigrants 
come with visas instead of smugglers, the people with access to the 
Presidency disagree, and they don't want immigrants to come here at all 
from anywhere.
  Look, we have made legal immigration extremely difficult for everyone 
and simply impossible for most people. And then we have been relying on 
deportation, walls, enforcement, and curtailing due process rights for 
immigrants, and that constitutes their immigration control strategy for 
the past 25 years. And it hasn't worked for 25 years.
  But the American people want a humane, sustainable, secure, and 
effective legal immigration system and a way for people who already 
live and work here peacefully in America to be able to do so within the 
law.
  So, Mr. Speaker, this is why I will join a few thousand allies here 
in Washington this Saturday at the historic Metropolitan AME Church on 
M Street to send a clear message that immigrants and their allies are 
standing up for immigrant communities.

[[Page H305]]

  And check out the Web site. The D.C. rally will be one of more than 
50 public actions and marches across America on or about this Saturday 
the 14th, where leaders of the immigrant rights' movement will stand 
alongside elected officials, faith, labor, education, and LGBTQ leaders 
to say: we will not allow mass deportation or immigrant roundups on our 
watch.

                              {time}  1015

  That we do not want endless delays that keep families waiting 10, 15, 
20 years for a visa. That we don't want people to have to choose 
between 10 years in exile or the green card for which they qualify 
under U.S. law because our laws have been crafted to punish people by 
keeping them in an undocumented status even when they can apply to be 
here legally. That we are committed to defending immigrant communities 
if and when the new President and his henchmen develop Muslim 
registries or neighborhood sweeps or mass roundups disguised as 
``fugitive sweeps.''
  We will fight attempts to criminalize immigrants and fight attempts 
to take away documents from people who are now in the system and 
working on the books, like the 750,000 young people who signed up for 
DACA. With the BRIDGE Act, we will fight so that DREAMers are protected 
from deportation and can lead the fight for millions and millions of 
other immigrants who have no options under our current law.
  Let's just be clear, 76 percent of Latinos in this country are 
citizens of the United States. So three-quarters of us can vote or will 
soon be able to vote. And for Latinos under 18, the percentage of 
Latinos who are U.S. citizens is 93 percent. So don't think you can 
deport us into silence.
  Don't think that deporting everyone and eliminating legal 
immigration, as some in the new President's circle may fantasize, will 
suddenly make Brown people disappear from America. We are here and we 
are joined by allies of every color, shape, national origin and segment 
of society. We are men, we are women, we are children, we are straight, 
we are gay and trans, rich and poor, old and young, and everything in 
between; and we are locking arms with all of our allies to say that 
when you come for any of us, we will force you to come for all of us. 
We are here to stay and we stand together.
  I ask all of those interested to please go to the Web site, 
www.togetherforimmigrants.com. Join us this Saturday.

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