[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 28 (Thursday, February 16, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1257-S1258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Immigration
Ms. HARRIS. Mr. President, I rise today, humbled to offer my first
official speech as the junior U.S. Senator from the great State of
California. I rise with a deep sense of reverence for this institution,
for its history, and for its unique role as the defender of our
Nation's ideals.
Above all, I rise today with a sense of gratitude for all those upon
whose shoulders we stand. For me, it starts with my mother Shyamala
Harris. She arrived at the University of California, Berkeley, from
India in 1959 with dreams of becoming a scientist. The plan, when she
finished school, was to go back home to a traditional Indian marriage.
But when she met my father Donald Harris, she made a different plan.
She went against a practice reaching back thousands of years, and
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instead of an arranged marriage, she chose a love marriage. This act of
self-determination made my sister Maya and me, and it made us
Americans, like millions of children of immigrants before and since.
I know she is looking down on us today, and knowing my mother, she is
probably saying: Kamala, what on Earth is going on down there? We have
to stand up for our values.
So in the spirit of my mother, who was always direct, I cannot mince
words. In the early weeks of this administration, we have seen an
unprecedented series of Executive actions that have hit our immigrant
and religious communities like a cold front, striking a chilling fear
in the hearts of millions of good, hard-working people, all by
Executive fiat.
By fiat, we have seen the President stick taxpayers with a bill for a
multibillion-dollar border wall, without regard to the role of the U.S.
Congress under article 1 of the Constitution. By fiat, we have seen a
President mandate the detention of immigrants, both documented and
undocumented, creating a dragnet that could ensnare 8 million people.
By fiat, the President has ordered the creation of what essentially
will be a 15,000-member deportation force. By fiat, he wants to take
away State and local authority by making local police officers act as
Federal immigration officials. By fiat, the President wants to slam the
gates of freedom by instituting a Muslim ban--a ban which was as
carelessly written as it has been incompetently enforced.
In recent days, we have seen an increased severity in immigration
raids sweeping across this country, including the arrest of a DREAMer
in Seattle and a domestic violence victim in Texas. And we have seen an
administration violate court orders, attack the First Amendment, bully
Federal judges, and mock Americans exercising their right to freely
assemble.
I rise today to discuss how these actions impact my State of
California and our country. In particular, the State of California, I
believe, is a microcosm of who we are as America. In California, we
have farmers and environmentalists, welders and technologists,
Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and the largest number of
immigrants, documented and undocumented, of any State in the Nation.
I rise because the President's actions have created deep uncertainty
and pain for our refugee and immigrant communities. I rise on behalf of
California's more than 250,000 DREAMers, who were told by the Federal
Government: If you sign up, we will not use your personal information
against you. I rise to say the United States of America cannot go back
on our promise to these kids and their families.
I rise today as a lifelong prosecutor and as the former top cop of
the biggest State in this country to say that these Executive actions
present a real threat to our public safety. Let me repeat that: The
President's immigration actions and Muslim ban will make America less
safe.
As a prosecutor, I can tell you it is a serious mistake to conflate
criminal justice policy with immigration policy, as if they are the
same thing. They are not. I have personally prosecuted everything from
low-level offenses to homicides. I know what a crime looks like, and I
will tell you, an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal. But that is
what these actions do; they suggest all immigrants are criminals and
treat immigrants like criminals.
There is no question, those who commit crimes must face severe and
serious and swift consequence and accountability. But the truth is, the
vast majority of the immigrants in this country are hard-working people
who deserve a pathway to citizenship.
Instead of making us safer, these increased raids and Executive
orders instill fear in immigrants who are terrified they will be
deported or have to give up information resulting in the deportation of
their family members. For this reason, studies have shown Latinos are
more than 40 percent less likely to call 9-1-1 when they have been a
victim of crime. This climate of fear drives people underground and
into the shadows, making them less likely to report crimes against
themselves or others--fewer victims reporting crime and fewer witnesses
coming forward.
These Executive actions create a strain on local law enforcement. Any
police chief in this country will tell you that they barely have enough
resources to get their job done. So when you make local law enforcement
do the job of the Federal Government, you strain the resources for
local law enforcement and that hurts everybody's safety.
Let's consider the economic harm this order will cause. Immigrants
make up 10 percent of California's workforce and contribute $130
billion to our State's gross domestic product. Immigrants own small
businesses, they till the land, they care for children and the elderly,
they work in our labs, they attend our universities, and they serve in
our military. So these actions are not only cruel, but they cause
ripple effects that harm our public safety and our economy.
The same is true of this Muslim ban. This ban may as well have been
hatched in the basement headquarters of ISIS. We handed them a tool of
recruitment to use against us. Policies that demonize entire groups of
people based on the God they worship have a way of conjuring real-life
demons. Policies that isolate our Muslim-American communities take away
one of the greatest weapons we have in the fight against homegrown
extremism.
Here is the truth. Imperfect though we may be, I believe we are a
great country. I believe we are a great country. Part of what makes us
great are our democratic institutions that protect our fundamental
ideals: freedom of religion and the rule of law, protection from
discrimination based on national origin, freedom of the press, and a
200-year history as a nation built by immigrants.
So this brings me to my message today. We have a responsibility to
draw a line with these administrative actions and say no. This is not a
question of party. This is about the government of coequal branches,
with its inherent checks and balances. This is about the role of the
Senate, the greatest deliberative body in the world. I know, having
spent now a few weeks in this Chamber, that we have good men and women
on both sides of the aisle--men and women who believe deeply in our
immigrant communities and who understand that nationalism and
patriotism are not the same thing.
I know that it was the junior Senator from the State of Texas who
said: ``It is an enormous blessing to be the child of an immigrant who
fled oppression, because you realize how fragile liberty is and how
easily it can be taken away.''
It was the junior Senator from the great State of Kentucky who said:
``We must always embrace individual liberty and enforce the
constitutional rights of all Americans, rich and poor, immigrants and
natives, black and white.''
It was the senior Senator from the great State of Arizona who said:
Undocumented immigrants should not be ``condemned forever'' to a
twilight status.
So, yes, we have good people on both sides of the aisle. I say that
we must measure up to our words and fight for our ideals because the
critical hour is upon us.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma