[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5398-5399]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

  (Mr. BACA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BACA. I rise today to urge my colleagues, our leadership, Speaker 
Pelosi, President Obama, to work with CHC on comprehensive immigration 
reform.
  Two weeks ago this legislative body passed a significant bill that 
will help our devastated economy. We cannot forget the other gaping 
wound here, our broken immigration system. We are making a big mistake 
if we continue to ignore the 12 to 14 million undocumented immigrants 
who are part

[[Page 5399]]

of this economy. This is not something that we should sweep under the 
rug with more unrealistic enforcement-only fixes to the immigration 
system. Enforcement-only approaches makes the situation worse by 
generating an underground economy and encouraging a demand for 
vulnerable, undocumented workers.
  I urge my colleagues not to let politics cloud a real solution. The 
only answer is comprehensive immigration reform.

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