[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8500-8501]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    TEXAS AND THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. What does that bumper sticker say? `Don't mess with 
Texas.' Well, I am about to not follow that advice.
  You see, Texas has put itself front and center in the national debate 
over immigration and is leading the way

[[Page 8501]]

among the 26 States suing the Federal Government to stop the lawful and 
sensible executive actions introduced by the President. The court case 
that has gotten so much national attention is Texas v. The United 
States.
  The 25 other States with Republican Governors and attorneys general 
who are suing the country play second fiddle to Texas. A week ago, in 
the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, a three-judge panel issued a split 
decision. They did not issue a stay to the injunction of the 
President's executive actions imposed by a lower court, you guessed it, 
in Texas. Two out of three judges ruled that Texas would likely be 
found to have standing to bring the lawsuit because Texas would have to 
issue more driver's licenses to long-term Texas residents.
  Now, please note that we are not talking about free driver's 
licenses. We are talking about driver's licenses at the same cost 
everyone else pays. As a matter of fact, they could raise the price of 
the driver's licenses. Somehow, having more licensed drivers who can 
drive legally in Texas and across the country and who know the rules of 
the road is an unreasonable burden on the State of Texas, according to 
the politicians who run the State.
  So Texas is holding up the implementation of the program around the 
country for as many as 4 million people who live in American families. 
Who would these licensed drivers be? They would be immigrants who have 
U.S. citizen children. They would have lived and worked in American 
neighborhoods for years, shopped at the same grocery stores, and taken 
their kids to the same parks and schools as citizens do. They would 
have submitted their fingerprints for a criminal background check at 
their own expense.
  So while most Americans no longer believe we should be trying to 
deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants, and especially not those 
with deep roots in the U.S. with families, the politicians who run the 
State of Texas believe we should.
  Lived in the U.S. for 5 years or more? 10? 15? Driving to work 
anyway? Own a business that employs citizens? Too bad. The Republican 
leaders in Texas do not want you to be able to work on the books, pay 
your full share of local and Federal taxes, and pay for a driver's 
license so you could drive legally. No. That would be a burden.

                              {time}  1030

  Reality and Texas should really get to know one another.
  Now, let's remember that this is the same set of Texas politicians--
including the Governor and some Republican Members of Congress--who are 
reluctant to tell some of their voters that no, in fact, President 
Obama does not have a secret plan to use Walmart department stores as 
internment camps for gunowners, which is the latest conspiracy theory 
promoted by Chuck Norris.
  We can all get a chuckle about Operation Jade Helm--the alleged U.S. 
military invasion of Texas--but it is not as funny when we begin to 
realize that for many Republicans in the Republican Party in Texas, 
crazy is a constituency that must be dealt with delicately.
  So I want to end by speaking directly to the millions of families who 
are waiting for Texas politicians and judges to stop the delay tactics.
  And I will use the language many of them speak and which God 
understands as well, or at least I assume he speaks Spanish because he 
named his only son Jesus.
  I will summarize my remarks first in English.
  The message is that we will not give up hope and cannot stop pushing 
for the implementation of the President's executive actions just 
because politicians have prevented something important from happening--
again.
  That is why I am inviting people in Chicago to join me on Saturday in 
Little Village so we can renew our commitment to prepare ourselves for 
DACA and DAPA.
  (English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)
  Don't give up.
  There are Republican politicians in Texas and elsewhere trying to 
block our way towards implementation of DACA and DAPA and they want us 
to lose heart, lose patience, and lose our resolve.
  But we must stay strong and prepare ourselves and our brothers and 
sisters and our neighbors to be ready when--eventually--the court rules 
in favor of America's immigrants.
  I will continue fighting and I need your help. If you live in Chicago 
come join us on Saturday morning in Little Village at Iglesia Santa 
Inez de Bohemia.
  And wherever you live, continue fighting and preparing your neighbors 
and yourselves to keep our families together and make sure we are not 
deporting those who are assets to our country.
  No se rinden!
  Hay politicos republicanos en Tejas y en otros lugares tratando de 
bloquear nuestro camino hacia la implementacion de DACA y DAPA y 
quieren hacernos perder la esperanza, perder la paciencia y perder 
nuestra determinacion.
  Pero hay que permanecer fuertes y preparandonos a nosotros mismos, a 
nuestros hermanos y hermanas y a nuestros vecinos para estar listos 
cuando la corte finalmente resuelva a favor del Presidente y de los 
inmigrantes en Estados Unidos.
  Voy a seguir luchando y necesito su ayuda. Si usted vive en Chicago 
venga y unase a nosotros el sabado en la manana en la Iglesia de Santa 
Ines de Bohemia en La Villita.
  Y dondequiera que ustedes vivan, sigan luchando y preparando a sus 
vecinos y a ustedes mismos para mantener a nuestras familias unidas y 
asegurarnos de que no estemos deportando aquellos que son un gran valor 
a nuestro pais.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Illinois will provide the 
Clerk a translation of his remarks.

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