Bipartisan Immigration Reform

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHOLTEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, last week I joined my colleagues from all corners of the country on a trip to the southern border to El Paso, hosted by my good friend, Congresswoman Escobar. This wasn't my first trip to the border.

Before coming to Congress, I worked on this issue for close to 20 years as a social worker, walking alongside immigrants and refugees who were new to this country, also as an attorney for the United States Department of Justice enforcing our immigration laws at the Nation's highest law enforcement agency. I also worked at a community legal aid organization in west Michigan. I have also helped employers try to get the workers that they need. I have worked on all aspects of this issue.

What I saw on the border was truly horrific. We are in a crisis mode. During our trip we talked to Border Patrol agents, we met with individuals at holding facilities, talked to the immigrants themselves, and we talked to humanitarian aid workers. Across the board everyone was unified in this one belief: the border is broken. Our immigration system is broken. There has never been a more important time to come together with bipartisan solutions to fix it.

There is truly a crisis at our border. It is a humanitarian nightmare, a national security red alarm, and an economic disaster.

We visited a holding facility just outside of El Paso. The number of immigrants crossing the border every single day is far too many for the El Paso Del Norte Processing Center to contain in just 1 day, so they are held at a detention facility. It costs our United States Government, our taxpayers, $1.2 million every single day to run this facility just to hold people. This cannot be.

Now is the time for action, not the time for pointing fingers. Now is the time not for kicking the can down the road but picking it up and solving this problem.

We don't have to start from scratch for a new bill, a bill that would get bipartisan support. We already have that bill. It is bipartisan, and it is called the Dignity Act. It is the only bipartisan comprehensive reform bill in Congress right now.

Instead of infighting and pointing fingers, Mr. Speaker, why not put it to a vote on the floor and see how many individuals would support it?

What are we afraid of?

That it might actually work?

That it might actually solve this problem?

The immigration crisis in our country is at a fever pitch. It has evolved over many years of inaction, of moments just like this where we are compelled to act but we refuse to do so.

The immigration crisis in our country is a multifaceted problem that requires a multifaceted response.

Just insisting that we are going to close the border is not a magic wand that would wave and fix the vast number of individuals who are finding their way across our border every day.

It doesn't automatically provide the funding necessary for the Border Patrol agents who would be required to enforce this border closure, and it doesn't provide the pathways to the legal workforce that is so desperately needed in this country.

Moreover, it surely does not address the root causes of the increase in migrant flow that we are seeing over the years.

However, the bipartisan Dignity Act does.

The Dignity Act provides for an immediate infusion of $25 billion to help secure our border, and the bill pays for itself through fees generated from visas for qualified workers.

If we put this bill to a vote on the floor tomorrow, billions of dollars would begin to start flowing to our border communities to give them the help that they need.

This bill also addresses the source of the flow by creating new, regional in-country processing centers, taking the pressure off the border and helping individuals determine their eligibility ahead of time--or lack thereof--and immigrate here to the U.S.

The bill also addresses the fact that our immigration crisis does not exist in a vacuum at the southern border. Our years of failed policy have resulted in millions of individuals living in the shadows of the United States, again, a national security red alarm, an economic disaster, and a humanitarian crisis that must be addressed.

This bill provides a means to identify these individuals and the means to remove those who have violated our laws and pose a threat to our country. Those who pass a background check and qualify and who pay a fine will immediately receive permission to work and be provided a pathway to lawful citizenship, supporting our growing economy and enhancing all of our communities in a multitude of ways.

Why wouldn't we take this moment to address this immigration crisis?

Why wouldn't we put this bipartisan bill on the floor?

This is not a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. It is a compromise bill. Republicans are not getting everything they want, and Democrats are surely not getting everything they want, I can tell you that, Mr. Speaker, but it is a compromise. That is not a dirty word.

The last time we had comprehensive immigration reform in this country was over 40 years ago. Think about how much our world and our economy have changed in that time. We are not always going to get exactly what we want, but if we work hard and we work together, then we can provide for the good of this country.

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