[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.

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