Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Chair, I thank the gentlelady for yielding and for her exceptional leadership, as well as that of the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Conyers, and the work of your staff to bring the facts to the fore on this subject.

I rise in opposition to all of these amendments for reasons I spelled out for half an hour last night. Not to go into them again, but I want to say how disconcerting this is after we have seen the President act with authority under the law and also according to precedent of every President, Democratic and Republican, since President Eisenhower. That is why it is very disturbing to see the Speaker of the House saying President Obama has submitted his legacy of lawlessness.

Legacy of lawlessness. Was President Reagan lawless? Was President George Herbert Walker Bush lawless? Was President George W. Bush lawless? I never heard him say that about any executive actions taken by them.

I rise in opposition to all of these amendments, specifically, to the DeSantis amendment. Opposition is contained in a letter from the National Catholic Conference of Bishops. On behalf of the bishops, they write to ask that we oppose immigration-related amendments in the bill.

Specifically to DeSantis, they say:

Representative DeSantis' immigration amendment would prevent the Department of Homeland Security from implementing its memoranda setting civil immigration enforcement priorities. While presented as a measure that helps domestic violence victims, we fear that it actually would discourage many such victims from reporting abuse. Immigrants face obstacles to reporting crimes that have been perpetrated against them. This amendment would perpetuate this problem.

So I urge our colleagues to vote ``no'' on all of the amendments, and I call to their attention the letter from the bishops urging a ``no'' vote on the amendments, which I will submit for the Record.

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Ms. PELOSI. Again, what is disturbing about this is that you may have a difference of opinion about immigration or this or that, but don't describe the President as lawless and to use the Constitution as the basis for this debate when, in fact, the courts have upheld the rights of our Presidents to take executive action in relationship to protecting immigrants in our country--every President, Democratic and Republican, from President Eisenhower to the present.

I urge a ``no'' vote on all of the amendments, particularly, in this case, the DeSantis amendment.

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