[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 200 (Thursday, December 22, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H10040-H10043]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. And still I rise, Mr. Speaker. And I rise 
saddened because I find myself on a mission of mercy. I rise to explain 
the circumstance that causes one Mr. Jaime Avalos to find himself 
separated from his wife and his baby in another country.
  Mr. Avalos came to this country some 27 years ago, and he was brought 
here by his mother. His mother was here to seek a better life for 
herself and her young baby. He came to this country as a child, and for 
7 years he was only in this country. He was being educated in this 
country. This was, in fact, the only home that he knew.
  His mother decided that she would marry a man whom she met, and this 
man loved Mr. Avalos as a baby to the extent that he wanted to adopt 
him. The mother took Mr. Avalos--Jaime is his first name--she took 
Jaime back to Mexico. She took him to Mexico for the purpose of 
registering his adoption.
  They were there for a brief period of time, and then they returned to 
the United States where he for some 20 years educated himself here. He 
went to a school in Houston, Texas. He worked, and he stayed within the 
law. For all moral purposes, he is a citizen of this country. But 
lawfully, of course, he is not. Jaime met a woman, a beautiful lady, 
Yarianna. He and Yarianna are married. They now have a child, Noah. 
Noah celebrated his first birthday just recently.
  Yarianna, wanting her husband to become a citizen, and Jaime wanting 
to become a citizen because he has a child who is an American-born 
child and, as a result, a citizen, his wife is a citizen, he wanted to 
do that which would put him in good standing in this country, to come 
out of the shadows.
  He is a DACA recipient, so he had the privilege of staying, but he 
did not have a pathway to citizenship. He came at the age of 1 and left 
at the age of 7 because his mother took him to Mexico to register his 
having been adopted, brought him back to this country, he meets 
Yarianna, they are married, and they now have a 1-year-old child.
  They lawfully petitioned the consulate in Juarez, Mexico, for the 
opportunity to come in for the interview that allows a person with the 
standing of Jaime Avalos to ask for a visa lawfully. He is living here 
as a DACA recipient, and he only leaves because this is a part of the 
process of acquiring the visa.
  He goes to Juarez, Mexico, and at the consulate, they process him. In 
the course of processing him, they discovered that he did come to 
Mexico at the age of 7 with his mom. He has little to no recollection 
of this, but they discover it. When they discover that he came to 
Mexico, left America with his mom, they then point out to him that 
there is a law that will not allow him to return to his 1-year-old son, 
Noah, and to his wife.
  He is now banned from the United States of America for 10 years.
  Some things bear repeating. His wife is here. He is banned from the 
country for 10 years. He is banned from his home, and he cannot return 
to his work. He is literally living in a country that he knows very 
little about. When he leaves the place in which he is residing, he is 
always in the company of someone who can assist him.
  Understanding his circumstance, I decided to travel to Juarez, 
Mexico, to visit him. I did. I was there, I met with him, and I had an 
opportunity to have his wife and his child with us. I saw him interact 
with his young son. It really does cause tears to well in one's eyes to 
see a baby grasping for his father, hugging his father, holding on to 
his father, and loving his father and the father reciprocating.
  It was a wonderful thing to see, but I was saddened upon looking at 
it because I knew that at some point we would leave--the wife would 
leave, the baby would leave, and I would leave--and Mr. Avalos would be 
left in Mexico.
  The experience has caused me to conclude that I must do anything and 
everything that I can to unite this family--reunite this family. This 
is unbelievable that we have a law that will not allow him to come back 
into the country merely because his mother took him out of this country 
as a DACA recipient--he is a DACA recipient now. She took him out of 
the country in order to register him as having been adopted. A man 
loves him. He adopts him as a 7-year-old child, and this law will not 
allow him back into the country.
  There is something wrong when we have laws that will ban husbands 
from their wives and from their babies because they left the country, 
came back, and have always been law-abiding. There is something wrong.
  When we talk about comprehensive immigration reform, we don't talk 
about the Jaimes of the world, people who are entrapped in these arcane 
laws, these laws that only make sense to those who somehow conclude 
that if we could find any way to bar a person or ban a person from 
coming into the country that is a great thing to do. I am not one of 
those people. I don't want to see this happen to this man, this baby, 
and this woman.

[[Page H10041]]

  We have a necessity to engage in comprehensive immigration reform and 
to engage in immigration reform that goes beyond the walls at the 
border. I am amenable to discussing walls at the border, but we have to 
go beyond walls. There are those who want to do more at the border. I 
understand. I am amenable to having that conversation.

