[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6878-6885]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          WE NEED TO PASS COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I will be joined throughout the course of 
this evening by some of my colleagues, including the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) and others who might join us. We want to speak 
tonight about a topic that's been in the news lately and is incredibly 
important to the American people, and that's the topic of immigration, 
securing our borders, immigration reform. A lot of us were, frankly, 
shocked at some of the steps that Arizona took a couple of weeks ago 
which has sent a powerful message to us here in Washington that we need 
to act.
  It's not up to States to patrol their borders, to protect who is 
here, and to enforce workplace laws; it is the responsibility of the 
Federal Government. The Federal Government has failed to enforce our 
immigration laws. It's time to act now to pass comprehensive 
immigration reform. I have heard the message from Arizona loud and 
clear, and I hope that that passage of that bill provides an impetus 
for us to take the politically challenging but critical steps necessary 
to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
  Today was an exciting day for immigration reform. In the Senate, they 
introduced their conceptual proposal for immigration reform. This was 
introduced today by a number of Senators. Now, it's not a bill. We have 
a bill in the House that I proudly joined as a cosponsor of with about 
100 Members to fix our broken immigration system. But this is the first 
step towards a bill in the Senate, which I hope will be introduced soon 
and will be bipartisan. It starts out 1(a), ``securing the border first 
before any action can be taken to change the status of people in the 
United States illegally.'' As long as we have a porous border and we 
are failing to secure our border, there won't be any meaningful reform 
in our own country. There will continue to be people who enter our 
country extralegally.
  It's absolutely ridiculous that in this day and age, a sovereign 
Nation, the greatest Nation on Earth, cannot secure our own border. 
It's also critical that we know who's here. The Senate plan and the 
House plan that I am a cosponsor of require our undocumented population 
to register and undergo a background check. That's an important step, 
because right now we don't even know who is here in our own country. 
That's a security threat that every American should take seriously, and 
I think it's critical that we know who's here.
  Arizona has triggered a national crisis and underlined the critical 
need for action at the Federal level. This ridiculous measure that 
Arizona passed--and I should point out that we should expect, if 
Congress continues to fail to take action, other States to pass some 
misguided and extreme State laws. But this Arizona law has triggered a 
moral crisis by forcing American citizens, families who are American 
citizens, to live in fear.
  What does this law mean? It means that as American citizens are going 
about their business, going to school, going to the 7-Eleven, whatever 
they're doing, and if an officer thinks, thinks, suspects that they 
might be an illegal immigrant--could it be the clothes they wear? Could 
it be their race? Could it be an accent they speak with?--that officer 
can then demand proof, proof of their legal status in the U.S.
  Now, I ask you, who carries the proof of their American citizenship 
with them? I know I don't when I go out shopping. I know I don't when I 
go for

[[Page 6879]]

