Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Washington for his leadership and the chairman for his on this very difficult issue.

I want to make one point clear to my colleagues. We are essentially declaring war through an amendment to a budget resolution.

Let's make no mistake. We are not simply training rebels in another country, Saudi Arabia, which, by the way, has been the most successful exporter of extremism and extremists in the world. We will reinsert those trained and equipped rebels back into Syria, and we will then be their air force. We will, through all intents and purposes, be a co- belligerent in a civil war.

So, if we are declaring war right now, I think we should do it with our eyes wide open, as my colleague just said, with a full debate, and only through the power vested in Congress through the U.S. Constitution.

The logical conclusion of our participation in this war, if successful, is to depose the Assad regime and replace it with one of our own making in concert with these rebels. That will be the third country in 13 years whose regime we have deposed and whose government we have replaced with one of our own choosing. It is the fourth that we have been involved in, if you include Libya, in whose government we have successfully deposed. In not one of those instances can I say that this has been a success.

We also have no Muslim-majority countries contributing ground troops to this operation. I think we owe wide deference to the President in matters of foreign affairs, but when it comes to declaring war, our Founding Fathers reserved that power for the people through their representatives in Congress.

This amendment to a budget resolution, which would enter us into this war in a formal manner, makes a mockery of that and does not do justice to the servicemembers who will be asked to put their lives on the line for this U.S. policy.

For those reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today, along with Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California, to honor and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the El Paso Branch of the NAACP.

Founded in 1914 by civil rights activist Dr. Lawrence Aaron Nixon, the El Paso Branch was the first branch of the NAACP established in the state of Texas. The El Paso Branch's long history is rich with examples of El Pasoans taking the lead to end discrimination in Texas.

In 1923, the Texas legislature passed a law which prohibited African- Americans from voting in Democratic primaries. On July 26, 1924, with the sponsorship of the NAACP, Dr. Nixon took his poll-tax receipt to a Democratic primary polling place and was refused a ballot. Thus began a twenty-year struggle in which Dr. Nixon and his El Paso attorney, Fred C. Knollenberg, twice carried their case to the United States Supreme Court. It was not until the landmark decision in Smith v. Allwright ended the white primary that the way was cleared, and on July 22, 1944, Dr. and Mrs. Nixon walked into the same El Paso voting place and voted in a Democratic primary.

In 1955, the El Paso Branch sought to challenge the segregation clause contained within the state constitution. The NAACP asked Thelma White, valedictorian of segregated Douglass High School in El Paso, to challenge the law. With the assistance of the NAACP, she submitted her application to Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso). Texas Western returned Ms. White's application along with her unopened transcripts.

Ms. White's attorneys, including Thurgood Marshall, filed suit in federal district court in March 1955, claiming White's rights of equal access to an education had been violated. That summer, in anticipation of an adverse ruling from the court, the University of Texas (UT) Board of Regents voted to allow Texas Western to admit African-American students, while promising to investigate desegregating the main university in Austin at a later date. Ms. White's attorneys refused to abandon her suit, and on July 18th, Federal District Judge Robert E. Thomason issued a declaratory judgment on her behalf, permanently enjoining the UT system from denying her or any other African-American student the right to study at Texas Western. He further ordered all Texas universities to immediately desegregate. That fall, both Texas Western College and the main university in Austin admitted their first black students. In El Paso, twelve students gained admission to the school.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to rise with me to honor the El Paso Branch of the NAACP and the extraordinary work they have done to make our community, the State of Texas and our country a more just world.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 15, a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill to properly address these humanitarian issues.

Mr. Speaker, looking at the underlying bill, I have to wonder what my colleagues are afraid of. Are they afraid of these kids, children who are fleeing brutal violence in their home countries to come to our country to seek asylum? Are we so afraid of them that we would shortcut due process and send them right back into this violence?

Mr. Speaker, are they afraid of the border, that they would send the National Guard when we are already spending $18 billion a year; more than on all Federal law enforcement combined; at a time when El Paso, Texas, the largest Texas city on the Mexican border, is also the safest city in this country; at a time when we are 70 percent lower in apprehensions at our southern border; and at a time when these apprehensions of children have fallen by almost 60 percent?

