[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 6, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H1380-H1381]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Espaillat) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, I am glad to see yet another member of 
our Congressional Hispanic Caucus presiding over the House this 
afternoon, as I had the distinct honor of doing yesterday.
  Madam Speaker, I have the privilege of serving as the whip of the 
Congressional Hispanic Caucus during this, the 116th congressional 
session, which is the most diverse in the history of this august body.
  This Congress, we celebrate the largest class of Latino Members of 
Congress in the history of the United States of America.
  We are proud of the diversity and the talent in our caucus. We boast 
about Members representing communities across our Nation, from as far 
as Guam to the Northern Mariana Islands; leaders from all walks of 
life--doctors, lawyers, labor organizers, teachers, clean-energy 
experts--leaders of all different Hispanic heritage, some born right 
here in the United States and others who came here with their families 
to pursue the American Dream from Mexico; from Puerto Rico; from 
Guatemala; from Cuba; some Portuguese; some Ecuadorian, as yourself, 
Madam Speaker; and, of course, from the Dominican Republic, as myself.

  As the CHC's whip, I want to showcase this incredible diversity of 
talent, expertise, and culture. That is why we are organizing these 
monthly CHC special order hours. Each month, Members of our caucus will 
join me to discuss a set of issues affecting Hispanic communities 
across America.
  The issue we are discussing tonight will come as no surprise to 
anyone: the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
  The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has been working over the past few 
weeks to lay out our border immigration reform principles, and we have 
been working closely with House leadership as policies are put forward 
on this critical issue.
  Tonight, you will hear from a number of colleagues in the CHC about 
why we believe we must fix our broken immigration system, but first, 
let me start with a brief history.
  Let me start with the history of a young Guatemalan mom named Yeni 
Gonzalez. Madam Speaker, last night in this very Chamber, we heard from 
the President of the United States, and, once again, he painted 
immigrants as violent criminals, claiming that the only way to keep 
America safe is a useless, medieval wall along our southern border.
  By all accounts, President Trump has made immigrants demons. He has 
demonized immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, as a central 
theme of his presidency, and last night was, by no means, any 
exception.
  As a former undocumented immigrant myself, I see it as my mission to 
counter the many lies coming from the White House pertaining to 
immigrants. One of the ways we can do that is to introduce the American 
people to immigrants and to tell them our compelling stories.
  That is why I brought, as my guest, to the State of the Union this 
young Guatemalan mom, Yeni Gonzalez, one of the many people impacted by 
the Trump administration's hateful and heartless zero tolerance policy.
  Yeni and her family, as I said earlier, are refugees from Guatemala. 
Yeni is from a small agricultural town and grew fearful for her 
children's safety as violence continued to surge in her community and 
throughout Central America.
  In the face of break-ins at her home and worried that violent gangs 
would try to recruit her 11-year-old son, Yeni did what any mom would 
do, what any reasonable mom would do; She chose to seek safety.
  Yeni got herself and her children all the way through Mexico and up 
to Yuma, Arizona, where she was apprehended by Border Patrol.
  She was not charged with a single crime. No one pressed any charges 
against her. Still, she was taken into custody and placed in an 
immigration detention facility where our own American government 
treated her in ways in which we condemn other governments across the 
world for treating others.

                              {time}  1430

  The facility she was held in became known as the Icebox, and I want 
to tell the American people what that is, the Icebox. Because it is so 
brutal and so uncomfortably cold, many immigrants who were held there 
called it the Icebox.
  According to Yeni, no one was given any food to eat for 2 straight 
days, not even her young children. A few days later, Yeni watched as 
her children were being released from detention, but she was forced to 
stay; and what is worse, no one would tell her where they were being 
sent to.
  Imagine just for a moment, Madam Speaker, you fled your home, the 
only place you have ever known, because it is no longer safe to be 
there, with your children. You travel a long journey, nearly 1,000 
miles, just to get your kids to a place that is safe. You arrive in 
this new place hoping to find some security, and what happens to you? 
You are locked up in a freezing cell called the Icebox, given no food 
to eat, and have your children sent off without you knowing where they 
really are. You left a violent place to give your children a better, 
safer life, and you have them taken away from you.
  The horrors this woman was forced to suffer are beneath the values 
upon which this great Nation was founded. But despite the cruel 
policies of the current administration, the kindness and good will of 
the American people has not, for one moment, wavered.
  Yeni was eventually released and able to touch base with a relative 
in North Carolina. She found out her children were sent to a facility 
in my own congressional district in Manhattan, in Harlem. And through 
the work and support of volunteers, complete strangers who never met 
her before, just trying to do the right things and right the wrongs of 
their government, Yeni was driven all the way across the country. It 
was a cross-country trip that she took to finally reunite with her 
children.
  I was able to work with her attorneys and the foster care facility to 
finally

