[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16627-16629]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, it has already started. There is being 
readied today a building in Crystal City, VA, to house the announced 
1,000 workers who will be hired to process the unlawful Executive 
amnesty the President has said he intends to execute.
  The President is already moving forward. He is rushing to impose his 
immigration views before the Congress can contain it or restrain it; 
before the American people fully understand what is happening; and to 
make it so it can't be stopped.
  The President's Executive orders violate the laws of Congress--the 
laws that Congress has passed--in order to implement laws he wishes 
Congress had passed but which Congress has refused to pass. It refused 
in 2006, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2014.
  The American people, through their congressional representatives, 
have considered these kinds of proposals, they evaluated them, the 
American people expressed their views on them, and Congress said no. 
The people have been clear on this issue. For decades they have 
pleaded, demanded, really, that this Congress create an immigration 
system that is lawful; that we end the lawlessness, that it be 
principled, that it serve the national interest, and that it serves 
their interest and not the special interests. But Congress and 
political leaders have refused to do so.
  It is unfortunate to a degree I don't think I have seen on any other 
issue. Perhaps no other issue defines the gap between the elites in 
this country and middle Americans who go to work every day, who support 
our country, pay our taxes, and fight our wars. Our people want our 
laws that are on the books now enforced. If new laws are needed, they 
want us to pass new laws to end this lawlessness. But this President 
rejects the will of the people. His policies nullify the laws we have. 
His policies, shockingly, direct Federal agents to ignore their oaths 
and not enforce the laws, which creates the lawlessness that stains our 
legal system in our country today and is causing so much angst out 
there. People are not opposed to immigration. People are frustrated 
that their government refuses to create a lawful system that will work 
and serve them.
  What I want to say to my colleagues is that the President has gone 
even farther than that. He has gone farther than just saying: I am not 
going to enforce the laws, which he, as a President, the Chief 
Executive Officer, is required to do. He is required to execute the 
laws of the United States faithfully, which he is absolutely failing to 
do. But he is moving forward with his immigration agenda, rejected by 
Congress and the American people, and he is moving forward in a lot of 
different ways.
  This was an issue in the campaign. The people heard about it just a 
few weeks ago and they cast their ballots. There are nine new Senators 
elected to this Senate, and not one of them said they supported 
President Obama's scheme. Not one of them. They steadfastly opposed it. 
So in this lameduck Congress, the attempt is being made to move this 
new lawless agenda forward out of fear that it might not be so 
popularly received next year.
  Is Congress hopeless, helpless, ineffectual? Is it not able to stop 
this? Absolutely not. Congress has the power to control what the 
President does. It has the power to control what he spends money on. 
The President, the executive branch, cannot spend one dime that has not 
been approved by the U.S. Congress. He can't spend more on roads, 
highways, schools, defense, education, or health care that Congress has 
not appropriated and not approved. So Congress has a responsibility and 
a duty here. Congress should fund no program, should allow no 
Presidential expenditure to be spent on programs it deems are unworthy. 
It absolutely has a responsibility to ensure this President spends no 
money to execute policies that are plainly in violation of existing 
law.
  This Congress has a constitutional duty, no matter what Members may 
feel about the substance of the issue. I have opinions on that. I 
oppose the President's substantive position. But as a matter of law, 
separation of powers, and constitutional duty, this Congress should 
stop the expenditure of Federal funds for projects that Congress has 
rejected and are not worthy of funding. Congress has deliberated

[[Page 16628]]

these issues. This is not something it has not considered before. It 
has rejected this policy.
  The special interests have spent, according to one independent group, 
$1.5 billion to try to ram through Congress an immigration plan the 
American people reject and that Congress has refused to pass. The 
President hasn't given up, and these special interests haven't given 
up, despite the election and despite the wishes of the American people. 
They want their policies and they are going to ram them through this 
Congress, if they possibly can, no matter what the people think. That 
is a threat to representative democracy. It is a threat to the laws of 
this country. And the Congress needs to say no.
  Let us be specific now. People may think: Well, you may not expend 
money if you don't prosecute somebody. So how are we going to complain 
about that, Senator Sessions? Well, let us look at this. This is from 
the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, which is charged with 
processing the applications of people who wish to enter the country 
lawfully. Broadcast on Monday, December 1--just this week--at 11:52. 
Subject: Today's email news.

       USCIS is taking steps to open a new operational center in 
     Crystal City, a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, to 
     accommodate about 1,000 full-time, permanent Federal and 
     contract employees in a variety of positions and grade 
     levels. The initial workload will include cases filed as a 
     result of the executive actions on immigration announced on 
     November 20, 2014. Many job opportunities at the operational 
     center will be announced in the coming days and please 
     continue to monitor USAJOBS if you are interested.

  This is just days from now.
  Now let's put this little chart up. This briefly continues on what 
they published. This is right off their email.

       Current vacancies include: Special Assistant GS-12.

