Date: 2013-06-05
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

I have a number of good friends on the floor. Madam Chair. My good friend. Mr. KING. serves with me on the Judiciary Committee. good friend. Mr. PRICE. who is the ranking member. has just given an eloquent expos6 of the contents of Mr. KINGs amendment. And Ive worked with Judge CARTER. Congressman CARTER. Chairman CARTER. as we look to ensuring the security of the border and protecting the homeland. I think it is important. first of all. that we should thank ICE officers across America because most ICE officers. in spite of the judicial decision that Mr. KING offers. have followed the executive order or the directions of their Director. Mr. Morton. who is an established public servant and law enforcement officer. His credentials are without question. The Judiciary Committee has heard from Mr. Morton on several occasions to articulate the premise of the provisions that are being attacked in this amendment. Each time he has been able to document the value of what this prosecutorial discretion series of orders represents. In fact. Mr. Morton went out on the road. He came to Houston. Texas. and met at our immigration services office to explain to an array of community service persons what this actually meant. There was no offering of amnesty. There was no utilization of that language. There was no suggestion that this would be an opendoor policy. This was a suggestion that thoughtful ICE agents. law enforcement officers. entrusted to uphold the law. would have the authority to use prosecutorial discretion so that. as my colleague from North Carolina said. we would go after the terrorists. go after those who are here to do us harm. but allow hardworking families to stay together. In the remarks of my good friend from Iowa. he does not make mention of the fact that the Obama administration has deported more individuals than any administration preceding it. Many of us have advocated against that. But what we did advocate for is a fair assessment of how you make that determination. Now. maybe my good friend and the friends on the floor are not aware that were under sequester. that were operating under a budget line that is not even a trillion dollars. Its $970plus billion. Thats way below what Id like to see to fund this government that we have. If that is the question. then why would my good friend. Mr. KING. suggest that we are not doing our job? So we want to split up hardworking families and fathers who are supporting their families because it may be an overstay or they came in undocumented? But most of all. the pains of the eons and eons of young people that have come into my office that are in the academic institutions of Houston. or Texas. who want to stay here and contribute to Americas dreamthe Dream childrenand were now telling them. after receiving a prosecutorial deferral. using prosecutorial discretion. a casebycase determination that theres no credible criminal background. nothing they have done wrong. and by that decision. that simple. evenhanded decision. that nothing has been done wrong by them and theyre allowed to stay. I just want to know if my friend will support me on comprehensive immigration reform. Then well be able to get it fixed. And maybe he will answer that. But I will ask my colleagues to please look at this as a law enforcement tool. This is not willynilly. This has been a thoughtful process that ICE has articulated for its agents throughout the country for them to thoughtfully look at those individuals that would pose a danger. Deport them. But to those families who need to be united that are surviving and working and supporting four and five children and going to work and going to houses of worship. or those children that are in the sophomore year or third year or graduating or graduate school. or the mother who came and fell on the ground in my office prostrate and crying when it was acknowledged that her graduate school daughter could stay here and finish her degree. It was through no fault of her own. She had come here to the United States not knowing that she did not have status. So Im hoping. like Mr. PRICE. that we will not have a divisive amendment. And Im praying that my good friend will join me on comprehensive immigration reform. Madam Chair. and that he will withdraw this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.