Immigration Reform

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to talk about one of the most important issues facing our Nation as we have been hearing for the past 15 minutes; that is, our longstanding, desperate need to finally fix our Nation's broken immigration system.

Too often in the debate about immigration it is difficult for some people to understand that the millions of undocumented families in our country are already an important part of our communities. Immigrants work hard and they pay their taxes, they send their children to American schools, and they make up a critical part of the fabric of our society. They are Americans in all but name.

So when we talk about immigration reform, we are not talking about some vague philosophical issue. This is an issue that impacts families, it impacts our businesses, it impacts our national security, and it impacts what we stand for as Americans.

It is not a new issue either. It is something we have been debating and arguing about for more than a decade, but it is something we have never been able to tackle, and that is not for the lack of trying.

As everyone here remembers, more than 500 days ago now the Senate did something remarkable. Members from different backgrounds and different States and different parties came together to reach an agreement, and in the Senate we passed a real bipartisan coalition of 68 Republicans and Democrats, a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would finally start to fix our broken immigration system.

As we heard from the Senator from New York, it would improve our security, provide businesses with the certainty they need, and provide a real path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants who are forced to live in the shadows.

Not only was this bill a step toward fixing our broken immigration system, it was good for our economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate bill would reduce the deficit by nearly $1 trillion over the next two decades.

So we sent the bill to the House of Representatives knowing the path forward there might not be easy, but we heard from Members of the House on both sides of the aisle that they also knew immigration reform had to happen this Congress.

Back then, in June of 2013, we knew we had time on our side. Speaker Boehner had a full year and a half to do one simple thing, bring the bipartisan Senate bill up for a vote. We knew then what we still know today; that if the Speaker brought that bill up for a vote, it would pass with bipartisan support and become law.

But instead of doing that, the Speaker sided with the Tea Party and refused to move our country forward. He has made it very clear that the House will refuse to act this Congress and ignore the historic opportunity we have.

For years and years millions of immigrant families who have played by the rules--paid their taxes, raised their children in the United States--have waited and waited for action. They have organized, they have hoped and they have prayed and they have trusted the system would eventually work. The system has failed. So now it is time to act.

President Obama has made it clear that because the House refuses to act--because the House refuses to act--he will take administrative action before the end of the year to improve our immigration system, and I support his decision to do that.

The President's authority to take action is well established. In fact, every President since Eisenhower, including Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, has used his authority to improve the administration of our immigration system and to focus enforcement resources on serious criminals rather than on hard-working immigrants with deep roots in our communities.

When the President does act, I have encouraged him to do several things: expand the already successful implementation of deferred action for DREAMers to include people with strong ties to the United States who have not committed serious crimes; to change implementation of our laws to make immigration and border enforcement humane, nondiscriminatory, and respectful of due process; and, finally, I have asked the President to improve the legal immigration system to keep immigrant families together, to protect our workers, and to provide employers--from agricultural producers to high-tech firms--certainty in a system that has often left them without answers.

But I also want to be very clear that administrative action is not a long-term solution. Plain and simple, the only way for us to permanently and effectively fix our broken immigration laws is through comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Administrative action is a bandaid, but it is better than nothing, and nothing is what the House Republicans are offering.

So I also wish to say it has been deeply disappointing to hear that some of my Republican colleagues are now threatening to shut down the government just to keep families from getting some initial relief from the pain our broken immigration system is causing. That is the latest example of extreme Republicans creating uncertainty and threatening to hurt our economy if they don't get their way, and it is the exact opposite of the approach Congress needs to take going forward.

We all know what happens when Tea Party Republicans go down this road. We saw it just last year when we had a 16-day government shutdown that brought the day-to-day workings of the government and businesses across the country to a screeching halt. That shutdown, we all know, was bad for our economy. It hit workers' paychecks, it made families across our country question whether their elected officials could get anything done at all. It was all because of a failed Tea Party political effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act for the umpteenth time.

Look. Even children understand that flipping the table over doesn't help win the game. It just means someone has to pick up the mess they just made. When it comes to Tea Party political tactics, we have seen more than enough of that in this Congress.

As we all remember, the budget deal I reached with Chairman Ryan wasn't perfect--I know Chairman Ryan would say the same thing--but it was an important step away from brinkmanship and toward bipartisanship on the budget.

In the next week Republican leaders are going to have an important choice to make. They can choose bipartisanship and continue to push the Tea Party aside and work with Democrats on issues such as the budget and fixing our broken immigration system or they can go back to Tea Party-style governing by crisis, which hurts families and communities and our economy and will make it much more difficult to put in place the lasting comprehensive immigration reform we need.

I urge them to take the bipartisan path. I am ready and willing to work with them if they do, and I know my Democratic colleagues are as well. I know our country will be stronger for it now and for decades to come.

I yield the floor.

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