                              {time}  1630

  We also have to talk about the other aspects of comprehensive 
immigration reform that will include Jaime Avalos and the many others 
who find themselves in similar circumstances.
  It is a very painful thing to know that we have within our power to 
bring Jaime home or to allow him to come home, yet we have not done it.
  You see, there is another aspect of this law that allows a person who 
has the circumstance that Jaime Avalos has to negotiate to be returned 
home on what is called humanitarian parole.
  This is where you make your appeal. You make your appeal to our 
country. You make your appeal, and you explain that this is going to 
create a hardship.
  Our law allows for this appeal to be granted--it is discretionary--if 
we conclude that there would be a hardship by virtue of a person such 
as Mr. Avalos being separated from his wife and baby.
  Well, it is intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer that 
there will be a hardship when a husband is separated from a wife and 
child, when they have a mortgage, and when he is the breadwinner for 
the family. Yes, there is a hardship.
  We have made our appeal. I am making the appeal tonight because I 
want the world to know, and I want my record to show, that I left no 
stone unturned when it comes to trying to get this family reunited.
  I am making the appeal tonight, and I will be sending a letter to the 
Secretary of Homeland Security asking for the Secretary, by and through 
his good offices, to use his awesome power that has within it the 
discretion to grant Mr. Avalos, to grant Jaime, the opportunity to 
return home to his wife and baby. It is within the Secretary's 
discretion.
  Now, the Secretary doesn't handle all of these cases himself. There 
are people in the office who acquire the materials, review the cases.
  I am asking for the people who understand this and who know that this 
is not a case where a foreign power has one of our own and is refusing 
to release one of our own. This is not the case. He is not being held 
by a foreign power. This is not the case. If he is granted the right to 
return, he won't need transportation. He can get here.
  We are not looking at having to get him through harm's way with some 
form of transportation that would necessitate the Federal Government 
having to make an expenditure.
  This is not the case where if he comes to this country, returns home, 
where he will need assistance. He won't need food from the government. 
He won't need the shelter of the government. He won't need to be 
clothed by the government. He can provide his own food, clothing, and 
shelter, as well as his transportation.
  He only has to be given a document that says he can return to the 
country that he has lived in for more than a quarter of a century, the 
country that he knows as home, where his wife resides, where his child 
lives, where he was living.
  He only needs a document that is within our discretion--``our,'' 
meaning our country--to allow him to return to the life that he has 
known in this country for more than a quarter of a century.
  I believe that we can all, at some point, put ourselves in the shoes 
of another person. I believe that if we say to ourselves: What would we 
want if this were your son or your daughter?
  There are times when we ought to examine circumstances from a 
personal perspective. This is not a criminal. This is a law-abiding 
person who has a baby and wife in this country.
  What would you want? What would you want for your son were the 
circumstances similar?
  There will be those who say, well, he came to this country illegally. 
Well, let's examine this. Did he really come, or was he brought to the 
country?
  He was approximately 1 year old. As a 1-year-old child, he had little 
to say--and I think most persons would agree--about where his parents 
would take him.
  He wasn't brought here by some third party, some person who was paid 
to bring him in. His mother brought him to this country.
  There are those who would say, well, his mother was not right for 
bringing him. She broke the law.
  I thank God that I have not always been as blessed as I am today 
because it inculcated in me a sense of caring, a belief and an 
understanding that I haven't always had what I have now and that, but 
for the grace of God, but for the grace of God, I wouldn't have what I 
have now.
  I am not who I am because I am so smart. Most of the people here are 
not here because they are so smart. Most of the people are here because 
somewhere along life's way, they were afforded what we would call a 
break. It happens.
  But for the grace of God, I am not sure I would be here, but I thank 
God I was born in this country. I love this country.
  I am not a guy who puts the country down, doesn't salute the flag, 
won't sing the national anthem, and doesn't say the Pledge of 
Allegiance. That is not me, but I do defend those who choose not to 
pledge allegiance, who choose not to sing the national anthem.
  I think that is what makes this country great. Every person has the 
right. Every person has the right to choose. I choose to do these 
things.
  I also understand that I am fortunate. I didn't control where I was 
born. I understand that if my mother had been born on the other side of 
this southern border, I believe that my mother would do everything that 
she could to get to this country so that her young child could have 
opportunities and not be in fear of harm from various and sundry 
circumstances that are occurring across the border, on the other side.
  But for the grace of God, it could be me or you or any of us, and I 
am thankful that I have been granted this sense of understanding the 
plight of others.
  I am not a guy who says that we ought to open the borders and bring 
everybody that wants to come into the country into the country. That is 
not me.

