Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I cannot support this
legislation, and I hope nobody expects me to.

Mr. Speaker, I am the beneficiary of the greatest executive order
ever written, the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1863, when Lincoln
signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the country was at war, it was
being torn apart, and yet he signed that proclamation. While it did not
liberate the slaves, it did lead to the passage of the 13th Amendment
in 1865.

I can't agree with this legislation because Truman in 1948 signed an
executive order integrating the military, and it went on to integrate
the broader society because it was a part of the avant-garde effort.
And I would note that at the time he did it, the Dixiecrats were
formed. They split from the Democratic Party.

We have always had times of strife in this country, but great
Presidents have always stepped forward, and they have done the right
thing.

Now let me address something quickly that has to be addressed: the
question of this is a magnet, that it attracts a lot of people to the
country. You can't be serious about this. If you were serious about the magnetic approach, you would have done something
about wet-foot, dry-foot. Wet-foot, dry-foot allows any person who is
from Cuba who gets one foot on American soil to come right on in and
get into a pathway to legalization, just by getting one foot on. Have
the other foot in the water, one on land? Come on in. And that is the
policy of the United States Government. You would end that if you were
serious. That is a magnet. But you don't see magnets until it comes to
certain people, it seems.

Mr. President, I salute you for what you have done. I commend you, I
stand with you on this issue, but more importantly, I stand with
bringing people out of the shadows of life into the sunshine of a new
life.

God bless you.

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