Date: 2014-08-01
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

I hope the Speaker says that word from Texas very loud because I listened earlier today of all of the relief in the appropriations bill given to Texans down at the border. $594 million. Let me tell you that there are people in Texas who are ready to serve and help the unaccompanied children. There are people in Texas who recognize that we are the good Samaritans. Dont label us with wanting $594 million. and dont label us with standing against the DACA children. the DREAMers. who have come to this country and been here for 5 years. Mr. Speaker. these children ran into the arms of the Border Patrol. There is no criminal or legal crisis at the border. but the DACA bill that is here on the floor of the House is a disgrace to the words of the StarSpangled Banner. We are the home of the free and the brave. We are free enough to be able to welcome those in need. This body knows that DACA has nothing to do with the unaccompanied children. and it is a disgrace that we would undermine the hardworking students like Juan Jesus in my office this summer. that we would undermine it with a disgraceful billa disgraceful bill. It is disgraceful. Pass comprehensive immigration reform. Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 5272. a bill brought to the floor at the eleventh hour by the House Republican leadership to placate its extreme rightwing Tea Party faction and one of the most hypocritical. irresponsible. and meanspirited legislative proposals brought to the House floor this year. H.R. 5272 seeks to prohibit the Administration from exercising its administrative discretion to focus resources on identifying and apprehending those aliens who are present in country illegally who pose the most serious danger to our national security and the safety of our citizens. This cynical bill is hypocritical because the vast majority of its proponents have been claiming for years now that the reason they refuse to compromise on budget issues. support for sequestration. and voted to shut down the government is because of their belief in the importance of setting spending priorities. Yet. H.R. 5272 would deny ICE the ability to use its limited resources in the most efficient manner to achieve its highest priorities which is to apprehend. detain. and remove aliens who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety. This bill is irresponsible because it seeks to prevent trained. experienced. and professional agents and prosecutors from exercising their discretion and acting on the basis of what everyone knows to be true: that there is a vast difference between a terrorist bent on harming America and a DREAM Act kid studying hard in school so he or she can graduate. join the Armed Services and willingly risk his or her life to defend the country. or go to work to support his or her family. This inefficient use of resources wastes taxpayer dollars and does nothing to keep America safe. This bill is meanspirited because it would have ICE target its limited resources on innocent. law abiding. young people who were brought to this country as children and would have them deported to a foreign land even though America is the country they may know as home and the only one to which they may have ever pledged allegiance. Mr. Speaker. I traveled many times to Iraq and Afghanistan and always the highlight of my visit was meeting the young men and women who were willingly risking their lives to defend the country they love more than life. More than 5.000 of the soldiers who fought for us in Afghanistan and Iraq were not yet American citizens but DREAMers who dreamed that one day they might become citizens of the nation they gladly risked their lives to defend. Instead of honoring their service. this heartless bill before us crushes their dream by forcing ICE agents and prosecutors to pretend that there is no difference between one of these veterans who came to this country as an undocumented immigrant and an alien engaged in or suspected of espionage or terrorism. Mr. Speaker. H.R. 5272 also wastes the money of hardworking taxpayers and does nothing to make America safer. and eliminates a fair and just policy legal under the Presidents executive authority which allows for relief for young children who have been in America for a certain number of years. follow certain requirements and may be deferred from deportation to serve in the U.S. military. go to school and contribute to America. And. just as bad. it is inconsistent with American values of justice and fair play. We must address our broken immigration system through comprehensive reform rather than extinguish Ms. Libertys lamp of freedom or close her Golden Door. We are better than that and I urge all Members to join me in rejecting this terrible legislation.