[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 25]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




RAIDS BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ON FAMILIES FROM CENTRAL AMERICA MUST 
                                  STOP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, over the holidays, the Obama 
administration sent a very special Christmas greeting to immigrant 
families. They launched a series of home raids targeting Central 
American asylum seekers and immigrant families with children.
  As its New Year's resolution, it is clear the Obama administration is 
embarking on a new enforcement initiative to deport Central Americans 
who entered the U.S. in 2014.
  Last weekend, 121 children and adults were taken into custody, and 
most were sent to private family detention centers--a kind of privately 
run, for-profit family jail. They will probably be deported, just like 
the 2 million before them deported by President Obama.
  How they are treated and whether they get meaningful due process 
remains a question mark. What is undeniable is that such raids strike 
maximum fear in immigrant communities. The government is saying they 
could be coming to your house, and they could be coming at any time.
  Already, we are seeing signs of panic. We hear that children aren't 
going to school and parents aren't going to work out of fear. Not even 
a week into the new year, and 2016 has turned into one of fear and 
hiding.
  But let us be clear: Deporting families will not solve the violence 
and corruption that push people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and 
Honduras to risk assault, rape, and murder to seek refuge in the United 
States. Deporting families will not weaken the gangs who terrorize and 
extort their own people in Central America. Deporting families will not 
solve America's immigration problem. Deporting families will not 
strengthen border security. Deporting families will not create legal 
channels that allow immigrants to come with visas instead of smugglers. 
Deporting families will not reduce the insatiable demand in the United 
States for the very drugs that fuel the gangs, the guns, the smuggling 
operations, and the ruthless violence in Central America.
  The raids by the Obama administration on families from Central 
America must stop. They are a cruel reminder of a discredited policy.
  We do not want to repeat the scenes from April 2000 when armed agents 
forcibly took Elian Gonzalez from his house in Miami. That vision of 
terror is seared into America's memory and should not be repeated.
  But even the raid on the home of Elian Gonzalez was carried out after 
all peaceful means of negotiation were exhausted. Surely there is a 
better way to take action when people have exhausted all of their legal 
remedies than to send armed agents into neighborhoods, apartment 
complexes, and family homes.
  Those who are being deported are the ones most likely to have no 
attorney, no understanding of the laws and the practices of immigration 
courts, and now could be vulnerable to attack and murder back in 
Central America.
  The fact is that some of the people the U.S. Government has deported 
in the past years have ended up dead in days or weeks after their 
return. We have to make sure that same tragic fate does not wait for 
the individuals and families the government is currently rounding up.
  Along with other Members of Congress, I am seeking answers from 
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson as to why this policy is 
needed, why it was launched to instill fear in immigrant households 
over the Christmas holidays, and why family detention centers I have 
been trying to close are now filling up with new families awaiting 
deportation.
  This is not the Democratic Party's solution to immigration questions, 
nor should it be America's. We expect heated calls for raids and 
deportation from the other side. We hear their calls for walls, bigger 
jails, and further restrictions on legal immigration. We will fight 
their efforts to erect religious or economic barriers to who can 
qualify for a chance to come to America.
  Our party has rejected those calls with good reason. Americans want 
order and legality in immigration, not deportations and families 
forcefully split apart or exiled. We do not need to repeat that scene 
multiplied by hundreds or thousands of times across our Nation.
  What we need to do is not easy, but it is the right thing to do. We 
need to take steps to solve the problems of gangs, weak and corrupt 
governments in Central America, and people who have no hope for a 
brighter future right here on our continent.
  Serious aid is more than giving more money to the police departments 
of those countries. It is more than putting U.S. personnel in those 
countries to tell moms and dads, no, you can't seek refuge in the U.S. 
It is more than working with Mexico at its southern border. We need to 
give mothers and fathers and children a way to live in their own 
countries.
  I have gone to the detention centers in Texas and met with the moms 
and the kids who were detained there when they came to the United 
States. One woman summed up their plight concisely by saying: Luis, in 
Honduras, my family and I could live in poverty, but we could not live 
in peace.
  Raids will not bring her peace. Raids will not bring us order. Raids 
will only bring misery.

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