[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 11 (Thursday, January 18, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H480-H481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              GENERAL KELLY'S DEFINITION OF BIPARTISANSHIP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, I had an interesting meeting yesterday 
with General Kelly. Twenty-five Members of Congress, almost all of whom 
are descendants of immigrants who came here with nothing, whose parents 
came here with nothing, sat down with the Chief of Staff of the 
President of the United States. He said, basically, that we are the 
wrong kind of people in America, and that people like our parents who 
came here to this country really are bringing the country down. Because 
when he says he is for a merit-based system, he is saying he is not for 
my mom and my dad being able to come to this country.
  But interestingly enough, all of us who came to this country because 
of a family-based immigration system wound up as being Members of the 
U.S. House of Representatives.
  But he was saying: You know, I am meeting with a group of 
Congressmen, and you really shouldn't be here because your parents 
really are tearing the country apart and bringing it down.
  That is what he means when he says: I want to replace the system with 
a merit-based system.
  And that was very telling in the meeting yesterday.
  But, you know, we want a system that is family-based. That is the 
system the Democrats want because we believe that businesses are 
created by

[[Page H481]]

immigrants and that it is essential for their families to be united as 
they come to this country so that they can achieve American success and 
we can all achieve the American Dream together.
  That is exactly what they want to stop with the merit-based system; 
unless, of course, they come from Norway, then they continue to come.
  We hear from the party of family values and the party of Donald 
Trump, who even employs his children at the White House. The Trump 
Organization, just think about. Here is an organization where the dad 
created the business, handed it down to the son. The son is now going 
to hand it down to his children. But they don't want immigrants to be 
able to do exactly the same thing and follow the same course that, 
apparently, has been so successful for the President of the United 
States.
  Here is something else we learned from the Chief of Staff: when 
people from one party work with people from another party, that is not 
bipartisanship, he said. Bipartisanship, defined by General Kelly and 
this White House, is when people with completely different, opposite 
views of the world work together.
  So only a Senate deal between people who believe in immigration and 
those who don't believe in immigration and who want to end our 
immigration system as it is, unless you come from Norway, that is the 
only way it is bipartisanship. That is like saying that if a Republican 
and Democrat are working together on an environmental issue, it is not 
bipartisanship because it is a Republican and Democrat, unless the 
Democrat and the Republican are persons who believe in climate change, 
working together with a Republican who believes that climate change is 
a hoax created by the Chinese.

                              {time}  1015

  Do you know what kind of legislation you get? You get nothing. You 
get a stalemate. You do not move the agenda forward. But that is their 
bipartisanship, and that is what we learned at the meeting yesterday.
  Look, Democrats and Republicans are working together--Senator Graham, 
Republican; Senator Durbin, Democrat. They put a proposal on the table, 
and the President rejected it. That includes, just so that we are very 
clear, Democrats giving up things that are unprecedented in that Senate 
deal that was put on the President's desk.
  Members of the Hispanic Caucus meeting with General Kelly can't 
fathom supporting the Senate deal. But guess what. That is 
bipartisanship. That is what it comes down to, which brings us to the 
votes this week.
  Republicans might not need our help because you are the majority 
party, we are the minority party. But just in case you do need our help 
in getting a budget approved, I want you to know we are ready to stand 
to help you to keep the government open and to approve a budget.
  But what I learned from the meeting with General Kelly, and everybody 
should understand, is that Democrats are more united than ever before. 
If you want our help on the budget, you have got to release the 800,000 
DREAMers you are holding hostage. You have got to do it. Democrats 
aren't going to blink. We are going to stand by our values.
  There comes a time that, if you say you stand for justice, you have 
to actually take a stand and hold it and not back down, and that is 
what Democrats are going to do this week. We are not going to back 
down.
  Need our help? Release the 800,000 DREAMers you hold hostage. And 
guess what. We are ready to pay a handsome ransom for their release.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks 
to the Chair.

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