[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 19, 2023)] [House] [Pages H1876-H1879] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-19
Chamber: HOUSE
Mrs. RAMIREZ: I too dream of that day. You see, half of my family is still undocumented. Half of my family has lived here for almost 40 years. My uncle, Max Guerra, will be turning 70 in 2 years. He works at a diner. He works 65 to 70 hours a week, standing there preparing meals for others to be able to enjoy. I asked him: Tio, you are almost 70, why are you still working so much? He says to me: Delia, I have to make sure that all my four boys get through college. I have to help them pay for college because I have no way of guaranteeing that I will be here tomorrow or the day after because of my immigration status. I have to work like today is the last day that I will be able to provide for my family. My uncle, Max Miliano Guerra, is not alone. As we think about this broken immigration system and as we think about healthcare, I have to go back to that moment where I proudly stood on the statehouse floor and passed legislation to expand healthcare coverage to people who are undocumented and over the age of 42. I remember receiving a letter from a young woman who had just become a citizen. Her letter to me said, Representative Ramirez, I wish you would have been in the statehouse just a few years before. I wish you would have been able to pass the legislation you passed a few years ago because if you had done that my father would still be alive today. Her father was in this country for almost 40 whole years working at factories and small businesses, giving to the community, contributing every single day, paying taxes. He got very sick. He got cancer but had no healthcare. Her father worked until he could no longer work, which was days before he died because he had no access to healthcare in a country he contributed to for almost 40 years. This is why when we talk about healthcare coverage and when we talk about this moment and immigration, we can't separate the issues. We understand that it is past time for us to be able to have a pathway to citizenship. It is past time that DACA Dreamers, like my own husband, have access to healthcare. They are healthcare workers, they are teachers, and during the pandemic they kept you and me alive. This is exactly why I applaud President Biden's administration and this proposal to finally provide healthcare to those who every single year provide more than $9.4 billion of tax revenue to this country we love.  This is exactly why standing here as a Member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as the daughter of a woman who crossed the border when she was pregnant with me in her first trimester--a woman who said to me, Delia, water was just a privilege. It was the ability to be able to keep on walking and recognizing that I needed you to have the life I never had. I needed you to wear your first pair of shoes before the age of seven, unlike me. I needed you to be able to get more than a third grade education. I risked everything in 1,811 miles of desert, walking 40 years ago so that you, inside my womb, could be born in a country where you would have the opportunities I never had. That woman today is a citizen because of amnesty of 1987. One thing that woman never imagined was that her daughter, that life she fought so hard to keep alive in the Rio Grande, would be standing before you today in the same fight for immigration reform that so many for the last 40 years have had. This is why we understand that we have to get past parties. We have to be in a position to be able to expand healthcare coverage to people regardless of their legal status. As Congressman Carter said, we need to recognize that it is actually quite more affordable to provide preventative care than to care for someone when they are nearly dying in a hospital, which is exactly what we saw in the State of Illinois. By expanding healthcare coverage to people in Illinois, hospitals no longer have to take in people who are dying because they didn't get preventive care. This is why this proposal and this proposed rule will make such a difference--not just to Boris, but to all of those children that came so young and are no longer 13, 14, 15, they are 38, 39. It has been the honor of my life to be sworn into the U.S. Congress. I recognize the responsibility we have and the commitment of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to ensure that we stop talking about immigration reform and do something about it. Mr. Speaker, I am sick and tired of going back home and having to look at people that look like me, that carry my blood, and tell them: Maybe next Congress. Maybe next time. Maybe convince this person or convince the other. It is past time that this country that I love, that I was born in, where I get to serve in Congress as the first Latina from the Midwest that proudly I represent, that we finally do what is right and what we all know is not just a moral obligation. It is also one that allows us to be able to continue to contribute and see the economic development and the contributions of our immigrants here in this country. Mr. Speaker, I thank all of my colleagues who have joined tonight's Progressive Caucus Special Order hour. What is absolutely clear to me is that the power of our collective voices, united in making comprehensive immigration reform and universal healthcare a reality now, not later--and not only for some while other members of the immigrant community suffer--must be our responsibility. I know that when there is a will there is always a way. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.