[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1250]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  MAKE PROGRESS ON LEGAL IMMIGRATION RATHER THAN BLAME PRESIDENT OBAMA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, Republicans in the House are 
holding a hearing that will blame the Obama administration because 
thousands of children and young adults are fleeing three countries in 
Central America and are seeking safety in the United States and in 
other countries.
  The premise, as far as the Republicans on the committee are 
concerned, is that President Obama has not deported anyone or enforced 
any immigration laws. As far as they are concerned, the President's 
executive actions--which we should remember are for a different set of 
immigrants altogether and which Republicans have delayed until the 
Supreme Court decides on a lawsuit this summer--are a clarion call to 
everyone in these three particular countries to attempt to come to the 
U.S. It is not the rampant murders, the extortion, the forced 
conscription into street gangs, or the utter collapse of civil society 
and civil order that is driving people to risk their lives to seek 
safety here. No. It is ``that'' President whom Republicans love to 
hate. He is to blame.
  I hope that at least a little time at the Judiciary hearing on 
Thursday will be devoted to the problems our government has faced over 
the past couple of years in handling young and unaccompanied asylum 
seekers from Central America. We know that some women were kept in 
lockups for too long, that the term ``humane family detention'' is an 
oxymoron, that children were released to guardians who did not have the 
children's best interests in mind, and that some were forced into human 
trafficking situations, and we should have been more vigilant. Those 
are the issues I hope we can focus on.
  We should be asking: How can we remain a society that protects the 
innocent, that cares for children who have put themselves in our care, 
and that does so in accordance with the laws of this Nation and the 
laws of basic decency?
  Unfortunately, at this point, we know what Judiciary Committee 
hearings are not about. They are not serious attempts to craft 
legislation that creates an immigration system that works for the 
American people. Hearings in this Congress are not about how the 
Congress can create legal and controlled immigration alternatives so 
that people do not try to come illegally or spend thousands of dollars 
on smugglers and traffickers.
  We will probably not discuss how a generation of temporary protected 
status for certain immigrants has not created a long-term, sustainable 
situation in immigrant communities or sending countries so that 
immigration is safe, legal, orderly, and voluntary.
  We will spend a lot of time discussing whether President Obama is to 
blame but very little time actually discussing why people come in the 
dead of night, holding onto a freight train, and running a gauntlet 
with smugglers and not what can be done to have immigration where 
people come in the light of day with visas, passports, and plane 
tickets.
  We simply will not discuss how we get from this broken reality to a 
feasible and sustainable future of immigration. Rather, the Judiciary 
Committee will continue to feed the hucksterism and red meat politics 
that Americans hate, and they hate it with good reason.
  In the years since 2007, when President George Bush started ramping 
up raids and deportations, right through the 2 million deportations of 
President Obama's, I can honestly say I have not seen such fear and 
anxiety in immigrant communities, where mothers and fathers are keeping 
their children out of school because of the fear of being arrested by 
immigration authorities.
  The home raids announced by the Obama administration around Christmas 
have struck a nerve. They have sparked rumors and panic and have 
multiplied as city after city has experienced raids or the rumors of 
raids. Children are taken as they go to school--yes, as they go to 
school. The government has stopped them and has arrested them.
  The fear and anxiety has nothing to do with Donald Trump or with the 
fantasy that he has of deporting millions of immigrants or of barring 
people from this country because of their religion. The fear and 
anxiety is born of decades of congressional inaction and of leaders in 
Washington who hope that the problem will just go away; but we will not 
be discussing that at the hearing tomorrow.
  As for the path forward that will allow the country to move beyond 
the legislative roadblock imposed by the opponents of legal 
immigration, we will, again, not discuss how we make progress but, 
rather, yes, how we blame Obama.
  For all of the Americans who want a legal and accountable immigration 
system and for all of the families who fear a knock on their doors, 
this Congress, again, seems to have nothing and to do nothing other 
than to let the demagogues and fear rule the day.
  Mr. Speaker, that is a shame.

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