[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5929-5932]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I want to return today to the subject of 
immigration. Today marks the 285th day since the immigration bill 
passed right here in the Senate with almost 70 votes, and 285 days 
later we are still waiting for the House of Representatives to act on 
that bipartisan piece of legislation.
  Every single day the House drags its feet on immigration, our borders 
remain less secure, our visa system keeps us less competitive, our 
economy suffers, and millions of families remain in the shadows.
  Hard-working immigrants who came here to live the American dream and 
who are part of the fabric of our communities all over the State of 
Colorado and all over the United States of America are suffering 
because Congress has not passed a bill, families such as Dulce Saenz's 
family from Hudson, CO. When Dulce's father was deported, she and one 
of her sisters stayed in Colorado to start college while her mom and 
younger sister moved to Mexico to be with their dad. It was a 
heartbreaking decision for the family to separate, but that is what 
they needed to do. Now all three sisters have gone to the University of 
Denver in Colorado. They have started careers in public service. But 
they rarely see their parents. They worry about their safety.

[[Page 5930]]

  It is clear to everybody I talk to here and at home that our current 
immigration system is broken. It is also clear to me and I think to 
many people that separating families does not reflect our history and 
it does not do honor to the values that shape that history. So while 
the House stalls, the Secretary of Homeland Security is reviewing our 
deportation policy and exploring other ways we can help keep families 
together. It is a good step in the absence of a bill. We should 
prioritize deportation in a way that reflects our values as a country, 
upholds the rule of law, and keeps families together. But in the end, 
the only way to come to a full and permanent solution is to pass this 
immigration reform bill.
  Of course, this is not unusual in Washington these days when we have 
become so used to getting the bare minimum accomplished, keeping the 
lights on for another week or for another month. But what is so 
frustrating on this issue is that we have bipartisan agreement that the 
current immigration system is broken and that it is doing no favors to 
this country.
  The coalition we built in favor of reform is unprecedented. I was not 
surprised. When we started this in Colorado, first I would travel 
around the State and I would hear peach growers in Palisade say one 
thing about what they hoped for in an immigration bill, I would hear 
the cattle ranchers say something else, the ski resorts say something 
else, our high-tech community, our immigrant rights community--
everybody coming together to say: You know what, it is long past time 
to get this fixed.
  When we brought this to the national level, working together with the 
so-called group or gang of 8 on immigration, we were able to build a 
coalition that really is unprecedented. In the 5 years I have been 
here, I have not seen universal agreement on anything like we have seen 
on the immigration bill.
  In June of last year, right here in the Senate, we passed a strong 
bipartisan bill--a bill that strengthens our economy and reduces our 
debt, a bill that keeps families together, protects our borders and our 
communities, and gives families who came to this country for a better 
life a chance to earn citizenship and contribute to our economy and to 
our society.
  As I mentioned, I was part of that Gang of 8 who negotiated the bill. 
For those who despair about the lack of leadership in Congress--and I 
hear about this all the time, as I know all of my colleagues do--I tell 
them that for my part, as one American, the greatest sign or signal of 
legislative leadership that I have seen in the past 5 years was the 
leadership provided by John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and 
Jeff Flake, the four Republicans who sat at that table for 7 or 8 
months and negotiated the immigration bill. It was a lot harder for 
them to stay there than it was for the Democrats. But those four 
Republicans sat at the table for 8 months and negotiated a bill because 
they knew it was the right thing to do for the country and, 
parenthetically, the right thing to do for their party in that order.
  Yet here we are. After all that bipartisan agreement, after all that 
bipartisan work, after a great bipartisan vote on the floor of the 
Senate on one of the most immediate issues facing this country, 9 
months after our bill passed the Senate we still do not have a bill at 
the President's desk.
