[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 11, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H1658-H1659]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         OUR IMMIGRATION ISSUES

  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, I think one more time we have to address 
what I feel 10 years from today will be viewed as the most significant 
issue that our Congress has to deal with, and that is immigration.
  Madam Speaker, I want to mention the issue one more time, because a 
couple of weeks ago, I again went to the Arizona border to see what is 
going on, and I have since talked to a leader of the union of the 
Border Patrol agents.
  I say this is the most important issue because our immigrants are 
going to determine where America is or what America is like 10 or 20 
years from now. Donald Trump has made a lot of progress on the border, 
but we have to remember all of this progress--or almost all of this 
progress--is solely caused by our President.
  First of all, let's recount the progress. He has begun to build the 
wall. When I was down in Arizona, I saw 12 miles of the wall along the 
Arizona border. While it is possible to get over the wall, it is very 
difficult.
  The wall is 30-feet high. It is very difficult, and people, I think, 
only in the best of physical shape can get 30 feet up. There is 
sometimes concertina wire at the top, which causes some people, at 
least in Nogales, to get stuck at the top, and it is very difficult to 
get back down. So that is some progress.
  We also have made progress, and we have reached agreement with 
Mexico, saying ``if you are coming here for asylum, you have to be held 
on the Mexican side of the border pending a hearing.'' Not only does 
this cause people not to be able to come across immediately but 
discourages people from Central America or Africa or South America from 
coming here in the first place. Because prior to President Trump 
becoming President or reaching an agreement with the Mexican 
Government, people would come here, say they were seeking asylum, and 
they would be placed somewhere in the United States and never show up 
at the hearing anyway. Therefore, this is the way we have many people 
who are going to wind up living in America.
  And the third thing President Trump has done, is he has put in a 
public charge rule covering people coming here legally, saying, ``we do 
not want you in this country if you are going to wind up taking 
advantage of our public benefits.'' It is not too strict of a law. He 
allows people to stay for 1 or 2 months, if they are on food stamps 
during that period of time--but, obviously, given that we can pick 
whoever we want around the world, we do not--our country right now, 
which is running a trillion-dollar deficit--want to take more people 
who are taking money out of this system rather than putting money in 
this system.
  So the question is: What should Congress do now that we have kind of 
begun to take control of our borders?
  The first thing we have to do is we have to permanently change our 
asylum laws so that in the future when people come here, we know we are 
dealing with people who genuinely have to seek asylum. We should not be 
taking--per President Trump--people who have to cross several countries 
to get here.
  If you are in Venezuela, and you are genuinely at risk for your life, 
what would you do? You would move to Colombia. You would move to 
Panama. You would move to Costa Rica. You won't go through six or seven 
countries to get to the United States.
  Secondly, we have to hire more people at the border. As we put up our 
wall, and as we hold people south of the border who are seeking asylum, 
more people will try to sneak in the country. As more people try to 
sneak in the country, it is more important that we have border patrol 
agents.
  Over time, the drug cartels, which run the southern border, become 
more and more sophisticated. They have spotters along the border. And, 
quite frankly, they have equipment that is superior sometimes to the 
equipment our own Border Patrol has.
  As long as we continue to allow this to happen, the cartels south of 
the border break up families. And they break up families by using 
minors, 16-, 15-, 14-year-olds to smuggle drugs across the border. They 
use these young people as spotters, knowing full well that if they are 
caught, they will not wind up in American jails but just turned around 
and sent back south of the border again.
  Another thing that we have to look at is we should pass a bill, which 
I have introduced in the past, saying no public benefits for people who 
are not American citizens. Historically, in this country, when people 
come here, many return to their country of origin. The reason they 
return to their country of origin is they are not able to find work 
here.
  We ought to across-the-board say, ``no public benefits for people who 
are

[[Page H1659]]

not citizens.'' As far as the few situations in which help is needed, 
that can always be handled by the many generous Americans who do feel 
these people should stay in the country, but it should not be a 
guaranteed right.
  The next thing we have to do--as long as people are coming into our 
country--is get rid of the rule, which is the birthright citizenship 
rule. Among westernized countries, United States and Canada are the 
only two countries who allow someone to become a citizen if you are 
born in the country. There is a reason other nations don't do this.
  We want to properly vet the new families that are coming here. If we 
say that anybody who has a child in the United States becomes a 
citizen, the parents will follow, and our new generations will not be 
picked by appropriately vetting the future immigrants. They will be 
picked by whoever happens to come here.
  Our intent has never been that if you get a green card, that if you 
are here on a student visa--much less sneak into the country 
illegally--that your children become citizens.
  I think it is important that we deal with these issues promptly. And 
I say that because we will go back to the days of 140,000 people being 
apprehended at the border if we have a President who doesn't go ahead 
with these three commonsense measures that President Trump has taken 
time to deal with.
  I implore the press to report any progress on these issues, and to 
summarize again and again for the American public the progress that is 
made by President Trump and what would happen if President Trump would 
leave. It would result in a permanent change of America.
  Again, we want immigrants. President Trump has increased the number 
of people being legally sworn in this country over the last few years, 
but we have to pick our immigrants. And if we do not pick our 
immigrants, we are going to wind up permanently changing an America in 
which we do not like.

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