  I think that we ought to have comprehensive immigration reform so 
that we can make decisions about immigrants and migrants, people who 
simply want to come to work and people who want to come to make a life 
here.
  We ought to do this. This is what comprehensive immigration reform 
should be all about.
  Yes, we ought to talk about what is happening at the border. I am not 
shying away from that. But I do believe that we ought to talk about 
some other things that are exceedingly important.
  I want to talk about what we are going to do with the Jaimes of the 
world. I think that we have to have comprehensive immigration reform 
because we need to know who is going in and out of the country. We 
ought to know who is coming into and going out of our country.
  I am not one of the persons who believes that we just ought to have 
an open border, to come and go as you please. That is just not me, but, 
look, I respect the opinions of those who do believe it.
  I think that we ought to have comprehensive immigration reform so 
that we can establish standards, policies, procedures, methodologies, 
so that we can have all the things that would make it acceptable for 
those who qualify to come. Those who do not? Well, they can't make it 
this time if they don't.
  So, I am not an open borders guy, but I am a person who has great 
sympathy and empathy for people who are not as fortunate as I happen to 
be.
  As a result, I am making this appeal for Mr. Avalos, Jaime Avalos. I 
think that we don't have to wait until we get comprehensive immigration 
reform to allow him to return to his wife and baby.
  I don't think we have to wait. I believe we can do this under the 
discretion that is accorded the Secretary under the law.
  I believe that comprehensive immigration reform is something that we 
ought to work on immediately, if not sooner. I think that we can see a 
need, but there are other needs that we don't

[[Page H10042]]

see. They are not as visible. Mr. Avalos happens to be one of the 
persons who is in that invisible zone and won't be seen, won't be heard 
of, just suffer.
  We in this country think that families ought to stay together. We 
encourage families to stay together. Yet, we find ourselves now with a 
baby being separated from his father while we have the authority to 
change it, knowing that he is not in the hands of a hostile power.
  He is in the hands of people in this country who, with the stroke of 
a pen, can make a difference in the life of a law-abiding person who 
stayed in this country for more than two decades, more than a quarter 
of a century, and left lawfully but cannot lawfully return.
  He left lawfully because he went to the consulate that I visited, by 
the way, in Juarez, Mexico. People at the consulate are not proud of 
the decision that they had to make to tell him that he can't return to 
his baby, his child.
  They are not proud. They genuinely believe that this is something 
that is going to be reviewed, hopefully, and that maybe we will get a 
different circumstance.
  I believe we can get a different circumstance. I just hope that it 
won't take us until we finally pass comprehensive immigration reform to 
have it occur.