  The House of Representatives is privileged to have the opportunity to 
rise above politics as usual and to do something big, something real, 
something consequential that will last for this country. The House of 
Representatives has the privilege to show that stalemate does not have 
to be standard operating procedure in Washington, DC.
  This issue is completely bipartisan at home. I hear about this as 
much from Republicans--maybe even more from Republicans in farm country 
than I do from Democrats, the chance to do something important for our 
Nation and for our future. But until the House acts, families, farmers, 
and businesses all across my State and all across the United States 
will continue to suffer, farmers such as Eric Hanagan and Michael 
Hirakata outside of Rocky Ford, who cannot get the seasonal workers 
they need and are forced to watch crops--in their case, melons--die in 
the field.
  Colorado's high-tech companies on the front range--ranging from 
bioscience, engineering, and aerospace--cannot always find the 
employees they need. In fact, they often cannot find the employees, 
which introduces an entirely different subject that relates to our K-12 
education system, but that is not the topic of the speech today.
  We know that almost one-quarter of STEM graduates from Colorado's 
STEM--math and science graduates from Colorado's leading universities 
are immigrants who are graduating in the United States, many of whose 
education has been subsidized by us. Instead of saying to them, 
``Please stay here; build our business here; go work for one of our 
high-tech companies here,'' we are saying to them, ``Go home. We would 
much rather have you compete with us from India. Go home. We would much 
rather have you compete with us from China.'' It is ridiculous. It 
makes no sense.
  The Senate bill, the bill we passed, changes that. The bill we passed 
says: If you are a STEM graduate from another country and you graduate 
from an American university and you have a job offer in the United 
States of America, we will staple the green card to your diploma.
  That is what we need in this country. That is what the high-tech 
industry in Colorado needs out of the House of Representatives.
  I mentioned tourism at our ski resorts. They will continue to suffer. 
This is Colorado's second largest industry.
  There are a lot of reasons to act, there are a lot of economic 
reasons to act, but I think there are also fundamental reasons that 
have to do with who we are as a country. It is often said that America 
is a nation of immigrants. Of course that is true. There is literally 
no other country in the world for which immigration is so central to 
its history and to its identity.
  I have heard enough speeches in this Chamber to know that for a lot 
of us, for a lot of the 100 of us, it is very personal as well. I am a 
first-generation American. I know there are many others who are here. 
There is not a person in this Chamber who does not have immigration as 
part of their family's history.
  But this is not just a theoretical idea, that we are a nation of 
immigrants. I want to take a moment to reflect on what this really 
means. This is a photo I am proud to say I actually managed to take 
with my cell phone. My daughters would be shocked to know that I was 
able not only to get the picture taken, but it is not even blurry.
  I had an occasion--I hope the Presiding Officer has had the 
opportunity to do it--to do something I never imagined I would ever 
have the chance to do. I attended a naturalization ceremony held for 
Active-Duty servicemembers at Fort Carson, CO. Let's be clear. These 
are men and women who are serving the United States of America in 
uniform. On that day they became citizens of the United States. Until 
that day they were not citizens but still they were serving and are 
serving in our Armed Forces. The 13 soldiers and spouses who became 
U.S. citizens that day represented 12 different countries. This is a 
picture of them--12 different countries among the 13.
  I am going to read the list. I was so blown away by the list that I 
asked one of the people from the INS who was there to give me what is 
called the oath ceremony nationality report from which they read the 
names of the countries. It is an astonishing list. Here are the 
countries these folks are from: China, the People's Republic of China, 
Colombia, Haiti, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines, 
South Korea, Togo, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom--12 different 
countries.
  Every single one of them came here in pursuit of the American dream, 
just as generations of people from around the world have sought out the 
United States to build their future. These are the people--and people 
just like them