Mr. Speaker, I ask us not to be motivated by fear or anxiety, but instead the best traditions of this country: courage, compassion, and strength to do the right thing.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 475, had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Personal explanation

Mr. Speaker, allow me to address some of the concerns raised in the underlying bill concerning unaccompanied alien children. If our concern is with a secure border, you can talk to someone such as myself who represents El Paso, Texas, the largest city in Texas on the Mexican border which, today, is also the safest city not just in Texas, but in the entire United States. You can talk to other elected leaders, to the folks who actually live on the border, and you can look at the facts.

Apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border are down nearly 70 percent over the last 15 years. In the year 2000, we had 1.6 million apprehensions. This last year, 420,000. And even with this spike of refugees from Central America, we are not expected to get to half a million this year. The border, by the numbers, is as secure as it has ever been.

If your concern is with the welfare of these children once they enter this country, then I say let's increase the amount that we are spending with Health and Human Services which, in this current bill, is a pittance against what is necessary and what should be required.

And if your concern is with the welfare of these children in Central America and along this journey, then I ask you to do what this country's proud history, what our conscience, and what the law already mandates, which is to accept their applications for asylum, to help them once they are in this country, and to work with our neighbors in Central America and this hemisphere to resolve the underlying problems.

I urge my colleagues to reject this rule, to reject the underlying bill, and to come back together in September and to work on something that is rational, that is humane, and that is in the best interests of all concerned.

Mr. Speaker, I enter into the Record the story of a 4- year-old Honduran girl whose body was found in a nylon bag showing signs of torture.

[From La Tribuna, July 20, 2014]

Kidnap and Kill a Girl in Olancho

(This is a Google Translation)

SAN FRANCISCO DE LA PAZ, Olancho. A heinous crime committed

against a minor, has shaken an entire community that is not

answered the savage and ruthless attitude of those involved

in the sadistic action.

A little of just four years had disappeared last Thursday

afternoon a little after 2:00 pm, according to the account of

his father Anibal Cardona, about 30, who wept inconsolably so

the tragedy.

Apparently a family would have caused neglect subjects

mysterious little girl lifted backyard to lead to an unknown

destination Quiscamotelugar the community, the origin of the

parents of the unfortunate infant.

inside sack

The body of the girl was placed inside a nylon bag and left

abandoned near the home where a day earlier had kidnapped.

Showed signs of torture and was handcuffed, and the

conditions under which the body was giving signs of having

been killed on the day she disappeared.

The crime involves a mystery, which generates various

speculations in the whole population and in the same family,

which not only repudiate what happened, they also believe

that someone close may be linked to macabre done.

The house where he carried the creature is roughly an area

of half acre of land, fenced with cyclone wire mesh and only

one entry and when the body was found no one saw who placed

it on the site though many neighbors accompanied the family

at that time.

rescue

The other uncertainty that goes through the head of the

citizens, is related to an alleged phone call asking for

ransom, which the authorities are already investigating and

could become the thread from the skein that leads to the true

origin of what happened.

It was learned that the police is on the trail of four

subjects, which might be collusion, or have enough

information from individuals who committed the detestable

fact.

Those who were arrested in a nearby village and that from

the beginning of the alarm mentioned that they were

responsible, but last night only two people were detained for

investigation.

The girl's father, Anibal Cardona, and uncle, Luis Alonso

Duarte.

In less than a year, this olanchano municipality has been

involved in two violent incidents that result in death left

two young children, who still has shaken society.

On 11 October last year, another toddler died a brutal

hands of a mentally alienated, brutalized by the effect of

alcohol and drugs, committed a heinous murder.

At that time, parishioners wanted to take justice into

their own hands hours after police stopped the confessed

responsible, a young 22 year old named Carlos Peralta.

Today, the San Franciscan people revive those feelings of

grief, sorrow and helplessness, and calls to the appropriate

speed in the latter investigations mourns another family

event. (FS)

Mr. Speaker, from the day that I was sworn into office, I have heard from the veterans that I have the honor of representing that while--when they can get into the VA to seek care--the care is great and the providers are wonderful, it is too hard to get an appointment, and that appointment, once given, is often canceled.

The VA, on the other hand, was telling me something far different, that there were no problems with wait times.

To resolve the differences, we surveyed the veterans themselves. What they told us was that more than 36 percent of the veterans that I represent cannot get in to receive a mental health care appointment. This is at a time when we have 22 veteran suicides every day in this country.