                              {time}  1645

  I am honored to speak on behalf of Mr. Avalos, and I pray that we can 
get a Christmas miracle that he can come home for Christmas to his 
family. I am begging. I am pleading with the Department of Homeland 
Security and the Secretary to please let him come home to his family. 
Let him come home and spend this special time of the year with his baby 
and his wife. Please, let him come home.
  Mr. Speaker, I have introduced legislation that can help those who 
find themselves similarly situated in the future, but that is not going 
to help him. The chances of our passing legislation between now and the 
end of the year are not good at all--not good. This has nothing to do 
with the mindset of a given person or personalities or the political 
philosophy of any given party. It has nothing to do with that.
  It is just at this point in time very few things are going to pass 
this House. This is not casting any aspersions or any sort of 
negativity toward any other persons. It is just the facts. But I do 
believe that this discretionary act can make a difference.
  I will talk to Mr. Avalos, I will talk to his wife, and I will talk 
to them within the next day or so. It is my hope to those who may be 
listening and can speak to the Secretary--it is my hope that the 
Secretary and those who are listening, that we can have this Christmas 
miracle, and that I can give them some good news. I can say to them, He 
will be home for Christmas.
  Christmas is a holiday that he respects, that he celebrates. This is 
a family that celebrates Christmas. I want to give them some good news.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to mention one additional thing before I leave 
this Chamber. It will probably be my last time to speak this year. I 
will mention a piece of legislation that I will be introducing next 
year, this too is very near and dear to my heart.
  I don't expect everybody to understand this piece of legislation, but 
it is pretty important to me and pretty important to a lot of other 
people. And for many people who are not aware of the circumstance, it 
is pretty important to them, too.
  In my research, we discovered that this House of Representatives on 
July 18, 1956, accorded Congressional Gold Medals to Confederate 
soldiers.
  We live in a country where we revile the slaves, those who were 
enslaved, my ancestors. We reviled my ancestors who were enslaved, and 
we revere, by virtue of our actions--that is some proof of it, there is 
much more--but we revere those who were the enslavers. Revile the 
enslaved and revere the enslaver.
  I refuse to accept it. There is something in the way I have been 
wired that just won't allow me to accept certain things. This is a 
wrong that has to be corrected.
  When I say, ``revile the enslaved,'' let's examine that statement, 
the statement of reviling the enslaved.
  What does it mean to be enslaved?
  What did it mean to be enslaved in this country?
  It is almost a word for polite society to say enslaved because the 
truth of the matter is for this to occur someone was kidnapped, 
stolen--stolen from their homeland. By the way, a good many of them 
were sold into slavery by people from their own land--a good many.
  We cannot cheat history; we can't overlook certain facts because they 
are uncomfortable. I don't feel good knowing that people of African 
origin sold other people of African origin into slavery, but it is the 
truth--the undeniable truth. I have to accept the truth.
  I just pray that others will accept the fact that there were many 
that were kidnapped, put on a ship, and then brought across the vast 
ocean. But it wasn't just that simple. It is easy to say those words, 
but those words, when properly amended, would include those who didn't 
make it across the ocean, those who were thrown over to the shark-
infested waters.
  Sharks would follow ships waiting for bodies to be thrown over to 
feast upon. Just to say that they traversed the ocean doesn't include 
how they were shackled and chained, treated like lumber, treated like 
just another piece of property to be brought from point A to point B.
  Just to say they were brought to this country does not acknowledge 
that along the way women were raped, along the way they were dropped 
off at various ports, and that at some point they were sold, families 
were separated. To just say they were brought here or kidnapped doesn't 
speak to how many were brutalized.
  Yet, they were brought here, forced into labor, and they served this 
country for centuries.
  Here is a fact that ought to cause somebody to pause. We enslaved 
babies in this country. We enslaved babies. If you were born of parents 
that were slaves, then you were a slave at birth. Many were born, 
lived, and died, human beings, as slaves.
  It is just not enough to say they were slaves without explaining 
their circumstance--forced into labor, forced to do unthinkable things. 
It was their humble hands that helped to facilitate the construction of 
the Capitol, the White House, roads and bridges, planted the seeds, 
perfected the harvest. Literally, in some cases, fed the masters. Yet, 
they are reviled, and the Confederate soldiers are revered.
  Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask this House to correct the injustice to 
the extent that the injustice can be corrected. If we accord 
Congressional Gold Medals to the Confederate soldiers, then we can 
accord Congressional Gold Medals to those who were enslaved.
  I believe that there is a certain amount of righteousness in this 
House. I have been told that it will never happen, but I believe there 
is a certain amount of righteous in this House for people to see the 
injustice in this. I just believe that there are people who will take a 
stand with me. I don't know how many, but I hope that we will have 290 
because that is what it will take to pass this type of resolution. I 
hope that the Senate will take it up. I hope that the Senate will pass 
the resolution as well.
  I would like to see a President of the United States place these 
Congressional Gold Medals in appropriate venues.
  We have granted Congressional Gold Medals posthumously--yes, we have. 
There is nothing but the will that is missing. The way is clearly 
there. It is just a question of will.
  The question of: Will we revere the slave to the extent that we 
revere the enslavers?
  I believe there is a certain amount of righteousness that will allow 
this to happen. I don't believe that everybody that we assume will vote 
or not participate in a positive way in this type of debate--I don't 
believe that we should assume that everybody that we already assume 
will do this. I just think that there are some people, they have 
principle within that we have not necessarily seen, and that they will 
stand forward and that they will challenge those who would see things 
differently and conclude, no, we can't do this.
  Why? We can.
  So I just believe that there are people of good will who will take a 
stand for