a walk. So these Americans will be detained. They could spend days, 
weeks, even months away from their families as they have to prove their 
American citizenship and request the documentation to do so. That can 
frequently take a long time, and I have been to these immigrant 
detention facilities. We have one in Aurora, Colorado. That is the type 
of facility that an American citizen will be taken to simply because 
they are not walking around or going about with the documentation of 
their American citizenship.
  This threatens to turn Arizona into a police state. It threatens to 
strike fear in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Arizonans, 
particularly Arizonans of particular ethnic heritages. That's why I 
feel very strongly this bill is a racist bill, one born of xenophobia, 
but one that will affect the rights of American citizens. Will it lead 
to the apprehension of more undocumented immigrants? It might. It will, 
on the margins. But it will lead to the detention of American citizens 
accidentally because American citizens, as we go about our own business 
in our own country, should not have to carry with us proof of our 
citizenship in this great Nation.
  Where does this overreach of government end? This new law has 
triggered a political crisis in Arizona, effectively causing the law 
enforcement community, which has strongly opposed this bill in Arizona, 
to face the choice of going after people based on their race or 
protecting people from crime.
  The fastest growing segment of our electorate will continue to pay 
attention to this issue. Latinos want to know that we have an interest 
in fixing the broken immigration system and making sure that no other 
States overreach and go after American citizens like Arizona does.
  And yet we can all understand--me from Colorado, others across the 
Nation--why Arizona felt it had to fall to them to take action on this 
issue. It's because the Federal Government has failed to act on 
comprehensive immigration reform. Immigration is a national issue that 
requires a national solution. It can't be solved on a State-by-State 
basis. We need the Federal Government to take bold and decisive action, 
and we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform now.
  We stand with the Arizona Association of Police Chiefs, the Yuma 
County sheriff, Mesa police chief and other law enforcement officials 
who are opposed to Senate bill 1070 in Arizona because it makes 
Arizonan communities less safe and threatens American citizens with 
detention. If people are afraid that their families and neighbors and 
friends will be rounded up by police, they live in constant fear of a 
government and a police that are there to serve and protect.
  The Arizona immigration enforcement law is an example of the chaos 
that's been created by the Federal Government's failure to protect our 
borders and act on comprehensive immigration reform. The new Arizona 
law is an attack on our American values. President Obama's acknowledged 
that Arizona's law undermines the basic notions of fairness that we 
cherish as Americans. This is a challenge of who we are as a Nation, 
who we are as human beings, and whether we're going to stand up for 
American ideals or reject those to appeal to our worst instincts and 
the worst among us.
  Let's do the right thing and fix our broken immigration system. That 
is a challenge to us here in Congress, and it shouldn't take courage 
from Members of Congress to talk about, support, and pass immigration 
reform. Quite to the contrary, it should take courage to avoid passing 
immigration reform, because the American people overwhelmingly want 
immigration reform, and those Members of Congress who stand in the way 
of securing our borders and ensuring that only people can work legally 
risk not returning next year and having a different voice that demands 
the action of the United States Congress.
  This is one of the few issues that has broad agreement among my 
constituents in Colorado. I have said this to a number of audiences. 
When we talked about health care, there were many of my constituents 
who supported health care reforms and many who opposed it. With regard 
to immigration, I have not found one constituent on the left or the 
right that believes that we are doing everything right with regard to 
immigration. It is broken. Conservatives agree it's broken. Liberals 
agree it's broken. Nobody believes our immigration system works 
perfectly.
  We have an undocumented population of over 10 million people. We have 
thousands, hundreds of thousands of businesses across this country that 
violate the law every day. The rule of law across our great Nation has 
been challenged and undermined. But we in Congress--I hope that we in 
Congress have heard the cry from Arizona, the cry from the 49 other 
States, the cry from the American people demanding that we in Congress 
take action to fix our broken immigration system and may restore the 
rule of law to this great Nation.
  I see I am joined by my friend from Minnesota, who I will yield to.
  Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Congressman Keith Ellison here from the State of Minnesota, and it is 
very timely that we are here to talk about immigration. The fact of the 
matter is that it is a symptom of the Congress' failure to pass 
comprehensive immigration reform that we get these draconian pieces of 
legislation such as were signed into law in Arizona on April 23, 2010, 
just a few days ago. If the United States Government would take hold of 
this immigration debate and pass comprehensive immigration reform, 
States would not have to resort to these extreme measures--
unconstitutional in my view--that Arizona has taken.
  Let me just point out a few things. The law says that police officers 
can stop and detain people who are suspected of being illegal aliens 
and demand that they provide proof that they are U.S. citizens. The 
fact of the matter is that this--some people have said, Well, you know, 
Keith, this could make people who may have a brown complexion and dark 
hair, who sort of have a typical Mexican appearance, that might subject 
them to unfair and illegal stops. My response is, That's true. It may 
stop Latinos, but it will stop anybody, because there's no certain way 
that a Latino person looks. There is a wide diversity all throughout 
the community, a wide diversity, no color, no language, no culture. 
People look all kinds of ways. The most Anglo-looking person in Arizona 
could be stopped and demanded to show their proof of citizenship, and 
if they don't have it, they could be carted off.
  The fact is that I am making this argument because I don't want 
Americans of any background to think that they are going to be somehow 
safe from a law as sweeping and unfair as this one. No one is safe when 
the Constitution is offended in such a dramatic way as it has been by 
this Arizona law. But at the same time I have no sympathy for this 
Arizona law, I will say that it is a symptom of the Congress' failure 
to deal with comprehensive immigration reform.
  I want to say that the argument has been made that somehow this is 
about addressing issues of crime and law enforcement. You know, if that 
were true, why would the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police oppose 
a law for fiscal and public safety reasons, noting that the fear of 
government officials would diminish the public's willingness to 
cooperate with the police in criminal investigations, and it will 
negatively affect the ability of law enforcement agencies across the 
State to fulfill their many responsibilities in a timely manner?
  The fact is that law enforcement officials who know something about 
law enforcement don't like this law. They are right. And the fact is 
this law is offensive to our Constitution. But again, it calls into 
question what we are doing here in Congress on comprehensive 
immigration reform, which is nothing much. The fact is we need to get 
busy on immigration reform. The American people want it. It is popular. 
It is something that the American people have asked for, and the 
Congress should step forward and do something about it right away.

[[Page 6880]]

  So let me yield back to the gentleman from the great State of 
Colorado and just point out that comprehensive immigration reform is 
something that I believe we need.
  There are just a few principles that I want to mention before I yield 
back, and that is that the progressive immigration reform agenda passed 
by the Progressive Caucus believes in keeping families together, 
creating a path towards citizenship and employment verification. 
Because as much as we talk about securing the border--and we should 
secure the border--you can't always secure the border at the border. We 
need the cooperation of all employers to make sure that they are doing 
employment verification so that we can make sure that the border is 
being secured. So yes, at the border, but also at the point of 
employment which people are drawn to.
  There is more to be said about this, but I yield back to the 
gentleman.