That is why I join my colleague from across the State and across the aisle, Mr. Flores, to introduce the ask veterans act, so that we do this in every community and VHA district in this country, so that veterans help us lead the VA out of the crisis that we are currently in.

We cannot trust the VA to tell us how the VA is doing, but we can certainly trust veterans to do just that.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Maestro Phillip Gabriel Garcia, founder of the El Paso Youth Symphony Orchestra (EPYSO).

As the conductor and head of operations for this organization, Maestro Garcia provides a valuable service to the children of El Paso and its citizens. Through the development of ``The Band Against Bullying Tour'', the EPYSO built a bridge between music and social justice awareness. EPYSO helped raise consciousness of the negative effects that bullying has on the victims and the community's quality of life with their performances throughout El Paso. By using music as a means to educate the community, Maestro Garcia demonstrates his creative and passionate work ethic to improve his community.

With over 200 concerts performed, EPYSO gives kids the opportunity to see how music can positively reinforce their self-esteem through personal achievements as musicians and performances to their community. While performing at the Child Crisis Center, the Battered Women Shelter, Ft. Bliss, and La Fe Community Health Center, kids experience the joy that their music brings to the public. More so, EPYSO champions community service, raising money to feed the homeless at the Feeding the Nations Homeless benefit concert and serving food to the homeless for Thanksgiving. EPYSO continues to impact its participants and the rest of the public by remaining viable and relevant to their community.

EPYSO and Maestro Phillip Garcia will continue to profoundly impact the El Paso community by continuing to connect their artistic endeavors with service. I am proud that this organization and Maestro Garcia are using music to contribute to the El Paso community, and I hope their message continues inspire our young citizens' enthusiasm for serving their community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the bipartisan Border Enforcement Accountability, Oversight, and Community Engagement Act with my friend from across the aisle, Congressman Steve Pearce. This is a policy that will disproportionately impact the border and one that is humane, fiscally responsible, and rational. It is also a bill that reflects the best values, experiences, and expertise of the people who live along the border. And it is, in fact, written by people who live on and represent border communities.

Madam Speaker, today we spend $18 billion a year on border security and immigration enforcement. That is twice what we were spending just 10 years ago. We have a surge in border security, a surge in border personnel where we have seen a doubling of the size of the Border Patrol from just 10,000 10 years ago to more than 20,000 today. But this surge in resources and personnel and enforcement has not been accompanied by an adequate regime of oversight, accountability, or transparency.

Tens of millions of our fellow Americans live along our borders with Canada and Mexico, and millions more cross them on a regular basis. In the community I represent, El Paso, Texas, we have 22 million border crossings a year; 99-plus percent are legal with people who are crossing for legitimate purposes with all of the appropriate travel documents. But when you combine the millions of people who live and cross our borders with this unprecedented surge of resources and law enforcement without the necessary oversight or accountability or transparency, this will lead to predictable abuses of power that we have seen not just at the borders themselves but at interior checkpoints that are up to 100 miles into the interior of the United States: detentions, interrogations, and retention of personal property, all without probable cause.

While the vast majority of our border protection agents and our CBP officers are professional, and all of them face very difficult challenges in their job in terms of the level of vigilance they must maintain, the territory through which they must patrol, the unpredictable threats they must guard against, our office hears on a day-to-day basis from constituents who are harassed and hassled or otherwise treated with less than the appropriate dignity or respect. But there is no clear process that exists for these individuals to resolve their complaints. I will give you two examples, one from the northern border and one from the southern border.

Pascal Abidor, an Islamic studies Ph.D. student and one of our fellow U.S. citizens, was crossing the Canadian border on an Amtrak train when he was questioned by CBP officers. He was taken off the train in handcuffs and held in a cell for several hours before being released without charge. His laptop was confiscated and held for 11 days following his detention during which time his private messages and photos were reviewed by CBP officers.

We have a case, unfortunately, in the community I represent, a woman who has not released her name but a fellow U.S. citizen who lives in New Mexico who was crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. She was suspected of carrying drugs. She was detained, frisked, strip searched, and taken to a hospital. There she was invasively searched, X-rayed, and made to perform a bowel movement against her will by doctors at the request of CBP officers looking for drugs. At no time was she read her rights or given access to an attorney because even at the hospital, miles away from the physical border, Customs and Border Protection maintains that they are still in the process of a border interrogation. No traces of illegal drugs were found, and she was billed $5,000 for the exams.

