Providing for Consideration of H.R. Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Consequences for Social Security Fraud Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act; and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Protect Our Communities From Duis Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. BARRAGAN. Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, we will bring up H.R. 16, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2023.

This is bipartisan legislation that would lift up our immigrant brothers and sisters and do more to address our broken immigration system than anti-immigrant bills offered by Republicans today.

H.R. 16 would give certainty to Dreamers who were raised here in America and are an integral part of who we are as a Nation.

As one Republican said: This is not a Democrat issue or a Republican issue. It is an American issue. Our doctors, our teachers, our caregivers, our friends, and our families are Dreamers.

They are American in every way, and they continue to make significant contributions to society and our economy. America is their home.

H.R. 16 also protects those with TPS and DED. This is a humane, fair, and just approach so our immigrant communities can live in dignity.

Rather than take a humane approach to bestow protections upon our Nation's Dreamers, our colleagues across the aisle would rather penalize them by introducing a package of bills that would do nothing to fix our broken immigration system.

Instead, these bills only further criminalize those who already live in America--and take away their due process rights--to make it easier to deport them. These Republican bills are anti-immigrant. These bills will not make us safer.

If you are undocumented and you are convicted of committing a crime, you are already deportable. Let's not burden our law and immigration enforcement officials, and, instead, allow them to focus their resources on finding those who seek to harm this country.

Let's get serious about fixing our immigration system and stop with the gotcha messaging bills that do nothing to make us safer.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question.

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