Addressing the Immigration Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, prior to addressing the immigration crisis, which is the biggest problem, I think, facing America today, after hearing a rather lengthy speech before mine, I was analyzing the well here and noticing the flag of the United States of America behind me. As I am looking at that flag, I couldn't help but think about the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Pledge of Allegiance begins: ``I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands.''

I pondered why that Pledge of Allegiance refers to this country as a republic instead of a democracy of which it stands. I think it would be a good thing for the other Congressmen up here to think about that as well.

There have been several versions of the Pledge of Allegiance. In each one of the versions, while there are changes made, it refers to our country as a republic instead of a democracy. We should wonder why that is, and I think every Congressman should read up on the difference.

Now, the reason I am here today is to discuss what I think is the biggest problem in the United States of America, the one thing we have to deal with in the immediate future and something that I believe does not grab the attention of Congress the way it should, and that is the immigration crisis.

One more time, another month will go by, and another 100,000 people will enter this country not at the designated points of entry. We believe another 10,000 people will enter at the points of entry and claim asylum, whether they actually need asylum or not.

No country can afford to have over 100,000 people pour into that country month after month after month without being appropriately vetted, stepping in line ahead of the people who are doing what is appropriate to become a citizen of the United States or appropriate to get a work visa in the United States.

Ultimately, this will destroy our country, and it is something that this Congress should be dealing with immediately.

I think it is a little embarrassing, hearing all the other speeches up here and no speeches about the immigration crisis.

I want to point out, neither I nor President Trump wants to reduce the 700,000 people who are sworn in as citizens in this country every year, neither do we want to deal with the 4 million work permits that people in this country already have. Neither are they overly concerned that we, right now, have the highest number of foreign-born people in this country as a percentage of our total population since World War I.

Now, what are we going to do about this crisis? Because, obviously, be it culturally, be it fiscally, we cannot allow this to go on any further.

The first thing I think President Trump should do is end birthright citizenship. To say that if you come here, and particularly given that we allow entire families to stay once somebody is a citizen, to continue to allow the situation to happen in which, if you come here, whether you come in not at a designated point of entry, whether you come here flying in on a jet plane, in the United States of America, a newly born child becomes a citizen.

We and Canada are the only two countries of the 40 wealthiest countries in the world per capita that allow this birthright citizenship to continue.

I know President Trump understands this problem very well. He understands very well, as some Members of Congress do not, that the amendment to the Constitution that talks about people being born in this country becoming citizens was meant to deal with slavery, not meant to deal with anybody who comes here.

I strongly urge President Trump to step up and do something that he talked about doing during his campaign, and that is ending birthright citizenship.

In addition to the fact that it is wrong on its face, as long as you have birthright citizenship, it encourages people to come here, even illegally, knowing that if they have a child here, it will create a situation in which there is a good chance the rest of the family will follow.

The next thing I think we can do is put immigration judges on the border. Right now, people are showing up, and they are asking for asylum. They are given a court date 5 years down the line.

Well, who knows whether they will be around in 5 years. They probably will not show up for the court date at that time.

I strongly encourage President Trump to put judges on the border so we can immediately judge whether these people are entitled to asylum or not.

The next thing, along the same lines, I strongly encourage the Border Patrol to be trained to judge credible fear. Again, we believe that there are people coming from other countries who claim they have a credible fear who do not meet that standard as far as coming to the United States. We know that people are being coached as to what to say to come into this country. By training our Border Patrol to deal with these issues, we will not have so many people coming into the country illegally.

The next thing I strongly think that President Trump should do is he should have ICE round up the million people who already have orders to be deported. This should be a relatively simple matter. By deporting some people, it sends the message to people in other countries that the United States will take our immigration laws seriously.

Today, to a certain extent, because far too many politicians are encouraging things like sanctuary cities, getting rid of ICE, talking about giving public benefits to people who are here illegally, it is not surprising that people in other countries are getting the message that the United States does not treat its immigration laws seriously.

The next thing I think we ought to do is I hope President Trump expedites the rule in the Department of Homeland Security dealing with allowing for removal of people who are taking advantage of public assistance.

Obviously, the United States cannot become the welfare magnet for the entire Western Hemisphere. Everybody knows that, while it is frequently illegal, many people who are here illegally are taking advantage of public assistance, and we should expedite the legal ability to remove these people.

I would like to take a pause here to congratulate Secretary Ben Carson for removing illegals from public housing.

I will point out something a lot of people don't know. Frequently, under Section 8 or, even more, under section 42, the housing assistance they get from the government gives people housing that is superior to what many of the working people get. It is even more ridiculous when people who are here illegally get housing superior to what many of the native-born people in this country who rent are receiving.

So I would like to thank Secretary Carson for having the ability to step up and begin to take a stand on the idea that, if you come here illegally, you should get free or reduced housing.

The next thing I would like to see this House take up is sanctuary cities. I have introduced H.R. 516, which takes away grants from State and local units of government that become sanctuary cities.

There are a variety of problems with sanctuary cities. First of all, it encourages people to go to those cities to get some sort of welfare benefit.

Secondly, whenever a mayor or a Governor wants to declare their city or State a sanctuary city, it sends the message that the United States is not going to enforce its immigration laws. As long as that message is out here, people will continue to flow into our country, and it will eventually be the end of the United States.

The next thing I want this body to do is pass H.R. 848, another bill of mine. The purpose of that bill is to increase the verification for compliance on any welfare benefits which people who are not in this country could be receiving. We are also saying that anybody who is not a citizen of this country should not receive any public assistance, which should be common sense.

If you are coming here for an opportunity and you are not able to find a job, even if you are coming here legally, the answer is not to have the American taxpayer who is already $23 trillion in debt pick up the tab. The answer is, if you cannot find opportunity in this country, return to your country of origin.

I hope this body, which is spending so much time dealing with less important issues, takes up this bill in the near future.

Finally, I ask President Trump to continue to work towards the wall. I ask this Congress, as we move appropriation bills out, to make sure that wall is funded.

I have been down on the border. I did not find any Border Patrol agents who were embarrassed to do their job or didn't want to do their job. The Border Patrol agents that I talked to on the Arizona-Mexico border felt we desperately needed a wall. They realize that walls work in other countries, and they realize that in the long- or even in the short-term, walls would save us a lot of money.

Right now, different estimates vary between $50 billion, $100 billion a year is lost because of illegal immigration. Given the cost of a wall would be under $10 billion, it would be a big cost savings. And for a country that is $23 trillion in debt, we need big cost savings.

In any event, those are suggestions of some of the things we can do to deal with this crisis.

Think about it: 100,000 people coming here every month, people unvetted, people who may wind up on welfare, people who may wind up having a criminal record, and all coming here skipping ahead in line of those people who have sometimes waited 5 or 10 years to come here legally, which is incredibly unfair to them.

In any event, I hope Congress begins to act on these measures. I encourage President Trump to make border enforcement his number one priority over the next couple months, because we can see it. It is very difficult to remove any of these people once they come to this country.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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