Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, it is amazing again to come down to this House floor to
discuss issues and to be a part of this debate. I think one of the
issues that really has to come to light here is when it is being said
that what we are doing is trivial, what we are doing doesn't matter,
then, frankly, what does matter? Does the Constitution matter? Does the
rule of law matter? What is amazing to me, and I sat through a whole
5\1/2\-hour hearing the other day in dealing with this, we used letters
that were not probably used for the right context, we used other
examinations, and it always came back to, well, in the end, if it just
helps somebody, it is okay.

The problem I am having here with this is this problem: the ones who
are coming into our country, many of them whom I have spoken with in my
time as a pastor and other times dealing with missionary work, they are
coming from places where rule of law is not followed and where rule of
law is broken. So now what do we do? They come to a country in which
rule of law is being put aside and is being expanded just to help just
a little bit.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud the gentleman from Florida. I applaud everyone
from here who is saying it doesn't matter if it is a Democrat or a
Republican, what is right is what is right, and that is what matters on
the floor of this House. When we understand that, then we can get back
to what really matters, and that is saying that it is a time for
debate. It is not a time for exercising further outside the lines. It
is a time in which we, as a group, come together and say, let's solve
problems, let's not poison the well so we cannot have conversations,
and we don't have the dignity which we have for those who truly want to
come to our country, who have done it legally and have done it right.
Why would we do that?

That is what is wrong with this debate. The problem that we are
having right now is we are just simply saying, Mr. President, there are
three branches of government, and you can do whatever you want to
within your side, but the Congress has to do it on its side, and it
listens to the people as well. I think they spoke pretty loud and clear
3 weeks ago.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source