                              {time}  1930

  Mr. POLIS. I appreciate Mr. Ellison bringing up employer 
verification. One of the key components of the Senate outline requires 
biometric employment verification. So this is not a Social Security 
number that could be used by somebody who is 6 foot 1 and 52 one day 
and someone who is 5 foot 3 and 42 the next day. This is a real 
biometric ID. No later than 18 months after the date of enactment of 
this proposal, the Social Security Administration will issue biometric 
Social Security cards that will be fraud resistant, tamper resistant, 
wear resistant, be machine readable, contain a photograph and an 
electronically coded microchip processor which possesses a unique 
biometric identifier for the authorized card bearer. It could be a 
fingerprint, eye scan.
  We are going to be serious about knowing who can work and who is not 
legally employable. We need to be serious about making sure that it is 
the right person that we are talking about.
  Again, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of violations 
of this area of employment law every day in this country, and we are 
not even remotely serious about cracking down on those. That is why we 
urgently need, why Arizona and the rest of the country has called on 
Congress to address this issue and why we only ignore them at our own 
peril.
  We are joined by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Chu) who, in 
her time here, has already become a champion of comprehensive 
immigration reform and making sure that we can fix our broken 
immigration system. I am glad to welcome Congresswoman Chu from 
California.
  Ms. CHU. Today I stand here to say our immigration system is broken 
and fixing it is critically important to the long term security and 
prosperity of our Nation. Of course, I have a much different opinion on 
how to fix it than some on the other side of the aisle. Where they see 
an attack on American culture and way of life, I see a chance to 
strengthen our Nation with a new generation of productive and active 
citizens. Where they see fear and paranoia, I see an opportunity to do 
the right thing, the humane thing, and bring 12 million immigrants out 
of the shadows and into society.
  What they don't see is the ongoing family separations, the 
exploitation of workers by unscrupulous workers, and the true human 
cost of our broken immigration system.
  I get calls every day in my district from families who have 
sacrificed and worked hard to put food on the table and send their 
children to school. Take the case of Maria, an American citizen, who 
came into our district office last month with her two children, ages 2 
and 4, crying torrents of tears. They were trying to do the right 
thing. Her husband was undocumented. She had gone to Ciudad Juarez, 
Mexico, with her husband for an appointment with an immigration 
official where she was petitioning for her husband to receive legal 
status. The immigration officer denied it saying there was insufficient 
hardship.
  It is now more than a year since her husband was left stranded in 
Ciudad Juarez. Even married to an American citizen, he is barred from 
reentering the country for up to 10 years because of a law passed by 
Congress in the 1990s making it tougher for undocumented immigrants to 
acquire legal status through marriage. In the meantime, Maria has lost 
her house, was forced to do a short sale because she could not keep up 
with the mortgage payments without her husband's income. Her children 
wake up in the middle of the night crying for their daddy. To me that 
sounds like sufficient hardship.
  These family separations are cruel and counterproductive to both 
legal immigrants and citizens. It is families that have historically 
helped immigrants assimilate into American life and helped prevent 
health and social problems. Family networks give individuals the 
support and resources they need to become successful, productive 
members of our society.
  And if Congress doesn't act to fix our immigration system, States 
will do their own thing and we will be stuck with an unfair and 
impractical patchwork system. Just last week, the State of Arizona 
passed the broadest and strictest immigration measure in generations in 
any State. The law makes a failure to carry immigration documents a 
crime, and gives the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of 
being in the country illegally.
  Now I don't walk around with my birth certificate or passport, which 
is expensive and out of financial reach of many. And neither does 
Abdon, a commercial truck driver living in Arizona. Last week on the 
heels of the Governor signing this new law, he was shackled by the 
police and detained by the Phoenix Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
Office. Abdon was born a citizen of the United States. He has a job. He 
pays taxes. He speaks English. His wife Jackie is a natural-born 
citizen of the United States. She too has a job and she also speaks 
English. She pays taxes. But he was pulled over and arrested. Why? Not 
because he was speeding, that's for sure.
  When the officer demanded his papers, Abdon could only produce his 
driver's license and Social Security number. Not good enough. At a 
routine commercial weigh station on a regular workday, Abdon made the 
mistake of not carrying his birth certificate with him. That's right, 
his birth certificate.
  Now why did the police really pull him over? It is apparently now the 
law of the State of Arizona you can arrest people, citizen or not, 
simply for appearing Hispanic.
  This is a sadly familiar story, but one that was thought to be safely 
in the past. In the years following the Civil War, States began to 
implement a series of discriminatory laws designed to control former 
slaves and free blacks. Under the vagrancy laws, police could stop 
anyone anywhere and require you to show proof of employment on demand. 
If you didn't, you could be arrested and your labor sold to the highest 
bidder.
  But what if you forgot to carry your employment records with you when 
you left the house that morning, what if you, like so many regular 
citizens, were unaware of the anti-vagrancy laws? What if you were 
simply unemployed? Well, it might be your last mistake as a free 
citizen of the United States.
  Sound familiar? Well, it does to Abdon, and it is for Abdon and the 
thousands of other Arizonians that we need immigration reform this 
year. We cannot solve our immigration woes by simply creating new 
problems. Instead, we must pass a comprehensive bill that actually 
fixes our immigration system that penalizes employers who would hire 
undocumented workers and exploit their status for their own gain. We 
need a bill that protects the family and repairs a bureaucratic system 
that forces citizens and immigrants to live apart from their loved 
ones. We need a bill that secures our borders and provides a clear path 
to citizenship and employment for otherwise law-abiding immigrants, 
undocumented or not.
  America would not be the great Nation it is without the passion, 
ingenuity and perseverance of the millions of immigrants who have come 
to our shores looking for a better life for themselves and their 
families.
  Mr. POLIS. Thank you, Congresswoman Chu, for your leadership on this

