[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 26, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H2804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                KEEP LIBERIAN COMMUNITY HERE IN AMERICA

  (Mr. PHILLIPS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PHILLIPS. Madam Speaker, our Nation is the land of promise and 
the land of opportunity. We open our doors to the tired, to the poor, 
and to the huddled masses. And, for decades, we have opened our doors 
to Liberian refugees fleeing vicious civil wars and the Ebola virus.
  The Liberian community in Minnesota--my home State--is the 
hardworking bedrock of our healthcare industry. They are parents, 
children, brothers, sisters, workers, businessowners, and taxpayers.
  In 1999, they were given a special immigration status in the United 
States: deferred enforced departure, or DED. They work legally, they 
pay taxes, but currently have no pathway to citizenship.
  Madam Speaker, if you are here legally, play by the rules, and 
contribute to your community, you should have nothing to fear. But if 
we don't act by March 31, the Liberian community's DED status will 
expire. It will subject our friends and our neighbors to deportation, 
and our community is terrified.
  Since its inception, DED has been a bipartisan issue. Both Republican 
and Democratic Presidents have acted to extend it for two decades. Now 
it is our turn.
  This week, we have the chance to send a legislative fix to the 
President's desk. I urge all of us, on both sides of the aisle, to do 
the right thing, the humane thing, and keep our Liberian community here 
in their homes in the United States of America.

                          ____________________