[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 14, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H585-H586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CONGRESS NEEDS TO LEGISLATE ON IMMIGRATION ISSUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Espaillat) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to address a matter of 
great concern to all Americans.
  Yesterday, House Republicans recklessly voted to impeach Secretary 
Mayorkas. They engaged in a sham exercise that not only degrades the 
value and the importance of this democratic institution, but last week 
they went through the effort to engage in an exercise to publicly lay 
at the doorstep of one person, Secretary Mayorkas, the crisis of 
migration and immigration which has been permanent in the United States 
of America for decades upon decades upon decades.
  House Republicans blame a single man for a perennial immigration 
crisis caused by Congress' decades-long failure to pass immigration 
law.
  During the Reagan administration, we saw how President Reagan 
addressed comprehensive immigration reform. In fact, alluding to the 
great lady at the New York Harbor, he said: ``It is that lady who gives 
us our great and special place in the world.''
  George Bush addressed the immigration crisis.
  George W. Bush addressed the immigration crisis.
  This crisis has been before us for decades upon decades upon decades. 
Yet, yesterday, after a failed vote last week by one vote, the 
Republicans recklessly voted to impeach Secretary Mayorkas in a sham 
process that, as I said earlier, degrades the value of this great 
democratic institution.
  Even conservative scholars will note that Secretary Mayorkas has done 
a strong job in advancing solutions within the confines of our existing 
immigration laws, which we all agree are broken. Yet, instead of 
working with us to actually improve our laws, the Republican leadership 
pursued a bogus impeachment trial, fueled purely by their desire to win 
votes and by fanning the flames of xenophobia. We saw that play out in 
New York during the past weeks, and we saw the results last night.
  New Yorkers rejected that attitude. New Yorkers rejected that effort 
to divide us. Instead, Republicans must join Members of their caucus in 
critical efforts to actually pass legislation on immigration.
  This can be achieved by passing the bipartisan--and let me say this 
again, Madam Speaker--the bipartisan Dignity Act, which I stand in 
support of today.
  H.R. 3599, the Dignity Act, represents Congress' best chances in 37 
years to finally fix our broken immigration system, and is supported by 
Republicans and Democrats.
  This bipartisan bill contains immigration fixes in four key areas 
that both Democrats and Republicans should fall behind. One, of course, 
is border safety. We all agree that something should be done about the 
border.
  The other one is immigration reform. Components of immigration reform 
that we know are critical and important, as Ronald Reagan said, for the 
future of our Nation. A third bucket is jobs and the economy. We must 
inject more energy in jobs and our economy. Of course, the fourth 
bucket is the root causes of migration in our hemisphere.

[[Page H586]]

  So for border security, we can do a lot by providing substantial 
funding to combat fentanyl smuggling and for border technologies that 
will modernize our ports of entry. Fentanyl is coming in through our 
ports of entry by wheels. Vehicles are bringing it in. Let's modernize 
our ports of entry to ensure that we stop that crisis.
  Madam Speaker, again, we have a solution. It is called the Dignity 
Act.

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