[[Page 6881]]

issue. Those are very powerful words that you shared. The stories that 
you shared, those individuals are not alone. There are hundreds of 
thousands of people across our country every day who have powerful 
stories about what has happened to them through our immigration system.
  Let me briefly mention something that the Congresswoman alluded to 
about detention. It could be an American citizen or somebody who is 
undocumented and taken to detention, that means that taxpayers are 
paying their way. Taxpayers are paying $120 a day on average in these 
detention facilities. So if this Arizona law leads to more undocumented 
people being apprehended, then we are putting them up for free at a 
government hotel. So rather than working and not being a burden on 
American society, Arizona's new law forces taxpayers to put up illegal 
immigrants, feed and clothe and house them at taxpayer expense.
  I bet if the people of Arizona knew that, they would have second 
thoughts about this law. But that is exactly what will happen. Not only 
that, there will be American citizens who are swept up in this. You go 
out for coffee, run your errands, don't bring your proof of citizenship 
with you, boom, you're in a detention facility. American taxpayers are 
paying $120 a night for you, and it might take a week, a month, however 
long it takes until you can get your documentation. God forbid you are 
visiting from Alaska, visiting from Florida, were born to a midwife and 
don't have a hospital birth certificate, you could be in that detention 
facility even though you are an American citizen for months, all at 
taxpayer expense.
  I think the solution that the American people want is a lot better 
than that. I don't think that the American people want to put up 
illegal immigrants in hotels for months or years at a time. I think the 
American people want to make sure that we don't have an undocumented 
population in this country. That is exactly what the House conference 
of immigration reform bill would do, as well as the Senate proposal 
that was outlined. The Senate bill would require that anybody who is 
here has to register and have a background check and they would get a 
prospective immigrant status, a transitory, temporary status to be 
here.
  And eventually if they learned English, went through all of these 
steps, they could become a permanent resident. But that is quite a long 
way down the road. And to ever achieve lawful permanent residence, they 
would have to speak English, have basic citizenship skills, updated 
terrorism, criminal history and background checks, pay all Federal 
income taxes, fees and civil penalties and register for selective 
service after 8 years on the temporary status.
  No, the American people don't want to put illegal immigrants up in 
hotels like the Arizona legislature are proposing. The American people 
don't want to have a large undocumented population.
  I would also like to point out the problems that this law has 
interposed on one of our Nation's most important strategic 
relationships, and that is our relationship with our neighbors to the 
south, Mexico. I am the founder here in the Congress of the U.S.-Mexico 
Friendship Caucus to facilitate one of our most important trading 
partners. The flow of ideas and goods between the U.S. and Mexico is an 
important part of the prosperity we have here, and the growing economy 
in helping Mexico meet the demands of its growing middle class. And yet 
this law is hurting our bilateral relationship with Mexico.
  You know, before I got to Congress, I occasionally used to travel 
internationally. I had been to places like Tunisia and Egypt and 
Australia. And on our Department of State, there is a site where they 
list any country with a warning. Don't go to this country because it 
has a civil war or it has terrorists. My mother wouldn't have liked it 
very much if our own Department of State said you might die if you go 
there.
  Well, you know what, Mexico is now advising their citizens, their 
tourists, not to go to Arizona. Yes, one of our very own States is 
being warned against visiting by a country that sends many tourists to 
our Nation.
  I represent some of the ski resorts, Vail, Beaver Creek and Copper 
Mountain in Colorado. We have tens of thousands from Mexico every year. 
It is one of our larger countries that sends tourists that keep 
Americans employed and spend money in Colorado. But by criminalizing a 
whole status of people, any Mexican tourist would have second thoughts 
about going to Arizona. And it saddens me as an American, having looked 
at these warnings that our Department of State has and always seeing 
Third World developing countries, saying glad I don't live where that 
civil war or dictator is, well, now one of our closest and most 
important friends and neighbors, the great country of Mexico, has 
listed one of our States on their warnings.
  That's a blow to the American pride. I am proud to be an American, 
and to think that our country has some of these problems that only 
developing countries or dictatorships or police states have had in the 
past is not only disgraceful, but it will undermine the economy of 
Arizona. Tourism will dry up.
  And it won't be just Mexico and Arizona. I have a feeling that many 
other countries will follow suit from East Asia and Latin America 
because who wants their citizens to be apprehended and placed in 
detention for months at a time. And that would be a very reasonable 
response. I hope that this law in Arizona is tossed out as soon as 
possible.
  Again, it is important for us to understand why Arizona passed it. It 
was a message, a message to us in Congress that Congress has failed the 
American people. Congress has failed to enforce our borders and 
implement real employment enforcement, real security. Indeed, Congress' 
lack of action is leading to the undermining of American sovereignty 
not only in Arizona, but in many States, including my home State of 
Colorado, that has hundreds of thousands of people who live extra-
legally--we don't know who they are, we don't know where they are--
work, in most cases, extra-legally because Federal enforcement has been 
a joke.

                              {time}  1945

  This is a solution that we can solve. It's not a solution that should 
involve posturing from the left or the right. It's one that the 
American people and the people of Arizona, very rightfully so, have 
demanded action on with a shot across our bow.
  I hope the people of Arizona don't suffer too much under this law 
because I understand and sympathize with their goals. I hope it's 
overturned soon. Certainly, if it's allowed to continue, it will hurt 
their economy, they will lose jobs, Arizonans will lose work, and 
Americans will be forced into detention at taxpayer expense. I hope 
that that doesn't happen. I hope this law is overturned before that 
happens. But the shot across the bow has been received, and I hope that 
it provides the urgent impetus for those of us here in Congress to move 
forward now on comprehensive immigration reform.
  I yield to my friend from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison).
  Mr. ELLISON. Let me thank the gentleman from Colorado for really 
raising these issues.
  The fact is, I do just want to say that the Progressive Caucus has 
some essential principles that we believe are essential to have in any 
immigration bill. We know that a version was dropped in the Senate; 
there was another dropped in the House earlier.
  What we say is we think that we've got to keep families together. We 
have to create a path to earn citizenship. This isn't handing out 
citizenship to anybody. People have to take care of the business that 
the gentleman from Colorado already mentioned--paying all taxes, going 
through courses in English and citizenship, making sure that they do 
everything that they have to do, but at least they're allowed to be on 
a path that will lead them to citizenship and that there would be 
employment verification.
  But there are other important values that I think we should talk 
about as