While stories like these are exceptional, they should never happen. As a result of a more militarized border, we are also seeing migrants who are pushed away from community ports of entry into harsher and more dangerous terrain, leading to a jump in the number of deaths. Two years ago, we saw the second-highest number of migrant crossing deaths on record, even though we saw the lowest number of crossing attempts across our southern border. We have had over 5,500 migrants die in the attempt to cross into the United States over the last 15 years.

It is not just the individuals who have been victims of unfounded searches and seizures or who have perished in the desert who are failed by our current border policy. The Border Patrol agents and CBP officers who perform these toughest jobs in the Federal Government do not always receive the training or support they need to be safe in the field or to do their jobs effectively.

For the taxpayers who deserve to have their tax dollars spent responsibly, secrecy and lack of transparency has prevented a sober accounting of whether the $18 billion a year that we are spending on the border is money well spent. Our bill addresses these issues in five concrete ways:

First, robust oversight of all border security functions;

Second, a transparent and timely complaint process that is independent of the existing chain of command;

Third, increased and improved training resources for our agents and officers;

Fourth, engagement between CBP and border communities;

Fifth, new transparency measures.

So I urge my colleagues to join me in a humane, rational, and fiscally responsibility approach to the border.

Mr. Speaker, I am very honored to be here with my colleagues from California and from Maryland. I am especially honored that my colleague from Maryland would invite me to say a few words today. He has been, truly, one of the real bright spots for me in my first session in Congress.

To give you a little context and a little background on why that is the case, like my colleague from California, I had the privilege of serving on the city council in El Paso for two terms. I represented there a constituency of between 60,000 and 70,000 people, so about a tenth of the constituency that we represent here in Congress.

To win those elections to be able to serve on the city council, like my good friend from California, I went door-to-door to meet my constituents--to meet those who were likely to vote in this election-- to make my case for why I might be the best alderman or council member to represent their interests on the city council. Then, by Election Day, after having spent maybe $40,000 or $50,000 total--a tenth of what you would have to spend in a very conservatively managed congressional race--we ended up having the good fortune to win and serve in the city council.

Not only was that the best way to get elected, but it was for me, as a new member of the city council in El Paso, Texas, the best way for me to understand what my constituents' interests were, the questions that they wanted to have answered and what their expectations were of me as their representative on the city council.

So, when I made the decision to run for Congress, I chose to run for a seat that was currently held by an incumbent Member of Congress. I ran for that seat in the primary, which was going to be the decisive election in that election cycle. Precisely because we didn't have access to the kind of big money that we are talking about today--the political action committee money, the big donor money across this country and even the big money in El Paso, Texas--as the mother of invention with the necessity of finding those voters and in being able to connect with them, we went door-to-door again, this time in a constituency of 700,000 people. It was a very broad and a very long canvassing effort that lasted over 9 months and had me knocking personally on more than 16,000 doors.

While my good friend from Maryland has actually modeled the Government by the People Act concept in his own district, I think, more out of virtue and more out of an effort to prove that this works and to understand what the opportunities and limits are of a different campaign funding paradigm--and I can't thank him enough for doing that because he has tested it and has proven it--we did something similar but out of necessity. Again, as with the city council races, we were fortunate enough that the case we made to the voters prevailed. We were fortunate enough to be elected to sit here in this Congress with these great colleagues I serve with now.

I will tell you that a very rude awakening was delivered when after I had won this seat through the primary election, which was the dispositive election of the two in our election cycle, the number one issue that anyone wanted to talk with me about was not what policies were I likely to support, what committees did I want to serve on, what did I want to get done in my first term in Congress. Most of the conversations, unfortunately, revolved around money. Where was I going to raise my money from? Who was I going to give the money that I raised to? Who was I going to hire as the campaign person in Washington, D.C.? I didn't know that the creature existed until that point because we had had the good fortune of being, in some ways, buffered from money in that first race.

