We Need To Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform Now

Floor Speech

We Need To Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform Now

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Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Congressman KEITH ELLISON here from the State of Minnesota, and it is very timely that we are here to talk about immigration. The fact of the matter is that it is a symptom of the Congress' failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform that we get these draconian pieces of legislation such as were signed into law in Arizona on April 23, 2010, just a few days ago. If the United States Government would take hold of this immigration debate and pass comprehensive immigration reform, States would not have to resort to these extreme measures--unconstitutional in my view--that Arizona has taken.

Let me just point out a few things. The law says that police officers can stop and detain people who are suspected of being illegal aliens and demand that they provide proof that they are U.S. citizens. The fact of the matter is that this--some people have said, Well, you know, KEITH, this could make people who may have a brown complexion and dark hair, who sort of have a typical Mexican appearance, that might subject them to unfair and illegal stops. My response is, That's true. It may stop Latinos, but it will stop anybody, because

there's no certain way that a Latino person looks. There is a wide diversity all throughout the community, a wide diversity, no color, no language, no culture. People look all kinds of ways. The most Anglo-looking person in Arizona could be stopped and demanded to show their proof of citizenship, and if they don't have it, they could be carted off.

The fact is that I am making this argument because I don't want Americans of any background to think that they are going to be somehow safe from a law as sweeping and unfair as this one. No one is safe when the Constitution is offended in such a dramatic way as it has been by this Arizona law. But at the same time I have no sympathy for this Arizona law, I will say that it is a symptom of the Congress' failure to deal with comprehensive immigration reform.

I want to say that the argument has been made that somehow this is about addressing issues of crime and law enforcement. You know, if that were true, why would the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police oppose a law for fiscal and public safety reasons, noting that the fear of government officials would diminish the public's willingness to cooperate with the police in criminal investigations, and it will negatively affect the ability of law enforcement agencies across the State to fulfill their many responsibilities in a timely manner?

The fact is that law enforcement officials who know something about law enforcement don't like this law. They are right. And the fact is this law is offensive to our Constitution. But again, it calls into question what we are doing here in Congress on comprehensive immigration reform, which is nothing much. The fact is we need to get busy on immigration reform. The American people want it. It is popular. It is something that the American people have asked for, and the Congress should step forward and do something about it right away.

So let me yield back to the gentleman from the great State of Colorado and just point out that comprehensive immigration reform is something that I believe we need.

There are just a few principles that I want to mention before I yield back, and that is that the progressive immigration reform agenda passed by the Progressive Caucus believes in keeping families together, creating a path towards citizenship and employment verification. Because as much as we talk about securing the border--and we should secure the border--you can't always secure the border at the border. We need the cooperation of all employers to make sure that they are doing employment verification so that we can make sure that the border is being secured. So yes, at the border, but also at the point of employment which people are drawn to.

There is more to be said about this, but I yield back to the gentleman.

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Mr. ELLISON. Let me thank the gentleman from Colorado for really raising these issues.

The fact is, I do just want to say that the Progressive Caucus has some essential principles that we believe are essential to have in any immigration bill. We know that a version was dropped in the Senate; there was another dropped in the House earlier.

What we say is we think that we've got to keep families together. We have to create a path to earn citizenship. This isn't handing out citizenship to anybody. People have to take care of the business that the gentleman from Colorado already mentioned--paying all taxes, going through courses in English and citizenship, making sure that they do everything that they have to do, but at least they're allowed to be on a path that will lead them to citizenship and that there would be employment verification.

But there are other important values that I think we should talk about as well. The fact is that one of those values is respect, another value is identifying the fact that young people studying hard every single day, graduating from an American high school, brought to this country by their parents, in my view, should be able to go to a college in their State and pay in-state tuition. So that's another value I think is very important. It enhances education, values and achievement, and it indicates that young people who have lived their lives here and grown up here and who came here through no fault or through no choice of their own can have a future.

The fact is that there are some basic principles that I think we should pursue. The thing that does concern me, though, is that sometimes we hear people, Madam Speaker, say things like, well, you know, this bill is dead on arrival, or that bill is not going to go anywhere; they just declare bills to be not in motion sometimes.

