[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 6, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1375-H1376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SECURING THE FUTURE OF DREAMERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the deadline for the U.S. 
Congress to secure the futures of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers. 
Our constituents, who grew up in the United States, have been here at 
least 10 years, but do not have permanent legal immigration status and, 
therefore, are deportable, vulnerable, and exploitable.
  And guess what? The cynics were right, and Congress has taken no 
action. There have been a few attempts, but the reality is that 
Congress has not passed a bill, and the opportunities for us to pass a 
bill are dwindling.
  How did we get here? How is it that we always end up here when it 
comes to immigration?
  Well, it has been a failure of both parties to act, to compromise, 
and to legislate. But let's be honest, the President doesn't want these 
immigrants in this country, and Republicans in Congress only want to do 
what the President wants them to do because they fear his tweets and 
the effect it might have on their voters in November.
  The President said he loved Dreamers. Remember? He wanted to preserve 
DACA and treat them ``with heart.'' He said he wanted to give a pathway 
to citizenship for Dreamers, and he told a group of lawmakers on 
national television that he would take the political heat and sign 
whatever bipartisan approach they were able to come up with, but he was 
lying, again.
  Just like his conversations with lawmakers on guns after the massacre 
in Florida--also with the television cameras rolling--what the 
President says in public, what he does behind closed doors, what he 
tweets, and what he thinks from moment to moment do not seem to be 
connected in any logical way.
  And when the cameras are turned off, the radical rightwing whispers 
their orders in the President's ear, and he falls right in line--
whether it is with gun manufacturers or the anti-immigration nativists.
  And when you cannot trust the President to have a stable opinion for 
more than 2, maybe 3, hours, it makes it hard for Republicans to figure 
out what will please him and make him happy from moment to moment.
  Bipartisan proposals that could have passed the House and the Senate 
were brought to him and he rejected them, saying that he wanted to 
eliminate various types of legal immigration avenues used by people, 
especially people of color and people from the developing world. 
Without these massive cuts to legal immigration, the President just 
wasn't interested.
  And we offered him money for his silly, mindless, stupid, dimwitted, 
racist wall, but he rejected that, too.
  In the end, this is not about Dreamers, it is not about the wall, it 
is not about border security. Do you know what it is about? It is about 
a deeply held core belief of the President, and many of his advisers, 
that there are just too many people of color coming legally to the 
United States. There are too many family members of immigrants, unless 
those immigrants are members of Trump's own family.
  It is clear that the President doesn't want immigrants who look like 
the diverse and colorful fabric of the world. And he doesn't want 
Dreamers who were raised in the U.S. alongside of our own children, who 
reflect the diversity of America.
  Now, to be fair, some of my Democratic colleagues are just as happy 
about the injunctions in the Federal courts that are keeping the Trump 
deportation machine from fully engaging and going after Dreamers. 
Lawmakers--both Democrats and Republicans--don't need much 
encouragement sometimes to just kick the can down the road.
  But let's not kid ourselves. Relying on the courts to save Dreamers 
is a cop-out, and a lot of people are left out if they do not already 
have DACA. And for the ones who can renew their status, we may be back 
here in a few days or weeks trying to prevent the deportation of 
Dreamers and lots of other immigrants if the courts change course, 
which they may.
  So I will not let my colleagues in either party rest.

[[Page H1376]]

  For now, every person who has DACA should renew their DACA as quickly 
as possible for whatever time they have left. I say run, don't walk, to 
renew.
  I have been here long enough to know that even when faced with an 
issue on which 80 percent of the American people agree--whether it is 
sensible gun control or preventing the deportation of children raised 
in America--it is the 20 percent of the American people who Republicans 
are listening to, and playing to, and tweeting to, and playing nice-
nice with the White House to appease.
  And the rest of us, what do we get? Nothing--on immigrants, on guns, 
on climate change, on healthcare, or on taxes--unless we, as voters, 
simply reshuffle the deck.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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