[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 7, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H969-H971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      BRINGING JUSTICE TO DREAMERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, once again I am honored to stand 
in the well of the House of Representatives.
  I have been blessed and fortunate enough to stand here and to have 
the opportunity to vote on some of the great issues of our time. I am 
proud to say that I was here to vote on the Affordable Care Act, and I 
am proud to say that I still stand behind the Affordable Care Act.
  I was here to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay legislation. I 
still stand behind what we did on that great occasion.
  I was here to vote on a good many pieces of legislation, but I must 
tell you, Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to have been here today to see 
the Honorable Nancy Pelosi as she took a stand for those who cannot be 
here to stand for themselves. She took a stand for the DREAMers, and 
not only did she speak for them and stand up for them, she also 
literally took a stand on her feet for more than 8 hours in heels.
  Mr. Speaker, that is a part of history that I will forever remember, 
and I am proud to have been here, not in the room for the entirety of 
the time, I must tell you. A good many of us were afforded the 
opportunity to go in and out, but she stood there for the entirety of 
the 8 hours and spoke eloquently about the needs of the DREAMers, spoke 
eloquently about the things that they have done to make our country a 
better place, spoke eloquently about how America the Beautiful is a 
more beautiful America because they are here.
  I would like to associate myself with her comments. I believe that 
she is a part of that avant garde that will ultimately bring justice to 
those young people who came here, not of their own volition, but who 
came here with someone, some parent, some significant other, some 
person who had care, custody, and control, and who have done all of the 
right things, save having been born here, and deserve an opportunity to 
remain in this country.
  So, Ms. Pelosi, wherever you are, I want you to know that I have 
great admiration for you and I adore you for what you have done 
tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here to also speak on behalf of a constituent, Mr. 
Jose Escobar. Mr. Speaker, he is my constituent. He lived in my 
congressional district. I do regret that he has been deported to El 
Salvador, but notwithstanding the distance between us, he is still my 
constituent, just as I had a constituent who was detained in China.

  Notwithstanding the distance, this was still my constituent, and we 
fought with her husband and her friends and other Members of Congress 
to get her back to the United States of America, and she has been 
returned. The entirety of that time while she was away, she still 
remained my constituent, just as I have a constituent who is currently 
in Syria being detained.
  We are going to fight to bring that constituent back. That 
constituent will be my constituent as long as I am in the Congress of 
the United States of America and that constituent is detained in Syria. 
My hope is that we will get our constituent back sooner rather than 
later, but it doesn't matter about the time. What matters is that I am 
committed to stay with that constituent and make sure that his mother 
and father believe that we are working with them to bring him home.
  So it is, Mr. Speaker, with Mr. Escobar. He is my constituent. He has 
been deported to San Salvador in El Salvador. Notwithstanding the fact 
that he has been deported, he is still someone that I am going to work 
to bring back to this country.
  Mr. Escobar came to this country at the age of 15. He was brought 
here. He came here right around the time the earthquakes took place in 
January of 2001. While he was here, there was another earthquake that 
took place on February 13, 2001. These earthquakes devastated El 
Salvador. There were people who died. Hundreds of people died.
  As we do in this country, we offered TPS, temporary protected status, 
to those persons who came here from El Salvador who were here in this 
country. We didn't want to send them back to devastation. We didn't 
want to put them in harm's way. We are a caring Nation. We showed how 
much we care by giving them the opportunity to have temporary protected 
status.
  His mother sought temporary protected status for herself and her son. 
His mother believed that she and her son had temporary protected 
status. However, Mr. Speaker, later on when Mr. Escobar sought to get 
his renewal of the temporary protected status, he discovered that a 
mistake had been made. It is difficult to know what happened, but it 
wasn't done with any kind of malice aforethought. There was a mistake 
that was made that could have been corrected, I believe, but it wasn't.
  Mr. Escobar did not run and hide. He presented himself. Mr. Escobar 
went to the authorities. He tried his best to correct this mistake, and 
in the process of doing this, he maintained a life, and in maintaining 
his life, he did what ordinary people do, what people do who are young: 
he married. He married Rose Escobar.
  While they were married, they had two beautiful children. He now has 
a daughter who is 4 years of age. He has a son who is 8 years of age.

