[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7861-7862]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this morning marks 321 days since this body 
passed commonsense immigration reform. For 321 days the Republican-
controlled House of Representatives has done absolutely nothing to 
address our Nation's problems dealing with our broken immigration 
system. It is a system that is broken and needs to be fixed. It cannot 
be fixed on a piecemeal basis. It needs comprehensive immigration 
reform.
  To the Republican extremists in the House, the time went by like 
that. To them, 321 days does not seem like a big deal. But outside of 
the Capitol, where we are dealing with people's lives, those 321 days 
felt like a lifetime. To American families forced to live in the 
shadows, each one of those days brings the dread of discovery and being 
torn away from their loved ones. Undocumented immigrants have lived in 
fear for the last 46 weeks, worrying whether they will have to leave 
the country they call home. For the past 10\1/2\ months children have 
lost their parents from government action--all while House Republicans 
have twiddled their thumbs.
  Enough is enough. It is time for the House Republicans to act. They 
have wasted far too much time already failing to consider a bill that 
the Senate considered, and passed in less than 2 months.
  A year ago the Senate Judiciary Committee, under Chairman Leahy's 
leadership, was in the middle of marking up the commonsense immigration 
reform. After 2 weeks of consideration, what did they do? A bipartisan 
bill was reported out of that committee. Within a month the Senate 
passed immigration reform and sent it to the House of Representatives. 
It was a good start. It was really good. But in our system of 
government, what we did here will have absolutely no meaning unless the 
House takes it up. We were able to move on immigration reform quickly 
because both Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans understood the 
need to fix a broken system.
  What is the House Republicans' excuse? Why are they doing this? What 
are they achieving by dragging their feet on immigration reform? They 
claim to be working on things--they say jobs, they say legislation to 
reduce the debt. If they are really interested in reducing the debt, 
pass this bill. It is $1 trillion to reduce our debt--$1 trillion. What 
are they doing over there? Day after day, investigations--they 
investigate everything and accomplish nothing.
  The fact is that the Senate-passed immigration bill reduces the 
deficit and spurs the economy more than the House-passed bills awaiting 
Senate action combined. I repeat: $1 trillion. The immigration 
legislation passed by the Senate reduces the deficit more than all the 
bills passed by the House that are currently awaiting action in the 
Senate.
  So it is no wonder that even pro-Republican organizations are calling 
on Speaker Boehner to stop wasting time. Earlier this week we heard Tom 
Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, say that it is 
in the Republicans' best interests to pass immigration reform. He said 
unless the House passes immigration reform this year, Republicans 
shouldn't even bother running in 2016. So that is what he said, and it 
is probably true.
  Politics should not be the only reason the House passes this bill. 
Immigration reform is far more important than any election-year 
politicking. Immigration reform is about families and communities.
  The DREAM Act is a perfect example. In September 2010, I was in the 
midst of what some considered a tough re-election campaign when I 
helped champion Senator Durbin's DREAM Act. Though it was eventually 
blocked by a Republican filibuster, I did my best to pass the DREAM 
Act, even as some said it would cost me the election. As everyone knows 
by this time, the President, as he said in his State of the Union 
Address--and he did this last Congress and he is doing it this 
Congress--because we are doing virtually

[[Page 7862]]

nothing here in the Senate, he decided to do something 
administratively. That is why we have deferred status for these young 
men and women who want to go into the military, finish their education, 
and this is the only place they have ever known as home.
  The bill that passed here is common sense. Eleven million people--we 
cannot fiscally deport 11 million people. We cannot physically do it. 
It just will not work. That is why the legislation that was crafted 
here on a bipartisan basis is fair to everyone. What it says is that if 
this is your home and you have improper papers, we will give you some 
time to get those adjusted. It is going to take some time. You are not 
going to go to the front of the line; you are going to go to the back 
of the line. You are going to have to pay taxes. You are going to have 
to work. You are going to have to stay out of trouble and learn 
English. It would take about a dozen years to have your status 
adjusted, but at least during that period of time you can come out of 
the shadows.
  Recently, though, the House Judiciary Committee chairman appeared on 
a Sunday news show and tried very, very unsuccessfully to justify his 
party's inaction. His reasoning as to why the House is dragging its 
heels? Republicans claim President Obama cannot be trusted to enforce 
immigration law. So what Republicans are really saying is that they 
will not act on immigration reform unless there are more deportations, 
more families torn apart. That does not make a lot of sense to most 
people. In a nutshell, it is the House immigration platform.
  Why work to help undocumented immigrants get right with the law? Why 
do that? Because it is good for the country. It is fair. And, as I have 
indicated, it is good monetarily for this country. But what the 
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said on one of those Sunday 
shows is in keeping with what they have done. It is hard to comprehend.
  I guess that is what we have learned to expect from a House 
Republican conference whose immigration policy is dictated by the likes 
of Congressman Steven King. Remember him, Mr. President? He is the 
Congressmen who, instead of permitting immigrants to enlist in the 
military and earn citizenship, would rather send them ``on a bus back 
to Tijuana.'' That is a quote from him. Congressman King also claimed 
that for every hard-working undocumented student, there are 100 more 
working as drug mules with ``calves the size of cantaloupes because 
they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.''
  The fact of the matter is that these men and women, with their 
families, are our neighbors, our classmates, our colleagues. They are 
here for a lot of different reasons. They have overstayed their visas. 
Some were brought here illegally. But we have to deal with this issue. 
So many of them are like Astrid Silva, who is one of the DREAMers. She 
was 4 years old, a little girl in a boat coming across the Rio Grande 
River. She had her Rosary beads and a little doll and her mom. Nevada 
is the only place she has ever known as home. Because she was so 
frightened, she was afraid to go anyplace.
  This is the right thing to do. We need to move forward on 
comprehensive immigration reform, and we can only do that if the 
Republicans in the House, led by Speaker Boehner, do the right thing. 
It is very important. I urge the House to stop wasting time and bring 
immigration reform to a vote. Give the American people the assurance 
that we are working to finally mend our broken immigration system and 
give families the opportunity to come forward and work toward legal 
status. It really is the right thing to do.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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