Support President's Decision to Defer on Deportation

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the
President's decision to defer the deportation of some of the 11 million
undocumented immigrants who are in this country.

This is a decision that every President has made, to one degree or
another. We do not have the resources to deport everybody, so he makes
a decision about which ones should go and shouldn't. There is nothing
illegal about that, and the House should not be holding up the
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill because of that
policy issue.

First of all, it is a policy issue best addressed by a policy
committee, not by holding hostage an appropriations bill. There is an
authorizing process to go through to have that fight. Secondly, and
more importantly, the President's decision was the right one. There are
millions upon millions of undocumented immigrants in this country who
are valuable members of our community. They are wives and husbands.
They are fathers. They are working productively and paying taxes.
Tearing apart families and communities is not something that is going
to help this country.

I think the President made the right decision. We should support it.
And we certainly shouldn't be shutting down the Department of Homeland
Security in a misguided attempt to go after that policy.

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