                              {time}  1945

  His son and his daughter are here in the United States of America, 
but I regret to inform you, Mr. Speaker, that Mr. Escobar is no longer 
in the United States of America because on March 7, 2006, he was 
married, but on March 7, 2006, he was removed from this country. And it 
was done in such a way as to create great sorrow, great pain, within 
his family.
  At the time of his removal, he was working. At the time of his 
removal, he was doing all of the things that we expect a man with a 
family to do. He was taking care of his children. He was a father to 
his children. He was taking care of his wife, and she was taking care 
of him. He was a good husband to his wife. He was, by all counts, by 
all standards, by any acid test, a good American, saving the fact that 
he was not born in the United States.
  But he went in for what he thought would be another visit because he 
had a work permit, and when he went in to visit the government by and 
through his agents and immigration, these authorities decided and did 
what I believe they were ordered to do. I hold no grudge against them. 
I think they were doing what was required of them. They were doing what 
they perceived to be their jobs.
  And in so doing, they detained him. And in detaining him, his wife 
left with their baby in her arms. She came believing they would all 
return home together, but she was separated from her husband, children 
separated from their father, and she went home and she cried.
  But she is strong. She did more than simply cry. She decided that she 
was

[[Page H970]]

going to fight and she was going to get her husband returned home 
lawfully. It was a sad day, however, in her life to know that her 
children would not see their father for some time and did not have the 
opportunity to say good-bye.
  Her son wanted to know: Where is my father? And she had to give an 
explanation to her son, an explanation that did not meet with the 
circumstance, but he was young and she did not choose to tell him that 
agents of the government had taken their father away from them, the son 
and the daughter.
  So she told him that he was away. She allowed him to have the hope 
that he would return. She was hurt. He was sad. The father was taken 
away with $20 in his pocket and the clothes on his back, taken to a 
country that he had not been in for some 16 years. He had lived longer 
in this country than he lived in El Salvador. Dropped off at the 
airport in El Salvador with $20 in his pocket and the clothes on his 
back in a country where the gangs are, by definition, terrorists. Legal 
definition, they are classified as terrorists, where they extort, where 
they do harm, such harm and such extortion that many people leave the 
country to save their children and prevent them from becoming a part of 
the terrorist gangs that roam the streets.
  He knew that he had to leave that airport before it was dark; hence, 
he decided to collaborate with others who were similarly situated. They 
put their money together and they acquired the services of a taxi to 
get them out of the heart of the city, to get them out into an area 
where they thought that they might have some degree of security.
  It cost him the entire $20, but there was someone that he was able to 
call who met him and took him to a place of safety. Even to this day he 
does not traverse certain areas. To this day, he does not have the 
sense of security that you and I have, Mr. Speaker.
  So he is still my constituent. He went to El Salvador, not by choice, 
dropped off at an airport, $20 in his pocket and the clothes on his 
back.
  His wife came to our office and has asked for our help, and we are 
going to help, and we are helping. Just this last weekend, I went to El 
Salvador to see my constituent. I was there to assure him that we are 
still with him, that we are still working to bring him back to this 
country lawfully.
  He was married, had children. His wife is an American citizen. His 
children are American citizens. He came here, thought he had TPS--
temporary protected status--did not, but did not run, did not hide.
  He thought that the President was sincere when he said he was going 
to go after the bad guys; he was going to go after the criminals. He 
did not believe that when the President said ``criminals,'' it meant 
Jose Escobar who only had a speeding ticket. He didn't think that that 
would apply to him, the notion that the President would go after 
criminals, those who had committed serious offenses, a traffic offense 
never thought to be the kind of offense that would get him deported, 
extradited, evicted from this country after having been here longer 
than he had lived in El Salvador.
  Yes, he came without inspection is the proper terminology, as I 
understand it. But he came without proper documents, he did. While 
here, he behaved, complied, thought that he was going to go in for an 
indication that he was still going to have his job and stay with his 
family. This is what he thought.
  So I went to see him, and his wife was with me. We met with him for 
approximately 3 hours. We found out that he is still living in a state 
of insecurity. We found out that he is not able to have the kind of 
employment that he needs so that he can send money back to take care of 
his family. We found out that he still has hope, that he still has 
dreams, that he still believes that he should be united with his 
family. He believes that this country will still live up to the ideals 
that we have expressed and extolled. He still believes that those who 
say that they believe in family values will value the family that he 
has and will want to see him reunited with his family.
  The law says it can be done. We are going to pursue it. We are going 
to file legislation to ask that my colleagues here in Congress join us 
in not only helping this Escobar, but all of the Jose Escobars who are 
similarly situated, torn apart from their families.
  We are a country of family values. We have at least one party, and I 
believe both, but one party that prides itself on family values. How 
can we allow this kind of atrocity to continue and persist if we are 
the party that believes in family values? We must do what we can to 
make it clear to those who don't understand that we will change this 
circumstance.