[[Page H1381]]

reunite Yeni and her children. It was a touching moment for everyone 
involved to see Yeni finally reunited with her family.
  Those volunteers, they are the America that I have come to know and 
love. Those people who put their own needs aside to help a complete 
stranger whom they knew nothing about, only that she was in distress, 
represent the values that America stands for. As a father and as a 
former undocumented immigrant myself, I was proud to play even a small 
role in this incredible story.
  You see, Madam Speaker, a woman seeking refuge for the safety of her 
children is not some violent criminal, as was portrayed here last night 
by the President of the United States. No matter what he said here last 
night, Yeni Gonzalez is not a violent criminal. And if you have ever 
seen a mother in distress for the safety of her children, you know that 
no wall, no matter how high, will stop her.
  And now it is our duty to deal with the many immigration myths that 
were perpetrated on this floor last night as America watched.
  Now, let me say to you that I want to begin a bit of immigration myth 
busting, and I hope that President Trump and his acolytes at FOX News 
are watching because they could use this important lesson.
  We will start with my favorite, myth number one: immigrants are 
violent criminals--false. In fact, all immigrants, documented or 
undocumented, actually commit far less crime, lower rates of crime than 
any native-born Americans or any naturalized Americans like you and I, 
Madam Speaker.
  As you can see, this chart, published by the Cato Institute, shows 
that undocumented criminals commit crimes at far less than half the 
rate of native-born U.S. citizens. Undocumented immigrants commit 
crimes at even lower rates.
  Now, when you think about this, it makes perfect sense. So many 
immigrants come to the United States, in the first place, to flee 
strife in their own countries of origin. Why would anyone fleeing crime 
and violence just commit a crime in the new country that has harbored 
them?
  I don't know of any immigrant, man or woman, who leaves their house 
to go to work seeking to get arrested, to then be deported. That is a 
myth, and it is irrational.
  Myth number two: the number of undocumented immigrants is growing due 
to a porous southern border and people are flowing in--again, false.
  Not only has the number of undocumented immigrants decreased over the 
past few years, but the way most undocumented immigrants arrive in the 
U.S. has completely changed from what it was just 15 years ago. The 
data shows that only half as many people arrive by crossing our border 
as those who legally enter the United States and overstay their visa, 
and the number of those crossing at the Mexican border continues to 
decrease.
  Finally, myth number three: there is a crisis at our southern 
border--again, false.
  As you can see right here in this chart, Madam Speaker, the data 
shows border crossings are at a historic low. Unlike what the President 
said here last night, unlike what he tweets on any given night, there 
is no crisis at the border. This has been fabricated. In fact, border 
crossings are at a historic low.
  Only a third as many people were apprehended and turned away from the 
border in 2017 as there were in 2005. The only crisis at the border is 
the humanitarian crisis that the President, himself, has created.
  So now that we have dispelled some of these myths, let's talk about 
what we need to do to actually fix our broken immigration system.
  First and foremost, we must protect Dreamers. Dreamers are young 
people who came here at a very young age. They are doctors; they are 
homeowners and small business owners; they are police officers; they 
are members of our Armed Forces; they are teachers--and they deserve to 
stay here in our Nation.
  Democrats have been talking about this for years, and President Obama 
did what he could in the face of Republican opposition to make sure 
that these young people have some stability and certainty. But 
President Trump cruelly chose to take that away, and the Federa courts 
had to step in and say: No, Mr. President, those young people deserve 
to stay here. Now he wants to use them as a bargaining chip, and we 
will not allow that to happen.

  Next, we must protect recipients of temporary protected status, TPS. 
The countries TPS recipients came here from are still dealing with 
extraordinary crises, and we can't just send them back en masse. They 
deserve certainty, too.
  Next, we have to address family separation and the need to improve 
family reunification. President Trump angrily refers to this as chain 
migration. We call it family unification, and we know that when a 
family is together, that family is stronger; and if that family is 
stronger, our Nation is stronger.
  So we want to continue to work to ensure that families are kept 
together, but what he doesn't understand is that our immigration system 
has been made stronger by allowing individuals to have their families 
here with them once they are permanent residents.
  If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle truly stand for 
family values, and family values has been touted by those folks on the 
other side of the aisle for decades, if they truly stand for family 
values, they should support the efforts to strengthen families and 
support family reunification policies.
  Finally, any reforms we make must reduce the outrageous backlog in 
processing applications for legal status. Over the past few years, we 
have seen waiting times grow and grow and grow.
  Since 2014, the average processing time for cases has nearly doubled. 
In some cases, by the time someone comes up, they have aged out of 
their situation, and now they are no longer applicable, making them no 
longer eligible for permanent legal status.
  This administration's backlog just adds more undocumented immigrants 
to our population and is the perfect example of how broken our system 
is.
  Over the rest of this hour, some of my CHC colleagues will talk more 
about the specific issues we must address in comprehensive immigration 
reform. Many of us agree that, to do the right thing by the American 
people, we must start from the same set of facts and establish a shared 
set of values.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President of the United States.

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