[[Page 6882]]

well. The fact is that one of those values is respect, another value is 
identifying the fact that young people studying hard every single day, 
graduating from an American high school, brought to this country by 
their parents, in my view, should be able to go to a college in their 
State and pay in-state tuition. So that's another value I think is very 
important. It enhances education, values and achievement, and it 
indicates that young people who have lived their lives here and grown 
up here and who came here through no fault or through no choice of 
their own can have a future.
  The fact is that there are some basic principles that I think we 
should pursue. The thing that does concern me, though, is that 
sometimes we hear people, Madam Speaker, say things like, well, you 
know, this bill is dead on arrival, or that bill is not going to go 
anywhere; they just declare bills to be not in motion sometimes.
  But I believe, Madam Speaker, that whether comprehensive immigration 
reform moves or not is up to the people of America if they demand that 
it move. The same way that health care reform moved because people 
wouldn't let it die, immigration reform can move because the people are 
demanding it. The same way financial reform is moving, immigration can 
move because if people say we've got to have this, we need it, no more 
of our fellow neighbors living in the shadows, we need to have a 
legitimate path towards citizenship--it's not amnesty--that does 
involve real accountability, but at the same time allows people to come 
out of the shadows and have some status that they can have so that they 
can do what they need to do for themselves and their families. The fact 
is that this is the decent thing to do, it's the right thing to do.
  By the way, I will point out, Madam Speaker, that there is a growing 
and strengthening coalition for immigration reform. In my own State of 
Minnesota, we used to have immigrant groups, people who are directly 
affected by immigration policy from new American groups, whether 
they're Latino or east African or Southeast Asian, or whatever 
community, a lot of times they would be at the forefront of this 
question of immigration reform.
  But then we began to see labor come into the conversation. Labor does 
not want an exploitable, abusable group of people who are in the 
shadows that can undercut their wage rate. They want everybody 
aboveboard and walking through the front door to have a status so that 
they can organize them so that they can have some stability. Even the 
chamber of commerce in my city has said, look, we're for comprehensive 
immigration reform as well. I'm not speaking for the U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce, but I can tell you that there are many local chambers of 
commerce around this country who know that immigration reform is the 
right policy.
  So the fact is we have a growing coalition; we have a coalition 
that's coming together, that's deepening and coming together to demand 
this. So I guess my message, Madam Speaker, is to say, never say that 
we can't get comprehensive immigration in 2010; it can happen with a 
strong will and with a committed champion, and with people who demand 
it of their leaders who are charged with the responsibility of 
representing them in Congress.
  I yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. POLIS. The people of this country are tired of this problem being 
used for political purposes from the left and the right. The American 
people just want to see this issue solved. The American people are 
smart; they recognize that the longer we delay taking action the bigger 
the problem gets.
  Our immigration laws should reflect our interests as Americans and 
our values as Americans; but we need to treat this as something to 
solve, not an opportunity for politicians to score points on the left 
or points on the right by preying on our legitimate or illegitimate 
concerns or prejudices. Yes, we truly are a Nation of laws, but we are 
also a Nation of immigrants. We need to make sure that immigrants obey 
our laws, learn English, and pay their taxes; and then we welcome them 
as our American brothers and sisters.
  It's amazing to see some of the nonconventional alliances, some of 
the groups that have been pushing for immigration reform. Among the 
strongest has been the faith-based community. Now, while I have many 
people who have supported me in the past who are of the Catholic faith, 
the archbishop, Archbishop Chaput in Denver, is somebody who I don't 
agree with on a lot of social issues; he and I disagree on many issues, 
such as a woman's right to choose, but on this issue, he and I joined 
together in an event in Denver in support of immigration reform that 
1,500 people, on a Sunday after mass, packed into a church in strong, 
universal support for comprehensive immigration reform across the 
faith-based community. From the evangelicals to the Catholics to the 
Jews to the Muslims to the humanists and the atheists, there is strong 
support for comprehensive immigration reform.
  There is also support--and this is very unusual in the context of 
politics--from both the organized labor community and unions and 
businesses in the chamber of commerce. Among the strongest advocates 
for immigration reform have been high-tech businesses, chambers of 
commerce, arm and arm with their workers, their unions. It's very rare 
to see that happen here in Congress. And yet, why hasn't Congress 
achieved anything? It seems like politicians on both sides of the aisle 
have preferred to keep this issue out there. Is it to rally their base? 
Is it to talk about the undocumented, about why they need more time to 
do something? And yet both sides have refused to take action. And it 
will take both sides working together to solve this issue with an 
American solution.
  Obey our laws, learn English, pay taxes, and welcome to America--that 
has always been our message. And it needs to continue to be the 
underlying values with which we construct an immigration system that 
works, restores the rule of law to our Nation, and is an opportunity 
for us in Congress to rise to the challenge that the people of Arizona 
have put before us, that frustrated voters in cities and States across 
the country have put to us. And if Congress doesn't act to pass 
comprehensive immigration reform and solve this issue, I believe that 
the American people will elect a Congress that will.
  I will yield to my friend from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison).
  Mr. ELLISON. I just want to go back to an important point that the 
gentleman from Colorado made just a moment ago. Congressman Polis, 
Madam Speaker, made the point that people are in detention for months 
and months as they await their immigration proceedings and the 
decision. These are not people who have robbed or hurt anyone or sold 
dope or anything like that. These are folks who are awaiting a decision 
in their immigration case. They are not criminals; they're awaiting 
immigration proceedings, decisions. These folks, these people in 
immigrant detention are just languishing, rotting.
  There have been, since 2003, 107 people who have died in custody 
because they were in detention. If they were out, could they have 
gotten the medical attention that they needed? I'm sure in many cases 
they could have. The fact is that these are folks who are not serving 
criminal sentences. They haven't been convicted of hurting anyone or 
stealing people's property or doing anything wrong. They're just 
awaiting proceedings.
  In fact, Madam Speaker, I was at an eighth grade graduation only a 
few days ago; and my daughter, who I was so proud of, was there with 
her friends and they were all abuzz--you know how kids that age can be. 
And I talked to another adult who I had known for a number of years 
because my older children went to school with her children and one of 
her children was in my daughter's class. And she said to me, you know, 
I want you to know it's good to see you. I was in detention. I recently 
got out of immigration detention. This is what this lady said to me. 
And it shocked me because my son, who is now 22 years old, was buddies 
with her son, who is now 22 years old, but they were running around my

