[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 25 (Thursday, February 8, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H977-H978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DON'T DEPORT DREAMERS; VOTE AGAINST THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.

[[Page H978]]

  

  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, we sat here and heard the President's 
State of the Union Address in which he spoke about immigration and 
immigrants.
  A couple of things I want to highlight: No, Mr. President, not all 
immigrants are, A, Latino, and not all immigrants, Mr. President, are 
members of organized gangs, MS-13. I know you don't want to be fair and 
you didn't want to talk about the immigrants who are doctors, healing 
people every day in our hospitals; the immigrants who are teachers, 
educating Americans every day in our schools; the engineers who are 
innovating and creating new infrastructure that keep us safe and keep 
us modern in America.
  No, you don't want to even talk about the millions of immigrants who 
toil in our fields, without papers, without documentation; and we know 
and we see the fruit of their labor, both literally and figuratively 
speaking, when we go to our grocery stores.
  Who do you think does that work, does that hard work in the fields? 
People born American citizens? No. People who have come here. But we 
didn't want to talk about that.
  And then, after you criminalized immigrants and made them these scary 
people who come to rob and to maim and to murder, you then went ahead 
and said: And by the way, those who come here legally, sponsored by 
their relatives, by their parents, by their brothers and sisters, by 
their immediate family members, they too pose a threat. You said, Mr. 
President, they come here as immigrants and then they sponsor an 
unlimited number of distant relatives.
  Well, last time I checked, in my personal life, my wife, whom you can 
sponsor, is a pretty close relative to me; my children and my parents. 
Those are the only people that you can sponsor. Yes, parents, children, 
and your spouse. But you said there were unlimited.
  So, if that is a lie, what part of what you said was true? Well, 
virtually nothing. Because if the underpinning of one of your arguments 
is shown to be false, then what is true?
  And then this week we saw this administration go from calling 
immigrants criminals to saying they are just downright lazy. No. I say 
to the Chief of Staff of the President of the United States, the 
DREAMers are not lazy. They may be afraid because it was an executive 
order which many of them feared a new President might revoke and put 
them in jeopardy; that is true. But lazy, they are not.
  They scraped together the $500, went through the background checks, 
not once but twice and thousands of them three times, in order to get 
what you today want to take away from them: their ability to work and 
to live freely in this country with nothing from the government.
  So, if you didn't think the criminalization of immigrants was wrong, 
if you didn't think the demonization of them as hordes of people who 
can bring unlimited numbers of distant relatives--that lie was wrong--
if you didn't think calling them just lazy was wrong--no--you know what 
I see? Barack Obama said he saw people who were inculcated with the 
same values that he inculcates in his very daughters. He made a direct 
relationship between DREAMers and his own children.
  I want to go one step further than that. I don't see my children in 
them; I see fellow Americans. I see fellow Members of the House of 
Representatives. And I know that scares the hell out of a lot of 
Americans that that could be, but it shouldn't because it is the way 
forward. And they are going to come, and they are going to be 
integrated because we are going to get them the one thing that they 
need--that piece of paper--because they are Americans.
  They are serving in the Armed Forces and dying for us today. Serving 
in the Armed Forces. And they are working, and they are healing. Why 
can't we let people who are doctors and lawyers and people who are 
nurses and people who are in the Armed Forces stay? They have been 
through the background checks. Because that is not the kind of America 
that some of us want to see in the future.
  So today they are going to bring over from the Senate a proposal. 
They are going to lift the caps, and they are going to say: Let's vote 
on our budget. Well, I say to everybody, don't collude with this 
administration and deport DREAMers. Vote against the budget.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poe of Texas). Members are reminded to 
refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
  Members are also reminded to direct all of their remarks to the Chair 
and not to others outside the Chamber.

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