Horsford on Immigration Reform: Boehner and House Republicans Are Co-Conspirators in Tearing Families Apart

Press Release

Today, Representative Steven Horsford (NV-4) spoke at a press conference with Democratic Leadership on the need to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Tomorrow, House Democrats will introduce a discharge petition in an effort to force an up-or-down vote on comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Rep. Horsford is an original sponsor of H.R. 15, the House comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Below is a transcript of his remarks:

"Thank you. It's good to be here with Chairman Becerra, Vice Chair Crowley, as well as the Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Judy Chu this morning.

I want to highlight something that happened that really moved me personally.

Last week, in my district, I held a hearing on immigration, detention, and deportation. Congressman Gutierrez attended, as well as Congressman Hinojosa, the chairman of Congressional Hispanic Caucus. One witness, Bryan Rivera, told us his story.

Bryan's mom, Thelma Martinez Soto, came to the United States at age 25 looking for a better life and to start a family. She's never been in trouble. She's not ever even had a parking ticket. But her life was difficult. Bryan told us that his father abused his mother while she was pregnant with him. Bryan told us: "My father has terrorized my mother's life. He was eventually convicted of domestic violence and soon after she worked up the courage to leave him and focused raising me into a man.'

Thelma worked two jobs so that Bryan could attend the Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts. Bryan says he hopes to provide for his mother just as she does for him. Unfortunately, Bryan's father recently re-entered his life, and turned his mother in to ICE to prevent her from demanding he pay child support. He told Bryan, "Remember your mother's an illegal immigrant and I can get rid of her.' And that's just what he did, because our system is backwards and broken.

His mom was detained, and Bryan was left to fend for himself.

His mother, who was the victim of domestic violence, became the victim of a broken system. Just think about that for a moment. A loving mother raising her son, who had been through hell to provide for him the best that she possibly can, was detained at the hands of her abuser. It is perverse. It is disgusting. And it's absolutely heart-breaking and what's wrong with our current immigration system.

Bryan's mother was detained for nearly 4 weeks. Until last Tuesday.

Bryan came to our hearing and told us his story. Fortunately we were there to help, and his mother was released. After the hearing, Bryan spoke with Congressman Gutierrez, Congressman Hinojosa, and myself. And working with Congressman Gutierrez and his staff, we contacted ICE.

She was released on an order of supervision so that she can prepare her case to seek legal status in the United States. We are going to help Thelma find asylum through a visa for victims of abuse.

Now while this is a victory for this one family, we have Bryan's mom and moms like Thelma all over this country. His story is the story of thousands; so many live in the shadows who are afraid of the law that is supposed to protect them.

When you live in the shadows, it is lawless. You are at the mercy of others. And if they are abusive, there's very little that you can do with confidence that you or your family will be okay. So it feels like you're not safe, that you have no peace of mind.

This is why we need to fix our system. Not only for DREAMers, but for their parents. The United States should not be in the business of separating families.

So Speaker Boehner, we've asked you to bring up H.R. 15 for a vote.

We will move forward with the discharge petition, because one person should not stand in the way of the will of the majority of the American people. We have the votes, now we just need a vote.

And as my colleagues have stated, the recently released CBO report confirms that if you don't want to do this because it's the right thing to keep families together like Bryan and Thelma, then do it because it will help reduce our deficit by $900 billion over the next two decades, including $200 billion in the first decade alone.

It's time to demand a vote. Speaker Boehner: we want a vote. It's time to pass comprehensive immigration reform now for the families who desperately need it.

…

Doing nothing, passing no comprehensive immigration reform does nothing to strengthen and secure our borders.

It does nothing to do address our workforce needs at a time when the private sector is asking for reforms to our workforce visa program.

It does nothing to address the deficit, which the CBO report says H.R. 15 reduces the deficit by $200 billion dollars in a decade.

And it does nothing to keep families together. And you know what's frustrating? So many times we sit on the floor and we listen to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about family values and what Congress should be doing to preserve family values.

What is more fundamental than a family value that keeps families like Bryan's and Thelma together?

By doing nothing they're tearing families apart. They are co-conspirators in tearing families apart.

And that is why Speaker Boehner as one person can choose to decide to bring H.R. 15, or any other version of a comprehensive immigration reform bill, to the floor so that we can give the majority of Americans what they want: a vote on immigration reform.

To do nothing is actually to contribute to the problem and House Republicans will have made it worse for families, not better."

Source