[[Page 6883]]

house when they were both seven and eight and nine years old and now 
here she is--I haven't seen her in a while--and she just told me that 
she had been there herself. I didn't even ask her how she got out--I 
was glad she was out--but the fact is that she had been in ICE 
detention herself. This is a woman who is a bright lady, smart, 
capable, raising children on her own, doing the best she can, happens 
to find her roots in Mexico. I didn't ask her about the details of her 
life, but I was concerned that she found herself in that awful 
situation.
  I connected her with my office to do everything we could for her; but 
the fact is there is a human toll being taken on people every single 
day, people around us, people we know, people we don't even know what 
they're going through, but they have their own immigration nightmare 
that they're struggling through every single day.
  Her children, I know the younger ones were born in the United States 
and I know the older ones came here at a very early age, they're my 
kids' close friends. But the fact is that it kind of struck me right 
across the face like a cold bucket of water that here is this lady who 
I know. I couldn't exactly call her a friend, but I can say that this 
is a person who I know, who I respect, and who was living her own 
private nightmare with regard to immigration.
  It seems to me that the rules ought to be clearer, they ought to be 
fairer, they ought to be predictable. It seems to me that the children 
who come here at an early age ought to be able to pursue their 
education in an institution in their State and not have to pay 
exorbitant out-of-state tuition just to do that. It seems to me that we 
ought to try to unite families. As Americans, we value families, and we 
ought to do something about that.
  The fact is that people in immigrant detention, these folks are often 
some of the most abused folks in our community, Madam Speaker. I will 
just refer again to what the Congressman from Colorado mentioned a 
moment ago, detention, people are there for months, but these folks, 
some of them have been through tremendous ordeals; some are torture 
victims, some are victims of trafficking, some are from other 
vulnerable groups and are detained for months and even years, further 
aggravating their isolation, depression, and sometimes mental health 
problems.
  The fact is that this situation is not right. These people are not 
criminals. They should not be held this way. And they're held at our 
expense--we're the ones who fork it over--but it's no picnic for them 
either. The fact is that we have to do something about it.
  Over 30,000 people are held in immigrant detention on any given day 
at an average cost of more than $100, $120 per day. This has resulted 
in over 380,000 people held in detention in fiscal year 2009. Think 
about it: that's an incredible expense that we are paying because our 
immigration system has not been corrected, has not been addressed, and 
the fact is that we have to do something about it.
  Since 2005, ICE has increased the number of detention beds by 78 
percent. Taxpayers are paying the price of DHS's skyrocketing use of 
immigration detention, and DHS spends about $1.7 billion on ICE custody 
operations.

