[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

[[Page S1258]]

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