Create A Legal Pathway to Citizenship

Floor Speech

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I rise today as the daughter of immigrants to urge my colleagues to please vote ``no'' on an even more dehumanizing bill. It dehumanizes our immigrant neighbors. H.R. 2, which is known better as the child deportation act, is fueled with hateful rhetoric that I think is very dangerous for our country.

I am honestly not sure if the goal with this bill is to worsen our broken immigration system or to simply keep as many Black and Brown immigrants out of our country as they can. I know bringing back family and child deportation is immoral. Prohibiting funds to organizations providing lifesaving humanitarian aid to migrants is simply cruel.

This bill dehumanizes and is incredibly painful to see our colleagues pushing forward. Many have called it racist and inhumane, that it is fear-mongering, and that it is failed policies that will continue to worsen our broken immigration system.

We must in this Chamber protect all of our neighbors. We also must work toward protecting those who are fleeing horrific violence. We need to continue to be leaders in creating a safe haven for those who seek asylum.

We cannot and should not embrace hate rhetoric and policies that only seek to pit communities against each other, tear families apart, and put our immigrant neighbors in harm's way here in the United States, Madam Speaker, and also those from other countries.

No human being is illegal. I believe that in my heart. I will continue to fight to make sure that we pass some sort of comprehensive immigration reform that gives our immigrant neighbors the dignified, legal pathway to citizenship they deserve.

Madam Speaker, I look forward to voting against this horrible, racist bill and urge my colleagues to vote ``no.'' Engaging With the Mamas' Caucus

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize mothers of the Michigan 12th Congressional District and across our country. I wish them all Happy Mother's Day.

I am proud to be a mother of two incredible boys. That is why, last year, I joined Mothering Justice, a national organization made up of mothers to create the first-ever Congressional Mamas' Caucus.

We are fighting together for fair and equitable access to childcare, paid leave, and benefits for our care workers, and real economic justice for our families.

In the Mamas' Caucus, we are committed to advocating for all mamas. We must not only pass important policies about mothers to help mothers but with our mothers. That is why the Congressional Mamas' Caucus is so incredibly important.

We all know the cost of raising a family in our country is among the highest in the world and that our policies and social safety nets too often leave our families behind, especially communities of color. We also know that mamas are on the front lines of our fight for reproductive justice and more.

Again, we cannot leave them behind, and we cannot continue to talk about policies that directly impact them without them being there at the table to shape those policies so it can be transformative and meaningful.

If anything, Madam Speaker, the pandemic exposed just how broken our safety nets were, and the Mamas' Caucus remains committed to ending child poverty, to focus on those safety nets that continue to not serve our families currently.

I read a quote during the pandemic that I think resonates why the Mamas' Caucus is so important in this Chamber. It was a quote by a wonderful poet, Sonya Renee Taylor. In the midst and height of the pandemic, she said: ``We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate, and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment, one that fits all of humanity and nature.''

Again, this was her expression, and it resonates for mothers like myself and across the country an understanding that the pandemic gave us an opportunity to recognize those broken systems and how we need to create a new garment. The way we can do it is by bringing mothers in the room as we develop these policies that directly impact all of our families.

Madam Speaker, I welcome my colleagues to be engaged with the Congressional Mamas' Caucus, to engage on the policies we are pushing forward. I appreciate this opportunity to uplift them in this Chamber every day--not only on Mother's Day, but every single day.

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