                              {time}  2000

  So the fact is that a human toll is being taken. The broken 
immigration system offends our sense of fairness, and it offends our 
sense of being a humanitarian country. We've got to do something about 
it right away.
  I yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, how much time remains?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. There are 17 minutes remaining.
  Mr. POLIS. Thank you.
  I am glad that my friend from Minnesota brought up the important 
issue of detention. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE had 
380,000 people in 2009 who were detained at taxpayer expense. One of 
the things we fear with the Arizona law is that these could actually be 
American citizens out working one day.
  Oh, you don't have your papers. You're in detention. It could take a 
week. It could take a month.
  There are many Americans who might have difficulty furnishing those 
records. Again, I point in particular to those who were born of a 
midwife or who are very elderly or whose birth hospitals have been 
subject to fires or to disasters, where records are unable to be 
located or where they've been lost or where it simply has been human 
error. Each of these 380,000 people who were detained last year were 
detained at taxpayer expense. Now, I would argue that that is not good 
for them and that it's not good for us, the taxpayers.
  First of all, as my colleague from Minnesota mentioned, 107 died, in 
many cases, due to medical treatment being withheld, due to abuses. In 
the incarceration system, in many cases, they are put in with actual 
criminals who have been convicted of crimes. Again, these are people 
who are not serving criminal sentences. They are being detained while 
awaiting decisions on their immigration proceedings. They might either 
then be released into our country or expelled through a different 
country, but despite that, they are held in prisons and jails, and 
they're often mixed with the general prison population, putting them at 
risk for their lives and limbs, all at taxpayer expense.
  To the extent that it allows for the apprehension of more people, the 
Arizona law will simply result in the greater taxpayer expense of 
putting people up at the tune of $120 a day. You know, that's what it 
costs. When I looked at it, I said, Gosh. We can put them up at Motel 6 
for a quarter of that cost. Yet we continue, the taxpayers across our 
country, because of our complete failure to protect our borders and to 
have real immigration policy that works for our Nation. Over 300,000 
people were incarcerated at taxpayer expense last year.
  Comprehensive immigration reform is an American solution. It's common 
sense. It's fair. It's balanced. It has overwhelming support from the 
American people. Eighty-one percent agree that comprehensive reform is 
a balanced approach and that it's fair to taxpayers.
  Voters across the board, from liberal to conservative, believe it is 
unrealistic to simply try to deport our way out of this problem. Seven 
in 10 voters agree that, in addition to increased enforcement and 
securing the border, illegal immigrants should be required to register 
and to meet conditions for permanent status. A comprehensive approach 
to immigration reform secures our borders, cracks down on employers who 
hire illegally, makes sure that we have real verification of who is 
able to work, and requires that illegal immigrants pay taxes and learn 
English to be eligible for permanent status. Voters should know that 
comprehensive immigration reform is an orderly process and that it will 
turn what has been completely uncontrolled and chaotic into a 
controlled flow of immigrants that continue to build our Nation and to 
reestablish the rule of law across our great Nation.
  Americans are tired of the posturing on the left and the right. They 
are tired of the lack of solutions coming from Washington. They don't 
want to hear us complain about this, complain about that, hyperbole on 
this, hyperbole on that. What the people of Arizona have very clearly 
said they want and what the people of our country have very clearly 
said they want is for us here in Congress, the only place that this 
problem can be fixed, to fix this problem.
  Border security is a joke. Enforcement of our laws at the workplace 
is a joke. We have over 10 million people violating the law in our 
country every day. The rule of law--our sovereignty--has been 
undermined. Taxpayers are putting up hundreds of thousands of foreign 
nationals a year at the cost of over $100 a day. Why not put them up at 
cheap hotels and save three-quarters of that? I don't know, but this is 
what we're doing.
  Does this make sense to anybody, Madam Speaker? The answer is no.
  I have brought this up at almost all of my town hall meetings in 
Colorado, and I have yet to find a single constituent--and I have a lot 
of diversity among my constituents. They range

[[Page 6884]]

