[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 12, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H5444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  (Mr. POLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the need for 
bipartisan immigration reform.
  Until Congress addresses our broken immigration system; secures our 
border; provides a pathway for people who have been here a long time to 
be able to eventually earn full citizenship; and provides a way for 
people who are here illegally and required to register, get right with 
the law, and get in line behind those who have come legally, it will 
remain a problem in cities and communities across our entire country.
  There has been a failure of leadership in this body, the United 
States Congress, to actually address our broken immigration system. 
There has been a failure from both sides to provide a pathway forward 
for a problem that only Congress can solve, and that will only get 
larger until we take it up here.
  Last week, I visited the ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colorado. 
I witnessed and talked to family members and mothers who had been taken 
away from their American children over something as minor as a speeding 
ticket.
  We can, and we must, do better as a nation. We need an immigration 
system that reflects that we are both a nation of laws and a nation of 
immigrants. I call upon my Republican and Democratic colleagues to work 
together to achieve this end.

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