The United States Represents Hopeful New Beginnings

Floor Speech

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Ramirez for her leadership and for consistently fighting for immigrants across this country.

Today, as we recognize Immigrant Heritage Month, immigrants and people of all statuses face horrific, unprecedented attacks from the Trump administration. Even as this administration does everything possible to attack immigrants and those who stand with them, what we see is incredible strength, resilience, organizing, and leadership.

What is the message of all of that? The message is that immigration and immigrants have and always will make us better as a country.

I am very proud to be the first Indian American--in fact, the first South Asian-American woman elected to the House and one of just two dozen naturalized citizens to serve in Congress.

I came to this country alone when I was 16 years old. My parents had very meager savings, but they used all of it to send me to this country because they believed so much that this was the place that I would have the best education and the most opportunities.

Well, it took me 17 years to get my citizenship. I was on an alphabet soup of visas for that time. Now, I am so proud to be the first naturalized citizen to serve as the ranking member of the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee.

In that role, I have held accountability hearings and roundtables here in Washington, D.C., and across the country to hear people's stories and to shine a light on how the administration is harming our communities and how we can fight back.

What I have heard overwhelmingly, no matter where I am, is people from all walks of life saying no to these anti-immigrant actions from this administration. People are determined to ensure that our country remains a welcoming place for people around the globe.

We see neighbors organizing food delivery and carpools for families who are afraid to leave their homes. We see gatherings at schools for dropoff and pickup to keep kids safe. We see organizing in communities to be prepared to document ICE and CBP abuses and hold this administration accountable.

I have heard from a young man who is Active-Duty military serving his country despite this country deporting his father, and a young woman trying to juggle pursuing her education while caring for her young sibling after ICE detained her mother.

I know organizational leaders across the country who are citizens and should have nothing to fear but have been forced to move their families into safe houses. They are determined to continue demanding justice nevertheless. I was moved to hear from one person in the Twin Cities that they need to have their neighbors' backs because their communities are not whole without them.

These sentiments, again, reflect the love and generosity of the American people and their understanding that immigrants are vital to all of our communities.

In my hometown of Seattle, immigrants contribute to every sector of our economy, just like they do across the country. Seattle is a hub of creation, developing and advancing cutting-edge technology and research. Nearly 160,000 immigrants in Seattle work in STEM. Over 40 percent of people in Seattle with STEM degrees are immigrants.

Immigrants also make tremendous contributions in construction and housing. We are an agricultural State, and we have immigrants working across our farms everywhere--and in manufacturing and business.

As Republicans raise costs and destroy our safety net, it is immigrants who are keeping Social Security afloat. A report from the Social Security trustees shows that immigration improves the Social Security trust fund's solvency, specifically showing that when immigration increases, the trust fund's deficit decreases.

Just looking at 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes that take care of our seniors who are receiving Social Security today. They contribute even as they have no expectation of ever benefiting.

Donald Trump and Stephen Miller always claimed that they were going after the worst of the worst. That is clearly not what has happened. Rather, they have been about ending all immigration to this country of any kind.

Since Trump came into office, 400,000 people have been detained across the interior of our country. That includes parents of U.S. citizen children, which has harmed over 11,000 kids.

USCIS data shows sharp declines in approvals for all kinds of immigration benefits, including work visas and family reunification. In 2025, overall approvals dropped 27 percent. We don't have full data on student visas yet, but what we do have shows a 31-percent decrease.

Mr. Speaker, this is all inflicting lasting harm on our economy and our country. Immigrants are an essential part of our history, our present, and our future. I will never stop fighting for a comprehensive, humane immigration system that recognizes the tremendous contributions, the values, and the threads that immigrants weave throughout this country to make us as a country whole.

This has never just been about immigration. It is about who we are as a country and what we are willing to stand up for.

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