But I believe, Madam Speaker, that whether comprehensive immigration reform moves or not is up to the people of America if they demand that it move. The same way that health care reform moved because people wouldn't let it die, immigration reform can move because the people are demanding it. The same way financial reform is moving, immigration can move because if people say we've got to have this, we need it, no more of our fellow neighbors living in the shadows, we need to have a legitimate path towards citizenship--it's not amnesty--that does involve real accountability, but at the same time allows people to come out of the shadows and have some status that they can have so that they can do what they need to do for themselves and their families. The fact is that this is the decent thing to do, it's the right thing to do.

By the way, I will point out, Madam Speaker, that there is a growing and strengthening coalition for immigration reform. In my own State of Minnesota, we used to have immigrant groups, people who are directly affected by immigration policy from new American groups, whether they're Latino or east African or Southeast Asian, or whatever community, a lot of times they would be at the forefront of this question of immigration reform.

But then we began to see labor come into the conversation. Labor does not want an exploitable, abusable group of people who are in the shadows that can undercut their wage rate. They want everybody aboveboard and walking through the front door to have a status so that they can organize them so that they can have some stability. Even the chamber of commerce in my city has said, look, we're for comprehensive immigration reform as well. I'm not speaking for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, but I can tell you that there are many local chambers of commerce around this country who know that immigration reform is the right policy.

So the fact is we have a growing coalition; we have a coalition that's coming together, that's deepening and coming together to demand this. So I guess my message, Madam Speaker, is to say, never say that we can't get comprehensive immigration in 2010; it can happen with a strong will and with a committed champion, and with people who demand it of their leaders who are charged with the responsibility of representing them in Congress.

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Mr. ELLISON. I just want to go back to an important point that the gentleman from Colorado made just a moment ago. Congressman Polis, Madam Speaker, made the point that people are in detention for months and months as they await their immigration proceedings and the decision. These are not people who have robbed or hurt anyone or sold dope or anything like that. These are folks who are awaiting a decision in their immigration case. They are not criminals; they're awaiting immigration proceedings, decisions. These folks, these people in immigrant detention are just languishing, rotting.

There have been, since 2003, 107 people who have died in custody because they were in detention. If they were out, could they have gotten the medical attention that they needed? I'm sure in many cases they could have. The fact is that these are folks who are not serving criminal sentences. They haven't been convicted of hurting anyone or stealing people's property or doing anything wrong. They're just awaiting proceedings.

In fact, Madam Speaker, I was at an eighth grade graduation only a few days ago; and my daughter, who I was so proud of, was there with her friends and they were all abuzz--you know how kids that age can be. And I talked to another adult who I had known for a number of years because my older children went to school with her children and one of her children was in my daughter's class. And she said to me, you know, I want you to know it's good to see you. I was in detention. I recently got out of immigration detention. This is what this lady

said to me. And it shocked me because my son, who is now 22 years old, was buddies with her son, who is now 22 years old, but they were running around my house when they were both seven and eight and nine years old and now here she is--I haven't seen her in a while--and she just told me that she had been there herself. I didn't even ask her how she got out--I was glad she was out--but the fact is that she had been in ICE detention herself. This is a woman who is a bright lady, smart, capable, raising children on her own, doing the best she can, happens to find her roots in Mexico. I didn't ask her about the details of her life, but I was concerned that she found herself in that awful situation.

I connected her with my office to do everything we could for her; but the fact is there is a human toll being taken on people every single day, people around us, people we know, people we don't even know what they're going through, but they have their own immigration nightmare that they're struggling through every single day.

Her children, I know the younger ones were born in the United States and I know the older ones came here at a very early age, they're my kids' close friends. But the fact is that it kind of struck me right across the face like a cold bucket of water that here is this lady who I know. I couldn't exactly call her a friend, but I can say that this is a person who I know, who I respect, and who was living her own private nightmare with regard to immigration.

It seems to me that the rules ought to be clearer, they ought to be fairer, they ought to be predictable. It seems to me that the children who come here at an early age ought to be able to pursue their education in an institution in their State and not have to pay exorbitant out-of-state tuition just to do that. It seems to me that we ought to try to unite families. As Americans, we value families, and we ought to do something about that.

The fact is that people in immigrant detention, these folks are often some of the most abused folks in our community, Madam Speaker. I will just refer again to what the Congressman from Colorado mentioned a moment ago, detention, people are there for months, but these folks, some of them have been through tremendous ordeals; some are torture victims, some are victims of trafficking, some are from other vulnerable groups and are detained for months and even years, further aggravating their isolation, depression, and sometimes mental health problems.

