[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 22, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H2291-H2292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SURGE IN CITIZENSHIP APPLICATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, I have spoken here before about the surge 
in demand for citizenship we are seeing in the Fourth Congressional 
District of Illinois. Thousands who are eligible are taking the step to 
become citizens because they feel threatened by a President and 
administration that does not seem to think of immigrants, refugees, 
Muslims, or Latinos as human beings. So the one way to protect oneself 
and to protect one's family is to apply for citizenship if you are 
eligible.
  Some days they are lined up out the door of my office. So full are 
our daily appointments, we had to add a Saturday citizenship workshop 
to accommodate all of the people who wanted to apply, and we will be 
adding additional workshops. At one workshop a couple of weeks ago, 
staff and volunteers worked with families to fill out the paperwork, 
assemble all of the evidence and fees for the application. In one day 
we helped 260 people fill out their citizenship applications.
  I discovered something very important. People keep coming back to me 
and asking: What can I do to fight back? What can I do to help 
immigrant communities who are under siege by President Trump, 
``President'' Bannon, and all the rest of the people who want to drive 
immigrants out of the country?
  So I told them they could help others apply for citizenship, and they 
came in droves--hipsters with funky facial hair, women with pink knit 
hats they made for the Women's March, environmental and LGBTQ 
activists, union members, and just plain old folks from my district who 
are not themselves immigrants but who feel the solidarity with 
immigrants in their community.
  You know what? This new group, after getting a little training, sat 
for a few hours with immigrant families, going over their histories, 
their stories, their reasons for being here, and their reasons for 
applying for U.S. citizenship. And they were pretty good at filling out 
government forms. They formed a bond. They got to know each other. They 
were helping each other accomplish a mutual goal, which is standing up 
to xenophobia and the Trump-Bannon era.
  The citizens and the applicants to become citizens are both worried 
about Republicans taking away their health care and eliminating the 
environmental laws that have made the water we drink and the air we 
breathe so much safer. They worry about where women and girls will get 
healthcare services in cities like Chicago if Trump and his buddies 
defund Planned Parenthood, or what happens after the courts are stacked 
with judges who are so out of step with the modern era on gender and 
civil rights, consumer protections, women's health, and any of the 
other issues people care about.
  Anyone who walked out of that citizenship workshop where 260 new 
citizenship applications were completed felt a sense of community and 
interconnectedness with one another. Now, it is sad to report that 
thousands of my constituents can't spend a Saturday morning applying 
for citizenship. Many of them are at legal clinics or law offices 
filling out papers to address the very fear that they will lose their 
homes, their savings, and their families if Trump's deportation force 
knocks on their door.
  They are filling out, by the thousands, power of attorney documents 
and child custody papers in case they are grabbed off the street, in 
their homes, or, worse yet, in their places of worship. It is 
heartbreaking. Moms and dads are making decisions about who their kids 
will go to live with if they get picked up and deported. Which 
relative, neighbor, or older sibling will be in charge if mom and dad 
are taken away?
  Believe me, these kids know what is going on. The 5 million U.S. 
citizens who have parents at risk of deportation know that their 
government is a threat to their safety and their security. Their own 
government could come to the door and upend their lives at any moment, 
and their parents are preparing for the worst.
  It is the humanity, the love, their striving for a better life that 
comes through in these parents who want

[[Page H2292]]

what is best for their children and what was unavailable to them in 
some far-off country. These are very real people who have no legal 
avenues that allow them to live and work here legally, who have no 
options other than to hide or leave, who have been cut off from fully 
integrating into our society as citizens because Congress has been 
fighting over immigration reform. These are the people that Mr. Bannon, 
Mr. Sessions, and Mr. King have been working together for years to get 
out of what they call their country so that our erratic new President 
can point to deportations and say that he is making America great 
again.
  What is clear from the citizenship surge and all those who want to 
help is that America is not only great, not only kind, not only 
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, but there 
are Americans and those who want to be Americans willing to stand up 
and resist when leaders take us in the wrong direction.
  Mr. Speaker, you will see millions of Americans and aspiring 
Americans marching together in American cities across our great Nation 
on May 1, and when you do, you will see this bond and this shared 
humanity this coming May 1.

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