[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11140]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FIGHTING FOR IMMIGRATION POLICIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, it looks almost certain that the Trump 
administration is going to take about 1.2 million immigrants who 
currently have documents issued by the U.S. Government and turn them 
into undocumented immigrants. They have work permits and pay their full 
share of taxes. They are covered by U.S. labor laws and are not 
undercutting the wages, well-being, and livelihood of native-born 
American workers.
  For all intents and purposes, they are documented workers in the 
U.S., and many have been here for more than two decades. Nevertheless, 
the more than 400,000 with temporary protected status, or TPS, and 
800,000 with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, could be 
made undocumented in the coming weeks and in the month of September.
  Then, once they are categorized as undocumented, President Trump will 
unleash ICE and Homeland Security to go after them so they can be 
deported.
  There are 800,000 young people who went through a thorough background 
check and have been complying with the rules of the DACA program for 
almost 5 years. They were brought here as children and grew up in the 
United States, went to our schools, played sports with our kids, and 
they speak English probably as well as you and I.
  They came forward, as they were told to, and we actually reduced the 
population of undocumented immigrants, got people on the books, and 
were able to redeploy our resources elsewhere.
  Now it appears that the leaders in the Republican Party who do not 
like the idea of so many immigrants having legal status are giving the 
President an ultimatum: deport the DREAMers, or we will sue.
  The Governor of Texas, who is leading the charge, has a very 
sympathetic judge, and it is up to Jeff Sessions to put up a fight, 
when he himself has been trying to kill legal status for immigrants for 
years.
  So, practically speaking, between ending DACA and ending TPS, we are 
going to dump about 1.2 million people into the pool of 10 million to 
11 million people who are living and working here under the radar, 
outside of legal protections, and without any way to become legal.
  So this Saturday, in Chicago, at 2 p.m., at Lincoln United Methodist 
Church on Damen, we are going to get together and organize ourselves to 
fight back. Yes, there will be legislation from Democrats and even 
Republicans to fight back. There will be court cases to fight back, 
even if the Attorney General does nothing, which we fully expect him to 
do. But fighting for DACA and fighting to keep millions of people in 
this country who have put down roots and built lives here is going to 
be a people's fight, and the effort to find ways to protect families 
and to cope with more than a million people being pushed into the black 
market requires us to organize in every community across the Nation.
  It is up to us to teach each other how we will resist this latest 
insult in our congregations, churches, universities, cities, and 
neighborhoods throughout the Nation. Immigrants or people who have DACA 
or TPS cannot do this on their own, but they need to be part of a 
coalition that fights back.
  Teachers who work with kids every day and bear witness to the fears 
students face every day about their parents and families can't do this 
alone. They need to be part of a coalition that comes together to 
resist.
  Employers will face a choice: whether they are just going to roll 
over while employees are ruled ineligible and work documents are 
terminated, or to stand with us and stand with their workers and fight 
for them.
  So, if you marched with your pink hat at the Women's March, I am 
asking you now, on behalf of immigrants and the very future of 
immigration, to stand with us. If you marched for science or the 
environment, if you have joined us in protesting bathroom laws and 
discrimination in all its forms, your brothers and sisters need you 
now.
  At airports across the country, you stood up for refugees and said no 
to Trump's Muslim ban. We need you. Black Lives Matter, we need you, 
and, frankly, we need each other.
  People are going to peacefully stand up and fight for justice, common 
sense, and what is right. We need everyone to be there with us, helping 
us, walking with us. In Chicago, it starts this Saturday at 2 at 
Lincoln United Methodist Church in Pilsen.
  The road ahead is not going to be very easy, but we have fought hard 
to win victories for our country, and for the DREAMers, who are the 
leading edge of our movement to make immigration legal again in this 
country.
  Now is the time. We need your help to protect families and 
communities and to do what is right. We cannot do it alone.

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