from the Tea Party patriots on the right to the socialists on the left 
and everything in between. Not one of them is happy with the 
immigration system in this country. Not one of them is happy that we 
are putting up 300,000 people a year at the cost of $120 a day. Not one 
of them is happy that we have an undocumented population of 10 million 
working illegally in this country. Not one of them is happy. Yet, to 
this point, Congress has failed to hear and to act upon that.
  I believe that we will continue to fail at our own peril and that it 
is incumbent upon this Congress, with the fiercest urgency that the 
American people have placed on this issue before us, to solve this 
issue. We are a Nation of laws, and we are also a Nation of immigrants. 
That's why we need to make sure that our laws, our immigration laws, 
reflect our interests as Americans in order to create jobs for 
Americans, to provide safety and security for Americans and to help 
American businesses grow and succeed, which is why immigration reform 
is supported by chambers of commerce, by business interests as well as 
by unions, by faith-based communities, and by law enforcement.
  We here in Congress should not be afraid of talking about solving the 
immigration issue. We should be afraid of not talking about solving the 
immigration issue. Every day that goes by without bills being moved 
forward or with bills being dropped or without solutions being 
discussed is a day that the American people will hold their Members of 
Congress accountable for not doing anything to solve this pressing 
national issue.
  I yield to my friend from Minnesota.
  Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, I was just in my district about a week 
ago at a little church called Sagrado Corazon de Jesus. It's right 
there in south Minneapolis where a lot of folks gathered from the faith 
community. They were Catholic; they were Protestant; they were Jewish; 
they were Christian; they were Muslim; they were Hindu; they were of 
the Hmong spiritual tradition; and they were of no faith at all. Yet 
they came together to make an appeal to the American people for 
comprehensive immigration reform.
  I think it's important to understand that the faith community has 
done a tremendous job in making sure this issue is at the forefront. 
The faith community has done such a great job because the faith 
community understands one essential thing, which is that all human 
beings are endowed with an inherent dignity which we, as fellow human 
beings, must respect if we are going to be in accordance with that 
faith tradition.
  I want to thank them for their advocacy, and I want to let them know 
that I respect and appreciate their work.
  Because I would like to see our anchor tonight be able to take the 
last 5 minutes to wrap it all up, let me also just mention in our 
waning minutes of our presentation that, as I've been sitting here, 
I've been checking my Twitter account, and I know that some people are 
happy that we're talking about comprehensive immigration and that some 
people are not.
  Madam Speaker, I just want to say, to those folks who are happy about 
it, keep on working hard. We can do this thing. To the folks who aren't 
happy about this discussion topic tonight, I just want to say, Madam 
Speaker, that I know people are not happy with the current system. The 
status quo isn't working. Madam Speaker, people can say that they don't 
like this part of a bill or that part of a bill, but can we get 
together as Americans and discuss what we are going to do? Because the 
fact is that simply saying ``no'' is not an option.
  I'll also submit to you that we are not going to get 12 to 20 million 
people on a bus and send them back home. That's not realistic. Many 
people who emigrate here without proper documentation don't even cross 
a border. They come in on airplanes. These are folks whose visas have 
run out and things like that. So just thinking that this is an ``other 
side of the border'' issue is missing much of the complexity that is 
going on here.
  You're also not going to incarcerate 12 to 20 million people. You 
know, Madam Speaker, I had somebody say the crimes that the 
undocumented immigrants are committing are, one, being here and, the 
other, taking jobs from Americans. Let me just say, if you think what 
they're doing is a crime, Madam Speaker, what you're saying is that 
we're going to have to have 12 million to 20 million more jail cells to 
put people in. That's not practical.
  We need a solution that makes sense, that is a pathway toward 
citizenship. We need a solution which does involve border security but 
which also involves employer verification so that people will not think 
that they can emigrate to the United States without proper 
documentation and just find jobs. That's one of the things that 
attracts folks.
  I will say one more thing, which is not in the progressive principles 
but which, I think, we do need to talk about. We need to talk about how 
poverty in other parts of the world, particularly in our own 
hemisphere, attracts people to the United States. Therefore, we should 
take a real look at our policies--at our trade policies, at our ag 
policies--and see if we are actually incentivizing people to come to 
the United States.
  If we dump cheap corn into Latin America, what happens to the corn 
farmer in Latin America? I think we need to ask that question.
  It needs to be part of the conversation, because I can't imagine most 
people who are undocumented really want to leave their homes, their 
languages, their families, or their friends in order to come to a 
country they don't know, where they don't necessarily speak the 
language and where they don't necessarily know anyone just to try to 
make lives. They probably would rather stay home, but there is 
something that is drawing them here, and it probably has something to 
do with the great economy of the United States. It probably also has 
something to do with trade and agriculture policies, which have put a 
lot of pressure on economies in this hemisphere.
  So, with that, Madam Speaker, I am going to yield back to Congressman 
Polis for the closing. He has really been a champion on this issue, and 
he has really kept the fire burning on it. I think, Madam Speaker, that 
we all owe him a debt of gratitude, along with other champions like 
Luis Gutierrez and many, many others.
  So I yield back to the gentleman, and I thank him for his work.
  Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota.
  With due respect, it is really the American people who have kept the 
fire under this issue. The American people do not want Congress to 
continue to ignore our broken immigration system.
  What would ignoring immigration do? What if we just said we're not 
going to deal with it, you know, that there's too much to work on? 
We've got, you know, health care. We've got energy. Why bother doing 
immigration?
  You know what? Failure to act on immigration reform will mean that we 
will likely have twice as many illegal immigrants in 10 years than we 
have now--twice as many. Instead of 10 or 12 million, we could be 
talking about 20 or 25 million. The longer we wait, the bigger the 
problem gets.
  The goal of immigration reform needs to be to eliminate--to bring to 
zero--illegal immigration. If immigrants who have been living in our 
country illegally want to become taxpaying American citizens, they need 
to pass a background check, pay extra taxes, work towards citizenship, 
learn English, register.
  We need immigration reform that is both principled and pragmatic. We 
in this country have the right to decide who lives in our country and 
who doesn't, but we haven't been exercising that right. We've been 
allowing millions of people to live here without knowing who they are 
or what they are doing. Yet we continue to refuse to take action, and 
we do so at our own peril.
  Yes, we should hear very clearly from Arizona and from other States 
that they are demanding action of the Federal Government. There is no 
good solution for a county or a State. I sympathize with our cities, 
our counties,

[[Page 6885]]

and our States which are dealing with the failure of a Federal policy 
to protect our borders--Federal policies that undermine the rule of law 
and our national sovereignty, but it falls to the United States 
Congress to act to fix our broken immigration laws. People should not 
be able to cross the borders or to overstay their visas without 
permission, and businesses should not be able to exploit cheap labor 
off the books, undermining jobs for American citizens.
  We in Congress have a unique opportunity now to take action. The 
American people are tired of excuses. They are tired of demagoguery. 
They want a solution that works and that ensures that we will have zero 
illegal immigrants in a year and in 10 years and in 20 years rather 
than seeing an increase from 10 or 12 million to 20 million or to 25 
million or to 30 million.
  What does ``national sovereignty'' mean if you don't even know who is 
within your borders or what they're doing or whether they're criminals? 
Why are we putting over 300,000 of them up at expensive hotels at over 
$100 a day at taxpayer expense? Is that part of the solution?

                              {time}  2015

  It doesn't sound like part of the solution that the people of Arizona 
want. It doesn't sound like part of the solution that the American 
people want. Obey our laws, learn English, pay taxes, and welcome to 
America. We need to replace a broken system with one that works.
  I call upon my colleagues in this Chamber and in the United States 
Senate on both sides of the aisle to stop playing political games with 
an issue that the American people are crying out for a solution on and 
to act and bring forward a real solution along the lines of the 
proposal that was introduced in the Senate today, along the lines of 
the House comprehensive immigration reform bill to demand that Congress 
move towards fixing this problem, restoring security to our borders, 
sovereignty to our Nation, preventing the undermining of the rule of 
law that this Nation was built upon, and strengthening our economy and 
providing jobs for American families.
  Madam Speaker, I hope that my colleagues join me in moving forward 
immediately on comprehensive immigration reform to fix our broken laws 
and replace it with a system that works and is enforced.

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