[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 196 (Wednesday, December 12, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H10107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                        GIFT TO AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, today, I remind my colleagues of a 
President who reminded us of the shining city on a Hill. I remind our 
colleagues of a President who led us to a kinder and gentler society. 
So I am stunned to hear the President speak of claiming to be asking 
for the government to be shut down.
  This is a season where many in our Nation draw together with families 
and worship and celebrate. It is a very honored time. People of the 
Christian faith are engaged in the recognition and acknowledgment of 
the birth of baby Jesus. It is a holy time. It is a time when families 
need resources. Government workers need to ensure that their families 
are provided for, but also we must ensure that our government is 
provided for. I thank the Speaker-elect and the Democratic leader in 
the Senate, the other body, for recognizing that we do not want a 
shutdown.
  To those who speak of the necessity of a wall, let me speak as a 
Representative of a border State who has been to the border so many 
times, I cannot count. I count those on the border, among many of the 
States, as friends, having been to every border State. I will say to 
the American people: There is no foreign war or attack at the southern 
border.
  We have a northern border as well, and I have been there. There is no 
wall there.
  The only thing that is at the southern border are mothers and 
children living in desperate, devastating, and disgusting conditions, 
and unaccompanied children fleeing from the decapitation of their 
brothers or fathers, fleeing politically because they disagree with the 
viciousness of cartels and refuse to accept their membership.
  That is where America's best angels come in, when we rise to the 
higher occasion of giving refuge and opportunity to those who are 
fleeing political persecution. Here is how we do it. We process asylum 
seekers. We do not undermine their process. They are fleeing for their 
lives.
  To juxtapose a stagnant wall to the lives of those fleeing political 
persecution is untenable. It is crucial that we design a comprehensive 
immigration reform policy. It is crucial that the acknowledgment that 
barriers of certain kinds--technology and personnel--can be a 
successful formula to ensure the safety and security of the American 
people. But at the same time, I insist that we regulate or bring into 
regular order Dreamers, who are firefighters, soldiers, lawyers, 
doctors, and family members throughout the Nation. Where is the call 
for that?
  It is important that we remain a nation that people flee to because 
of the wonderful values of democracy, the underpinnings of the dignity 
of all people. It is sad at this time that we have not come to that 
conclusion in a bipartisan manner.
  So I extend the olive branch. What are we doing for the Dreamers? Why 
is it not reasonable to construct a funding process or scheme or 
formula that ensures that kind of bipartisanship and security?
  Let me also encourage my colleagues to join me in working in a 
bipartisan way to pass the Violence Against Women Act. We are reaching 
out. It is a crucial initiative. Right now, there are family members 
dying at the hands of domestic violence.
  There are law enforcement officers, including my own chief, who asked 
me about the funding of the STOP grants that are utilized for 
organizations that will protect these families subjected to violence, 
such as Native Americans, with healthcare for VAWA victims and ensuring 
that the person who has already been convicted of abuse does not have 
random access to a weapon, which is the weapon of choice that kills a 
family member.
  Finally, let me say I hope that we can bring, Mr. Speaker, conclusion 
to a sentencing and prison reform bill that I have worked very hard on.
  Why not give a gift to the American people--not a shutdown, but a 
bipartisan step, one by one, to make America an even greater country 
than it already is

                          ____________________