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all across the United States of America--who are going to determine our 
future, just as every generation of immigrants has helped us to 
determine our future. Whether it is refugees fleeing persecution, 
whether it is parents seeking opportunity for their children, it is 
those stepping forward to sacrifice for our shared values, as all of 
these young men and women are, who make America the country we love. 
There is no way to argue that our current immigration policies reflect 
that history or our values.
  Let me paint a picture of what our country would look like if this 
immigration bill were passed. Just to be clear, again, it is not 
imaginary; we passed the bill in the Senate.
  If people on the other side have issues with the bill, what I say is 
we have no monopoly on wisdom. Bring your ideas; improve the bill. I 
can think of some things I would do to improve that bill, but you can't 
just do nothing. You can't do nothing, because if we pass the bill in 
the House, those who come to this country for a better life, including 
young people--whose parents brought them here as children, and they are 
here through no fault of their own--would have the opportunity to enter 
a tough but fair path to citizenship. With a path in place we would 
then see higher wages, more consumption of goods and increased taxes.
  It would reduce our debt. This bill--and this is not me talking, 
Michael Bennet from Colorado, this is the Congressional Budget Office--
would reduce our debt by nearly $1 trillion over 20 years. I am unaware 
of any other piece of legislation that has passed with a bipartisan 
majority in the Congress that reduces our debt by $1 trillion but this 
would. It wouldn't do it in across-the-board cuts. It would do it 
because of the growth it would create in our economy, the incremental 
economic growth. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office has said that 
if we pass this bill, we would see an increase of almost 6 percent of 
incremental GDP growth over this 20-year period, 3 percent in the first 
10 years and 5 percent in the second 10 years.
  Second, our bill would put into place an efficient and flexible visa 
system that would catapult our competitiveness in a changing 21st 
century economy. Canada, our neighbor to the North, is figuring out how 
to attract the world's talent to its shores. That is what they are 
spending their time doing. We, a historic nation of immigrants, are 
saying please go home and compete with us from someplace else or maybe 
go to Canada and compete with us from there. Talented entrepreneurs and 
innovators from around the world would have the opportunity to stay if 
we passed this bill and create jobs to fuel our economy. It is well-
documented how many Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants, 
but millions of small businesses across the United States have been 
started by immigrants as well. High-skilled workers in science, 
technology, engineering, and math and lower skilled workers in 
industries such as hospitality and tourism would come into the country 
to fill jobs where there are no available U.S. workers. This was a bill 
that labor and the chamber endorsed. That is the first time that has 
happened. It was a difficult and painful negotiation, but we were able 
to get it done, and they agreed we ought to get it done.
  It is very important for Colorado and a lot of other States. We would 
stabilize the challenges facing our agricultural industry with a new 
streamlined program for agricultural guest workers that is more usable 
for employees and protects our workers.
  Again, this is the first bill ever. We call this portion the AgJOBS 
bill, the first one--first one--to be endorsed by the growers and the 
farm workers. That has never happened before, but working with Senator 
Rubio, Senator Hatch, and Senator Feinstein, we were able to get that 
done.
  Finally, and more importantly, our borders would be more secure with 
new fencing, double the number of border agents, and increased spending 
on new technology. We have what they call full situational awareness on 
the border to allow us to interdict threats rapidly and successfully--
and, very importantly, with a mandatory employment verification system 
and more effective entry-exit system, we would prevent future waves in 
illegal immigration so we don't end back up in the problem we are 
facing today. Then our small businesses all across the country can stop 
being the INS and concentrate on building their businesses. These are 
all changes our Nation urgently needs, and there are more.
  I am not here to argue for some partisan piece of legislation that 
didn't attract votes on both sides. This bill was entirely bipartisan 
from beginning to end. I have heard a laundry list of excuses out of 
people in the House why they haven't addressed immigration reform, but 
at some point it is time for those excuses to stop and for the stalling 
to stop. If they want to show the country they are serious about 
growing our economy and keeping families together, then they need to 
show us they are serious about immigration reform.
  I actually think the Speaker wants to pass a bill. In fact, I think 
he could pass a bill if he put it on the floor tomorrow and let the 
House work its will. But it is not my job, obviously, to try to tell 
him how to do his job. It is no one's job in the Senate to tell him how 
to do his job, but I suppose it is our job to give him encouragement, 
to say we will be there to support you if you can find a way to get 
this bill passed.
  If they want to show the country they are serious about growing our 
economy and keeping families together, then they need to show us they 
are serious about immigration reform. It doesn't have to be a carbon 
copy of what we passed, although if they look at it, what they will 
find is the elements that are in there hang very well together.
  Look at this photo. Again, this is what America looks like. This is 
what Colorado looks like. This is what America looks like. It is what 
it is all about. These are faces of people who want to contribute. This 
diversity is how we thrive as a country, and it is how we are going to 
thrive in the future. It has always been our strength, and it is what 
sets us apart in many ways from countries all over the world.
  These new citizens want to contribute to our economy and to our 
communities. They want to serve our country, they want to pay taxes and 
abide by the law, and they want to build a better life here for 
themselves and their families.
  This picture is exactly why we need reform. These brave men and women 
say it all. They say it much better than I do.
  I see my colleague from Pennsylvania is in the Chamber, so I will 
wrap up.
  Let me say that two of the things that set us apart from countries 
all over the world, two of the essential components that make us the 
United States of America, are our commitment to the rule of law and our 
understanding of ourselves as being a nation of immigrants. Almost no 
other country in the world can say what we can say about that. I can 
tell you no other country in the world was having that naturalization 
ceremony the day we were having it at Fort Carson.
  This bill gives us a chance to reaffirm those two ideas that we are a 
nation committed to the rule of law and that we are a nation of 
immigrants.
  I had the chance this weekend to spend some time in my wife's 
hometown in the Mississippi Delta. It is one of the poorer parts of the 
country, and it has been for a very long time. It is a tough place in a 
lot of ways. We have a lot of great family there. After we finished, we 
went to Memphis to visit the civil rights museum, which has just 
reopened. If anybody has the chance to go, they should go to visit it, 
because what you see is the history of a struggle from the 1600s 
forward--generation upon generation--trying to perfect this country and 
keep it true to the idea that in this case we are all created equal.
  For a long time we weren't able to perfect that. We still are having 
to perfect it. We are making progress, and that is what we are meant to 
do. Today we have that chance. The House has that chance tomorrow or 
next week or next month to make sure that we honor our commitment, this 
generation's commitment to a generation of

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immigrants and to the generations that are coming after them. I hope 
they will take up that challenge.
  I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania and the Presiding Officer as 
well for his patience.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. CASEY. I wish to say a word of commendation for the remarks the 
Senator from Colorado just made about a very important issue, and that 
photograph he took is, indeed, an inspiration to all Americans. Each of 
us can be inspired by that photograph, what it represents, by the 
sacrifice that undergirds that photograph, and also for his reminding 
us about those sacrifices and those commitments, so we want to thank 
him.

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