[[Page H10043]]

the righteousness associated with giving those who worked, lived, and 
died as slaves, giving them a Congressional Gold Medal just as we gave 
the persons who sought to keep them in bondage Congressional Gold 
Medals.
  Mr. Speaker, I will be asking for this next year. I have already 
prepared the ``Dear Colleague.'' I have within my hands the ``Dear 
Colleague'' that we will be circulating. There will be some people who 
will be offended because I have said that the Confederate soldiers were 
enslavers. Well, they fought to maintain slavery.
  Now, I know there are many who are going to say they were fighting 
for economic reasons. Well, that economic reason had to do with 
slavery. But whatever you choose to think, put that aside, if you 
would, and just look at what happened to the people. Let's try to 
correct this injustice.
  I will be circulating the ``Dear Colleague,'' and I will let the 
world know the progress that we are making. This is the kind of thing 
that you don't simply put in motion and then see if it will make its 
way to the finish line. I am not wired that way to just watch and see 
what happens.
  I plan to announce the names of those who have signed on. Those who 
sign on, I plan to announce their name and I plan to thank them for 
signing on, thank them for doing a righteous thing hundreds of years 
after the event that occurred.

                              {time}  1700

  I will keep a log, and I will let the world know who is signing on to 
the legislation. I just believe that we need this kind of transparency.
  By the way, it won't surprise me to know that there will be people 
who won't sign on, but I just believe that there are enough who will 
such that this can move.
  My hope is that those who will have an antithetical view as it 
relates to this, who may be of the same hue as I--yes, there are some 
people who look like me who will have an antithetical point of view 
because there are some who are going to say, keep the medal, give us 
the gold. They will make this an issue associated with reparations and 
they will say, let's go for the reparations.
  I am going for dignity. I want respect. Gold can't buy it. I am not 
opposed to those efforts, but I would hope that they wouldn't be 
opposed to these efforts. But I am addressing it now because I want 
people to understand that that will not deter me.
  I believe that we have a duty to the people that helped this country 
become the great country it is. I call them the foundational mothers 
and fathers of the country; those who were enslaved, the economic 
foundational mothers and fathers because they helped to build the 
economy. They gave us the start that we benefit from to this day.
  So to those who would say let's just go for the gold, you do what you 
choose. I am not getting in your way. But this is about dignity, and 
this is about Maya Angelou's commentary that some of us, she said, we 
are the hope and dream of the slave.
  They never had what I have; but I have what I have because they 
survived and suffered such that my parents and my grandparents and 
those that I associate with my lineage, produced me.
  Mr. Speaker, as I close tonight, perhaps for the last time this year, 
as a Special Order, I want to express my gratitude, not only to those 
in this House who have shown me kindness and have been of great 
benefit, but I want to express my gratitude beyond the walls of the 
Capitol buildings.
  I want to express my gratitude to a country that has noble ideals, 
noble ideals. I am grateful to live in this country. I am proud to wear 
this necktie. I love this country. I love it because I believe that we 
can make real these noble ideals of liberty and justice for all; that 
we have, as Lincoln put it, government of the people, by the people, 
for the people. But we have to protect it.
  I believe that all persons are truly created equal, and endowed by 
the Creator with these inalienable rights, among them, life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness.
  I love my country, I just want to make my country--help my country 
live up to these great ideals and, among them, as I thank the country 
itself and the people within it, among these great things that we can 
do would include honoring those persons who were brought here in 
chains, the foundational mothers and fathers, economic foundational, 
foundational economic mothers and fathers of this country, and babies, 
I might add as well.
  This is my last opportunity to speak this year, but I will be back, 
if it is God's will. When I come back, I am humble, but I am not the 
person who is going to be so humble as to walk away from my duty. That 
is not me. I am not wired that way.
  I will be back, and I will have these two--no, I am praying that Mr. 
Avalos will be home with his family and I will be presenting this piece 
of legislation for us to correct a centuries-old injustice.
  Thank you, Madam Speaker Pelosi, for all you have done.
  Thank you, Mr. Hoyer. You have been a great help.
  Thank you, Mr. Clyburn, for the sage advice you have accorded.
  All of the persons in leadership I thank. The newly formed leadership 
that is coming in, I appreciate and will celebrate and work with you.
  But I also plan to appreciate and celebrate and work with persons 
across the aisle. I believe in compromise. I abhor capitulation. I 
don't want persons to capitulate as it relates to me and what I 
present; and I trust that they don't want me to capitulate as it 
relates to them and what they present.
  I think cooperation and a certain degree of negotiation will allows 
us to get some great things done. So I look forward to working with 
all.
  I am grateful.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________