[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 194 (Thursday, December 5, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H9290-H9291]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMMIGRATION POLICY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Grothman) for 30 minutes.
Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, obviously, most of the newspapers,
insofar as people still read newspapers, most of the TV shows in the
last month have focused on the impeachment hearings. And we all know
that, at the end of the day, impeachment or no impeachment, President
Trump is not going to be removed in the next year.
So the question is: Why are we spending so much time on impeachment?
I have felt, in the long-term future of America, the most significant
thing going on right now is what is going on with immigration policy in
the United States; and as long as this impeachment hearing has taken
the top of the page in the newspaper, immigration is at the bottom of
the page.
I believe one of the primary reasons for keeping immigration from the
public is they don't want the public to know what is going on in
immigration or what isn't going on in Congress with regard to
immigration.
At its worst, we allowed over 140,000 people in this country in May.
President Trump has been asking for help in this crisis, and he has
gotten no--or virtually no help from Congress. Nevertheless, things
that President Trump has done on his own have reduced that figure, if
only temporarily.
I mention again, 145,000 people caught and processed in May and
probably over another 10,000 people not even processed. That number has
gone down to around 45,000 in September, and we believe it will be even
lower in October. This is largely because of things that President
Trump has done on his own.
He has negotiated with the Mexican Government--to a certain extent,
under threat of tariffs--to put Mexican troops on the southern border.
The Mexican Government is patrolling the interior of its country for
people trying to work their way north, and President Trump has reached
agreements with the triangle countries of Central America, the
countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and they are
currently taking people coming from farther south who need asylum.
President Trump has also--we wish he was doing more here, but he
began building a wall, and we are working our way toward adding another
450 miles of wall by the end of next year. This is a significant
improvement toward what it should be, but we are still well short of
where we want to be.
What should Congress be doing, or what should we be focusing on while
Congress is spending time debating impeachment?
First of all, we have a shortage of detention beds. So, when ICE is
trying to remove people from this country, there are a lack of beds to
place people in. There is no reason why, given the amount of money we
are spending here, that should not be taken care of.
There have been requests for another 5,000 people in the Border
Patrol, and there are still, unquestionably, people streaming across
this border every month who aren't even counted because we are not
taking care of them.
{time} 1700
But there are other things that can be done as well. There is the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Some people talk about children being separated from their parents.
This is something that Congress can solve on its own.
Right now, if children try to come here, single children from Mexico
and Canada, they are returned to their parents to make their families
whole. In a loophole in the law, if children come here from countries
other than Canada and Mexico, we are bound to keep them and separate
them from their families.
Congress should act, and the same law that applies to Mexico and
Canada should apply to Venezuela or Honduras or Guatemala. We have no
business allowing the current law to continue in
[[Page H9291]]
which people are coming here while their parents are in another
country.
We have the Flores settlement in which, right now, people have to be
released after being detained for 20 days. Given the slowness of our
court system, it is not unusual for people to have to be released prior
to the time when a hearing takes place. Again, Congress should act and
spend time on that rather than continue to spend time on impeachment.
We continue to have a problem with sanctuary cities in which, when we
want to remove people even from incarceration types of facilities or
from jails, particularly from jails, sanctuary municipalities are not
allowing us to remove people, even criminal people.
Congress should act, and Congress has not acted, so that we do not
allow these sanctuary cities to forbid access to the jails for ICE to
remove people from this country.
Another thing that should be done is something should be done about
the credible fear standard and when people are allowed in this country
and when people are not allowed in this country. But, again, Congress
has refused to act.
I want to point out that we can do all these things without being
anti-immigrant.
And something that hasn't been noticed in the most recent year: Over
800,000 new people were sworn into this country, and President Trump is
doing nothing to reduce that figure. As a matter of fact, that 830,000
figure is well over the 700,000 figure of the relatively recent past.
President Trump is a friend of legal immigration, but we have to stop
being a friend of illegal immigration.
In other things that encourage people to come here, Secretary Carson
is going to bat and trying to keep our limited, low-income housing
stock available for our own citizens and not people who are here
illegally. It would be good if Congress stepped up to the plate and
said we are going to put our homeless veterans ahead of people who are
in this country illegally.
President Trump is also trying to put work requirements in the SNAP
program. And let's be honest: If we have a program giving away free
food without a work requirement, that is an inducement for people from
other countries to come here.
Congress should, again, convene and bring bills to the floor that put
a work requirement with the SNAP benefit. A work requirement with a
SNAP benefit, making it a less advantageous welfare program, would stop
sending the message for the rest of the world to come into the country.
So, in summary, there are a variety of things that have to be done
and that Congress should be acting on and that the mainstream media and
even the conservative media should be paying attention to because they
are going to affect the future of this country for the next 10 or 20 or
30 years, unlike the impeachment inquiries which we know are going
nowhere, although the impeachment inquiries are keeping other things
off the page.
We need more detention beds.
We have to change the credible fear standard so that less people are
able to come in this country without doing something, without having a
genuine fear.
We have to change the 20 days in the Flores settlement so we are not
required to release people in the country.
And above all, we have to change the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act so that we can remove children from this country and send them back
to their parents in Central America.
I don't know why, with so many people in this institution purporting
to claim that they want families together, we do not amend our current
laws and do with other countries what we already do with Mexico and
Canada, and that is tell an unaccompanied minor: You belong with your
parents. We are not going to separate you from your parents.
However, Congress is not acting. And I think one of the reasons they
are able to get away with not acting on this is because the papers are
filled with impeachment, impeachment, impeachment all day long.
So, in summary, I hope we pay attention to the number of people
coming in this country.
I hope we congratulate President Trump on the things he was able to
do without Congress doing anything, congratulate him on the reduction
of--I will play with my mind here a little bit--reduction of over 70
percent, about 75 percent reduction in the number of people who are
processed in this country compared to 4 or 5 months ago.
But I also think we have to pay attention to the things that we are
not finishing at this time, and I hope the media and the American
public does not take its eye off the immigration ball while we focus on
the impeachment hearing.
And I really hate to say it, but I do believe one of the reasons why
some people want to keep impeachment in the news is, as long as
impeachment dominates the news, we are not talking about Congress'
neglect in doing what they should do to secure our border and to make
sure that the people coming here are people coming here for legal green
cards, legal work visas, and, eventually, to be sworn in as legal
citizens.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________