  Boy, a lot of people in the country would like to be a GS-12.

       Arlington, Virginia, today. Special Assistant GS-15, 
     Arlington, Virginia. Today. Chief of Staff GS-15, Arlington, 
     Virginia. Today.

  It goes on, today, today, today, today. They are rushing this 
through. They are determined to get this done before the American 
people can find out what is happening, to raise their voice, to 
communicate with their Members of Congress and the Senate and stop it. 
This is not good for this country.
  You may say: Well, Jeff, surely the President hasn't overreached in 
these matters. But Congress has stated you cannot enter the country 
unlawfully. That is a fundamental principle of our immigration law that 
has been on the books for many years. If you enter unlawfully, you are 
not entitled to work in America. And if you enter unlawfully and 
attempt to work and someone hires you and knows that you are illegally 
here, the employer is subject to criminal penalties and other 
penalties. That is the basic law. It has been on the books for years. 
The President is just wiping that off the books, colleagues.
  Are we going to accept this? Are we going to allow the President to 
just wipe out duly passed laws to create an entirely new system of 
immigration that Congress refused to establish? Our laws are on the 
books today. He has no power to reduce and erase those laws.
  How serious is this? Last night former Speaker of the House Newt 
Gingrich--Ph.D. in history, a student of American government, author of 
quite a number of books--made some dramatic statements about the 
meaning of this Presidential action, and we should hear it, colleagues. 
This is the former Speaker of the House, a student of American history 
and government. This is what he says about what is happening today. We 
cannot be oblivious to this, because what happens today will set trends 
and policies for tomorrow. He said:

       Obama funding new staff and offices without congressional 
     approval is step toward kingship or dictatorship. He must be 
     stopped now.

  How much clearer can it be than that? He goes on to say, in another 
tweet here:

       Congress should only approve very short spending bill to 
     set up fight in January on Obama unconstitutional power grab. 
     No long term CR.

  Here is the third one from last night:

       Our entire constitutional structure is at stake. The new 
     Obama power grab is the greatest threat to freedom since King 
     George Third.

  Those are quotes from Newt Gingrich. I am telling you, this is not a 
little bitty matter, and we have to fully understand the nature of what 
is happening here. Congress refused to pass what the President is 
enacting right now by Executive order and he has no power to do it. He 
should not be doing it. He may well be stopped by lawsuits in years to 
come, but Congress has the power to stop it now. We don't have to allow 
money to be spent in Arlington, Crystal City, VA, to hire 1,000 people 
to process these applications.
  Now, how are things going in our immigration system today? I wish I 
could report better circumstances than we have. The situation was grave 
even before this action. On May 20, last year, National Citizenship and 
Immigration Services Council president, representing thousands of USCIS 
workers, issued a statement.
  Colleagues, we need to know what has happened. It is unbelievable.
  This is a person directly engaged with the people who do the work 
every day, the law officers who go out there and try to adjudicate 
these immigration cases.

       USCIS adjudications officers are pressured to rubber stamp 
     applications instead of conducting diligent case review and 
     investigation. The culture at USCIS encourages all 
     applications to be approved, discouraging proper 
     investigation into red flags and discouraging the denial of 
     any applications. USCIS has been turned into an ``approval 
     machine.''

  This is an absolute abdication of the responsibility the Congress and 
the American people have given to the President as the Chief Executive 
Officer and given all the way down to the lowest USCIS officer. They 
are not to be a rubberstamp machine. They are not to be an approval 
machine. They are to serve the interests of the American people. They 
are to evaluate applications and do so carefully and fairly and 
consistently. They are to investigate red flags.
  What is he talking about when he says red flags? He is talking about 
threats, criminals, terrorists.
  Even Secretary Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security, testifying a 
few days ago, acknowledged that of these 4 million or 5 million people 
who are going to be applying for legal status in America through the 
President's program, there is no way their applications are going to be 
evaluated. If they say they came to the country in 1999, nobody is 
going to check on that. They are not going to see if they graduated 
from some school or had some job somewhere and investigate it. They are 
simply going to act on the paperwork they have been given. And in many 
cases--in the bill that President Obama supported earlier last year--
there would not be any face-to-face meetings. They wouldn't even go 
into an office and actually see the person. It would all be submitted 
by email and documents, which is highly risky, as the experts told us. 
They need to see the person because they may not be the person they say 
they are. They could just submit paperwork, get citizenship status, and 
nobody would have any idea whether they are worthy of being in the 
United States.
  The situation is graver than a lot of people think. It is our duty to 
legitimately represent the people in our country who believe this 
system is supposed to work. They sent us here. We say we have an 
immigration law in America. Well, good. And then we end up here. It is 
not so good. It is not working at all.
  What are we supposed to do? We are sorry, constituents. We are sorry 
you voted for us. I know we told you we wanted to do stuff to make this 
system better and we are going to end all this, but we will worry about 
that tomorrow--and we are going to do something.
  For 40 years Congress and Presidents have been promising to fix this 
system. The problem is, the special interests have won every time. The 
special interests have blocked the kind of reforms that create a system 
that we know will serve our national interests, will be

