[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H3762-H3763]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PANDEMIC OF THE UNVACCINATED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Suozzi) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, I have two unrelated topics that really 
got me going this morning.
  The first is vaccinations. Over 40 percent of Americans are still not 
vaccinated. I mean, come on, what is going on? We need to wake up, 
America. We need to get vaccinated.
  People are saying, ``I want to live free or die.'' Well, people are 
living free and other people are dying. We need to get everyone 
vaccinated. Cases are rising every day. It is becoming a pandemic of 
the unvaccinated.
  Madam Speaker, 97 percent of hospitalizations are unvaccinated; 99 
percent of the COVID deaths are unvaccinated. We need to wake up.
  There are people using social media poisoning the American people's 
minds and jeopardizing their health in the process. We need to work 
together to convince people that vaccinations are safe and that it 
makes sense to get vaccinated.
  I want to applaud   Steve Scalise and Mitch McConnell for getting 
vaccinated and promoting it to the American people. We need everyone in 
this body to please do the same. You need to get vaccinated, not only 
for yourself, not only for your family, do it for other families, do it 
for the country, do it so the economy can stay strong.
  Please, get vaccinated.


                              DACA Program

  Mr. SUOZZI. Madam Speaker, the second topic I would bring up is the 
Dreamers; the DACA program.
  So many families are living every day with so much stress and anxiety 
because of their immigration status.
  Last week, a Federal judge ruled that DACA must end, causing more 
anxiety and stress for these families. Congress should fix this. Give a 
pathway to legalization and citizenship, for Dreamers, for TPS 
recipients, and for the farm workers and other essential workers that 
make our country work. This is personal for me.
  Madam Speaker, 100 years ago, August 22 of 1921, my father was born 
in a small medieval village on the mountains of Southern Italy. He 
immigrated to the United States as a young boy. He was the first kid 
from the neighborhood to go to college. He fought in World War II as a 
navigator on a B-24 and got the Distinguished Flying Cross. He came 
home and went to Harvard Law School on the GI Bill.

                              {time}  1030

  My father would always say, ``What a country.'' He went on to live a 
great American success story. So, like I said, this is personal for me.
  Twenty-seven years ago, I served as the young mayor of my hometown, 
the city of Glen Cove, New York. I addressed the growing issue of new 
immigrants from Central and South America who were gathering on street 
corners looking for work by creating the

[[Page H3763]]

first day-workers site anywhere on the East Coast of the United States 
of America in 1994.
  I relied on a fundamental American principle: All men and women are 
created equal. It is not that all men and women with a passport are 
created equal, or all men and women with a green card are created 
equal. Every human being should be treated with human respect and 
dignity, and we have failed to address this problem for 30 years.
  Those same men who gathered on the street corners 27 years ago now 
have their own businesses, own their own homes, and their children went 
to school with my children.
  One Dreamer graduated high school with my daughter, went on to 
graduate from college with a degree in biomedical engineering, got a 
master's degree in biomedical engineering, and is now pursuing a 
doctorate in the same subject. But, now, he is suffering every day, 
worrying about his immigration status, worried about how this court 
ruling will affect him and his family.
  Dreamers have been shaken yet again. Let's fix this. Let's do it. 
Dreamers are ready to live the same American success story that my 
father lived.
  Let's give Dreamers, TPS recipients, farmworkers, and other essential 
workers a path to citizenship, and let's do it now.

                          ____________________