[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 19352-19353]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE NIGHTMARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, tonight this Congress passed the so-
called DREAM Act. Several of us on the floor of the House said that 
this act would be more accurately referred to as the ``affirmative 
action amnesty act.''
  The bill is a piece of legislation that the American people should 
pay close attention to, and they should see whether or not their 
Representatives in Congress are, indeed, representing their interests 
or if they are involved in supporting the interests of the people who 
are not citizens of this country and who have come here illegally.

                              {time}  2120

  Now in this case, this bill would not grant amnesty to all illegal 
immigrants, but instead, the reason it's called the DREAM Act is 
because it would legalize the status of several million illegals who 
are young people in our country. Well, what does several million new 
citizens--or should we say legal residents--of our country mean to the 
well-being of the American people? Yes, we understand that several 
million young illegals now made legal in their status would certainly 
be their dream, but what does it do to other Americans? What is the 
effect? Is it a dream or a nightmare? The American people need to look 
and see who voted for what and who is representing whose interests 
here.
  I want to note that illegal immigration is probably one of the 
greatest threats to the well-being of my constituents, and they 
understand that. And I would think that people throughout our country 
understand that the quality of our education is going down, the quality 
of America's health care is going down, our personal security--meaning 
the security of our neighborhoods and our families--is going down as 
the criminal justice system is put under incredible strains by this 
massive flow of illegals into our country.
  By legalizing the status of 2 million younger illegal immigrants, 
what we are doing is making sure that those people who are considering 
coming to our country illegally will certainly bring their children--
all of them--with them, realizing that the chances are that if the 
American people see that someone's here illegally and is a young 
person, we now have set the precedent that we will legalize their 
status sometime in the future.
  What we are really talking about is encouraging a massive flow of 
illegals into our country bringing their children with them. And what 
will that do to the education system of our country? What will that do 
to the health care requirements that people now are finding that their 
own health care facilities are overcrowded and that the budgets for 
providing health care to the less fortunate are being strained to the 
breaking point throughout the country?
  This bill was done at the expense of the American people. The young 
people who they are helping, the young people who supposedly would be 
assisted in getting a college education if they go to school, they're 
going to have their status legalized. Yes, those people may be helped, 
but it is being done directly at the expense of the American people.
  This is about as bad as it gets when we have Members of Congress 
that, instead of considering what this will do, what their actions will 
do in harm to their own constituents, have decided just to, yes, side 
with those people--who are wonderful people overseas. There is no doubt 
about most of the young people we are talking about, and most of the 
illegal immigrants coming into our country are wonderful people, but 
their well-being--we are not being selfish by suggesting that at a time 
of unemployment, a time when the budgets for all of our own programs 
are being strained to the breaking point, that we have to take care of 
our own people before we encourage other people to come here illegally.
  I am proud that our country has a very liberal and open policy for 
immigration. We allow more legal immigrants into our country than any 
other country of the world. In fact, all of the other countries of the 
world combined do not permit the legal immigration into their societies 
as we permit into America. But if we don't watch out for our people, if 
we do not carefully look at this issue and try to say what is good for 
our people, our people will be severely damaged, and that will be the 
product of the DREAM Act. It will be the Nightmare Act of the American 
people.
  Perhaps the worst element of this is this bill--and I know there are 
many people who are suggesting that that's not true, but it is true 
that this bill will provide an affirmative action status for those 
illegals who have been legalized who happen to come from a minority 
background. Now, most illegal immigrants who come here are Hispanics or 
some other minority. Thus, if their status is legalized, all of a 
sudden all of the laws that give preference to minorities in the United 
States, all of these preferences are provided to these people who were 
illegal just a few days ago.
  We are not providing equality. What we're providing is that illegals 
now will take their spot at the head of the line when it comes to job 
training, when it comes to education and being accepted

[[Page 19353]]

at universities. In terms of all of these types of programs in which 
racial preferences have been written into the law, these illegals will 
now have a status ahead of U.S. citizens. This is about as bad as it 
gets.
  This Congress is supposed to represent the interests of the American 
people. In this case, the interests of the American people were 
betrayed with a misplaced value system being focused on the plight of, 
yes, some very deserving young people--several million of them--who are 
here illegally. I would hope that the American people take a look 
closely at this vote and realize what it signifies.
  There are many people struggling right now in our country. Our social 
programs are strained to the breaking point. And yes, what happens when 
you legalize the status of several million young people and you make 
sure that these young people, many of whom are of a minority status, 
that they then receive the preferences written into our law for our own 
minority citizens? It will cause great damage to our country and to the 
very most vulnerable Americans that we are supposed to be representing.
  So tonight I would ask the American people to look closely at the 
vote of their Member of Congress. Was their Member of Congress 
representing them? Was their Member of Congress representing, and with 
all good intentions, but representing the interests of someone else? I 
would say that the illegal immigration issue is an issue that reflects 
that dichotomy more in our country than any of the other major issues 
that we face as a people.
  So tonight the choice is stark, and the people here have cast their 
vote. It is now time for the American people to hold us accountable; if 
we are representing their interests and the interests of the less 
fortunate people in our society or whether or not we are giving away 
scarce resources and putting our own people in jeopardy in order to 
perhaps attract as voters, or whatever, illegal immigrants who are 
coming to our society and thus attracting even more illegals to come 
here. And of course, now after they come here, they will make sure that 
they bring their entire family. And once, by the way, a young person is 
legalized, that young person, through family unification laws and 
programs, will be able to then start the action necessary to bring even 
more and more illegals into our country to have their status changed.
  Is this in the interest of the United States? Is this in the interest 
of the American people? I say no. And I say that the American people 
need to pay attention and judge us on our vote on this act tonight, the 
DREAM Act, which is the Nightmare Act.
  Let's wake up, America. Your country is being taken from you and 
given to somebody else.

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