[[Page 16629]]

fair to immigrants who apply, and help the American people live better 
lives.
  To make a couple of more points. October 28 of this year, Mr. Kenneth 
Palinkas, the president of the association of 12,000 officers--issued 
this statement:

       We are still the world's rubber stamp for entry into the 
     United States--regardless of the ramifications of the 
     constant violations to the Immigration and Nationality Act. 
     Whether it's the failure to uphold the public charge law, the 
     abuse of our asylum procedures, the admission of Islamist 
     radicals, or visas for health risks, the taxpayers are being 
     fleeced and public safety is being endangered on a daily 
     basis.

  That is what Mr. Palinkas said. Has anybody ever called him to 
testify and to lay out these dangers? Certainly not the U.S. Senate. 
President Obama has his secret meetings with businesses and activist 
groups--people with their big money and their contributions. He met 
with them all summer. Did he meet with Mr. Palinkas? No. Did he meet 
with the head of the ICE officers association? No. Mr. Palinkas pleaded 
and asked to be admitted so he could lay out the problems they face on 
a daily basis, and it was rejected.
  Mr. Palinkas goes on to say:

       I write today to warn the general public that this 
     situation is about to get exponentially worse--and more 
     dangerous. America dodged a bullet when the Senate 
     immigration package S. 744 was blocked by the House. That 
     legislation would have been a financial security catastrophe. 
     But news reports have leaked information to the public of a 
     USCIS management contract bid for a ``surge'' printing of 34 
     million green cards and employment authorization documents to 
     be provided to foreign nationals, a bid that predicts the 
     Administration's promised executive amnesty.

  Think about what this officer is telling us. It is true. He goes on 
to say:

       That is why this statement is intended for the public: If 
     you care about your immigration security and your 
     neighborhood security, you must act now to ensure that 
     Congress stops this unilateral amnesty. Let your voice be 
     heard and spread the word to your neighbors. We who serve in 
     our nation's immigration agencies are pleading for your 
     help--don't let this happen. Express your concern to your 
     Senators and Congressmen before it is too late.

  That was October 28 of this year. He also issued this statement on 
May 20 of last year:

       USCIS officers who identify illegal aliens that, in 
     accordance with law should be placed into immigration removal 
     proceedings before a federal judge, are prevented from 
     exercising their authority and responsibility to issue 
     Notices to Appear.

  It goes on to say:

       The attitude of USCIS management--These are the political 
     appointees, appointed by the President to execute his views 
     of immigration.
       The attitude of USCIS management is not that the Agency 
     serves the American public or the laws of the United States, 
     or public safety and national security, but instead that the 
     agency serves illegal aliens and the attorneys which 
     represent them.

  What a statement. Who is the government supposed to represent? We 
represent the people of the United States who are lawfully here.

       While we believe in treating all people with respect, we 
     are concerned that this agency tasked with such a vital 
     security mission is too greatly influenced by special 
     interest groups.

  Boy, that is the truth. We had in one day Microsoft--a great 
company--demanding that more workers be allowed to come into the 
country so that they can work, in the same week they announced laying 
off 18,000.
  In September of this year, Mr. Palinkas issued this statement:

       Many millions come legally to the U.S. through our wide 
     open immigration policy every year--whether as temporary 
     visitors, lifetime immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, 
     foreign students, or recipients of our ``visa waiver 
     program'' which allows people to come and go freely. Yet our 
     government cannot effectively track these foreign visitors 
     and immigrants. And those who defraud authorities will face 
     no consequences at all in most cases. Our caseworkers cannot 
     even do in-person interviews for people seeking citizenship, 
     they cannot enforce restrictions on welfare use, and they 
     even lack the basic office space to properly function. 
     Applications for entry are rubber-stamped, the result of 
     grading agents by speed rather than discretion. We've become 
     a clearinghouse for the world.

  Now that is the truth and anybody who knows what is going on in our 
system knows it. The President's action will beget even more 
lawlessness in the future. It is a statement to the world: No matter 
what the law says, you come to America, you get to stay. You will not 
be deported.
  This is a recipe for disaster. It cannot work. What we need in this 
country, and can achieve if Congress and the President will act, is to 
create a lawful system and enforce the law. We need to make it a system 
that we can be proud of and that is fairly applied. We need a system 
that ends the ability of people to defraud our country and come in 
unlawfully, and to serve the interest of working Americans.
  That is what it is all about: Are we serving their interest, or are 
we listening to special interests--political groups and activist 
groups, politicians who think they gain political advantage, and 
certain businesses who want more, cheaper labor? Don't we represent the 
vast majority of the people? Isn't there a national interest--an 
interest of the American people? Somebody needs to defend that 
interest. It has been lost in this process.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________