  There are some who will say that you can't get this kind of thing 
done. I differ. But let's assume for a moment that it can't be. I don't 
believe this. I believe that we can get Mr. Escobar reunited with his 
family, but let's assume for a moment that we can't.
  Then when you can't, and you know it is a righteous cause, you have 
got a duty to do all that you can. We must do all that we can to 
prevent families from being torn apart. This is why I went to El 
Salvador, to assure Mr. Escobar. This is why I am on the floor of the 
House tonight, because I want my colleagues to know that we will file 
legislation to aid, assist, and protect the Escobars of the world.
  We are living in some very difficult times. We are living in times 
now such that people will negotiate with the lives of people, negotiate 
with the lives of the Jose Escobars. You give me a wall, and I will 
give you freedom for Mr. Escobar or the Escobars of the world, the 
DREAMers of the world.
  Let's negotiate. Let's put their freedom, their liberty, their sense 
of dignity on the line. You want their dignity? You want them to have a 
sense of security? Give me a wall. I will trade you a wall for their 
security and their dignity. These are difficult times.
  Voltaire, the great French philosopher, has an adage that reminds us 
that those who can make you believe absurdities can cause you to commit 
atrocities.
  It is absurd to conclude that we are doing a righteous thing when we 
separate a father from his wife and children under the circumstances 
that Mr. Escobar suffers under, circumstances that he, quite frankly, 
didn't create himself. He came here as a child--circumstances that we 
ought to acknowledge and we ought to want to do something about, 
circumstances that ought to say to us we ought not negotiate with the 
lives of human beings.
  This is a difficult time for our country. This is an absurdity. And 
remember, people who can convince you that an absurdity is the right 
thing can convince you to do things that are going to be harmful to 
good, decent people, harmful to the Jose Escobars of the world.
  So I am here tonight on behalf of Mr. Escobar and the many Escobars 
of the world because I don't want an absurdity to become an atrocity, a 
greater atrocity than it is. And I would hope that my colleagues would 
reconsider this notion of negotiating with the lives of people.
  When history looks back upon this, when those who look back upon us 
through the vista of time, through the window of the years, they are 
going to see that at this time, in 2018, there were people negotiating 
with the lives of people and they thought that it was a legitimate 
thing to do.
  I am not going to fight about a wall that really is a false fence of 
security. I am not going to fight you about that. I am going to believe 
that when there were other people who were suffering and needed help, 
there were people who were willing to come forward and make sacrifices 
for them.

                              {time}  2000

  So, with that thought in mind, I want you to know, I may have to make 
concessions for the lives of people, but I don't want to negotiate. If 
there is something that I will vote on, then I will vote, but I don't 
want to negotiate when it comes to the lives of people.
  I believe, Mr. Speaker, that this is a great moment for us, a great 
moment for us to do something that is more than right, a great moment 
to do something that is righteous, a great moment for us to demonstrate 
that we will stand for something so as to cause the world to know that 
we won't fall for anything.
  We are not going to fall for the notion that you can just play with 
the lives of people. We are not going to fall for the notion that lives 
are going to be measured in walls. Lives are going to be measured in 
how we will impact

[[Page H971]]

family reunification. Lives are going to be measured in how we are 
going to deal with diversity in the visa program. We are not going to 
measure lives that way.
  I don't think it is a good deal. I think it is a terrible deal. I 
think it is an atrocity when you offer me the lives of people, but in 
exchange, I have got to give you $25 billion, and I have got to change 
family reunification such that it is not as we know it today, and I 
have got to guarantee you that you are not going to have to worry about 
diversity as it relates to persons coming into the country.
  I don't think it is a good deal. Someone today said that the 
President offered a good deal and we ought to accept it. It is not a 
good deal for me, not a good deal for the people that I represent. I 
don't like it. I wouldn't negotiate it.
  The fact of the matter is, it is not a negotiation. They are asking 
for a capitulation: either take it or leave it. That is not 
negotiation. But I still say that we ought not negotiate with the lives 
of people.
  Mr. Speaker, I close with this.
  We, who have been charged with the awesome responsibility of 
representing the many in our society, have got to remember that the 
greatness of our country is not going to be measured by how we treat 
those who live in the suites of life, how we treat those who have 
millions, how we treat those who can buy their way into the country, 
how we treat those who have done well. It is not going to be measured 
by how we treat the well-off, the well-heeled, and the well-to-do.
  The greatness of our votes and what we do will be measured by how we 
treat those that Speaker Pelosi--currently minority leader, Speaker 
Pelosi--spoke of in the Book of Matthew, how we treat the least among 
us--the least, the last, and the lost. That is really how the greatness 
of a country is going to be measured. The greatness of America will be 
measured this way.
  And we can play all the games that we want, but in the final 
analysis, when we have to give that final judgment and receive that 
judgment, it won't be about how well we treated millionaires and how 
many tax breaks we gave them. It is going to be: What did you do for 
those who are not in a position to do for themselves?
  Mr. Speaker, I pray that we will live up to the expectations that we 
pledge allegiance to in the flag: liberty and justice for all.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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