The fact is that this situation is not right. These people are not criminals. They should not be held this way. And they're held at our expense--we're the ones who fork it over--but it's no picnic for them either. The fact is that we have to do something about it.

Over 30,000 people are held in immigrant detention on any given day at an average cost of more than $100, $120 per day. This has resulted in over 380,000 people held in detention in fiscal year 2009. Think about it: that's an incredible expense that we are paying because our immigration system has not been corrected, has not been addressed, and the fact is that we have to do something about it.

Since 2005, ICE has increased the number of detention beds by 78 percent. Taxpayers are paying the price of DHS's skyrocketing use of immigration detention, and DHS spends about $1.7 billion on ICE custody operations.

So the fact is that a human toll is being taken. The broken immigration system offends our sense of fairness, and it offends our sense of being a humanitarian country. We've got to do something about it right away.

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Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, I was just in my district about a week ago at a little church called Sagrado Corazon de Jesus. It's right there in south Minneapolis where a lot of folks gathered from the faith community. They were Catholic; they were Protestant; they were Jewish; they were Christian; they were Muslim; they were Hindu; they were of the Hmong spiritual tradition; and they were of no faith at all. Yet they came together to make an appeal to the American people for comprehensive immigration reform.

I think it's important to understand that the faith community has done a tremendous job in making sure this issue is at the forefront. The faith community has done such a great job because the faith community understands one essential thing, which is that all human beings are endowed with an inherent dignity which we, as fellow human beings, must respect if we are going to be in accordance with that faith tradition.

I want to thank them for their advocacy, and I want to let them know that I respect and appreciate their work.

Because I would like to see our anchor tonight be able to take the last 5 minutes to wrap it all up, let me also just mention in our waning minutes of our presentation that, as I've been sitting here, I've been checking my Twitter account, and I know that some people are happy that we're talking about comprehensive immigration and that some people are not.

Madam Speaker, I just want to say, to those folks who are happy about it, keep on working hard. We can do this thing. To the folks who aren't happy about this discussion topic tonight, I just want to say, Madam Speaker, that I know people are not happy with the current system. The status quo isn't working. Madam Speaker, people can say that they don't like this part of a bill or that part of a bill, but can we get together as Americans and discuss what we are going to do? Because the fact is that simply saying ``no'' is not an option.

I'll also submit to you that we are not going to get 12 to 20 million people on a bus and send them back home. That's not realistic. Many people who emigrate here without proper documentation don't even cross a border. They come in on airplanes. These are folks whose visas have run out and things like that. So just thinking that this is an ``other side of the border'' issue is missing much of the complexity that is going on here.

You're also not going to incarcerate 12 to 20 million people. You know, Madam Speaker, I had somebody say the crimes that the undocumented immigrants are committing are, one, being here and, the other, taking jobs from Americans. Let me just say, if you think what they're doing is a crime, Madam Speaker, what you're saying is that we're going to have to have 12 million to 20 million more jail cells to put people in. That's not practical.

We need a solution that makes sense, that is a pathway toward citizenship. We need a solution which does involve border security but which also involves employer verification so that people will not think that they can emigrate to the United States without proper documentation and just find jobs. That's one of the things that attracts folks.

I will say one more thing, which is not in the progressive principles but which, I think, we do need to

talk about. We need to talk about how poverty in other parts of the world, particularly in our own hemisphere, attracts people to the United States. Therefore, we should take a real look at our policies--at our trade policies, at our ag policies--and see if we are actually incentivizing people to come to the United States.

If we dump cheap corn into Latin America, what happens to the corn farmer in Latin America? I think we need to ask that question.

It needs to be part of the conversation, because I can't imagine most people who are undocumented really want to leave their homes, their languages, their families, or their friends in order to come to a country they don't know, where they don't necessarily speak the language and where they don't necessarily know anyone just to try to make lives. They probably would rather stay home, but there is something that is drawing them here, and it probably has something to do with the great economy of the United States. It probably also has something to do with trade and agriculture policies, which have put a lot of pressure on economies in this hemisphere.

So, with that, Madam Speaker, I am going to yield back to Congressman Polis for the closing. He has really been a champion on this issue, and he has really kept the fire burning on it. I think, Madam Speaker, that we all owe him a debt of gratitude, along with other champions like LUIS GUTIERREZ and many, many others.

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