So much centered around money as I came to Congress. You don't run for Congress to raise money. You don't run for Congress to spend money. You don't run for Congress to meet lobbyists and to meet those who run political action committees; although, there are plenty of nice people in those categories. You run for Congress because you want to get something done, because you believe in ideas that are bigger than yourself--things that are going to help the communities that you serve, issues that are going to help define your country that you want your communities to have a voice in. Those are the reasons I ran for Congress. Unfortunately and sadly, those were not the things that most people up here wanted to talk about.

I was able to talk with Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Harvard, who is somebody, if you haven't seen his lectures, you can find on YouTube--or if you have the chance to see one in person, you really should. He is someone who has put a lot of thought into and who has written about this subject and who has delivered some very compelling lectures about the influence of money in politics.

So, as I was met with this challenge of how to respond to the demands for money in politics and in my new career as a Member of Congress, I started to do some searches on the Internet, and I found one of Lawrence Lessig's lectures. He brought up a really important point, which was, when we have an election for Congress, there are really two elections.

There is the election that we all think about when we think about an election for Congress, and that is the election that takes place at the ballot box, but there is also an election before that for the money. How do you convince the people who have control and access of the money that typically goes into a congressional race that you are a good bet, that you fit within their interests, and that you are going to be accessible to them should you win that second election at the ballot box? That first election, in most cases, is really the decisive one.

So one of the things I like so much about the Government by the People Act is it opens up that first money election to not just the special interests, not just those who have legislation pending before Congress, who have an ax to grind, literally, here on the floor, but to those people that we represent in all of the different precincts in El Paso County and all the different neighborhoods, the streets, the homes. Those people, through a refundable tax credit, are able to have their voice heard and help decide who the field will be in a congressional race. I think that is awfully important and desperately missing right now to encourage truly competitive congressional elections.

When you look at the reelection rate for a Member of Congress from 1950 to today, when you look at the rate, I think it is somewhere around 93 percent. That really shouldn't be the case. We want this body to reflect the diversity, the difference of opinion of race and gender, and all the great things that make up who this country is.

By and large, it is very difficult to do today, because once you are in Congress, you have access to that money. You win that first election for the money, almost deciding that second election at the ballot box, and it makes it very difficult to have competitive elections against incumbent Members of Congress.

I am sure that we are in the minority of our colleagues here who want to encourage more competition for our jobs. I really think that is the right thing to do.

If we want to renew our democracy, have a Congress truly reflective of this country, I think we want to make sure that every single person has a voice in the elections that decide the makeup of this body.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I am just very honored to be an original cosponsor on this bill, honored to join in this effort, and honored to join all the great grassroots organizations across this country that are raising the level of awareness about the need to change our campaign finance and our election system in this country.

I am very hopeful that we will be able to prevail upon our colleagues, especially those on the other side of the aisle, to see that it is in everyone's interest to have a body that truly reflects the American people.

I have to agree with much of what my friend from California just said.

El Paso, Texas, just had its primary elections this past week. In El Paso, the turnout was 11 percent. So really one of the smallest minorities of citizens who are able to vote, who have that right, have the freedom do exercise it, actually chose to do that.

That small minority, 11 percent of voting age in El Paso, made the decisions for who is going to represent us in county government, in Congress, and on down the line.

So that cynicism that you heard at the outdoor market in Maryland we see reflected in the polls and the turnout in El Paso. I think it is because of the same reasons that you cited. I think people feel that it is a closed system, they don't have access to it, why bother participating. The rules are going to be the same, regardless.

By nature, we are social people. I don't know that we would be in these positions if we weren't. I like town hall meetings. We hold a general interest town hall every month. We hold special town halls. We have held town halls on the public bus system where we get to talk to our constituents. They have no place to go. They can't get out the doors because the bus is moving. We get to tell them what we are doing up here, and I am accountable to them. I have to answer the questions that they raise with me.

As my friend from California said, it is wonderful. It shouldn't be this way, but they are impressed I am even there and listening. That should be. That should be the bar below which we never drop. We should always be there to listen and engage and solicit opinion and feedback and direction from our constituents.

Government By the People will encourage that. Right now, if you have to raise a lot of money for a congressional race, which probably accounts for many, if not most, of the Members that we serve with, your time simply from a time value perspective is best spent with those large donors who can write the biggest checks.

With Government By the People, you now have the incentive to spend time with your constituents, compel them with your argument and with what you have been able to do in office and what you are committing to do in office that you are the best bet to represent them for their future and for their children's future. With that you earn not only their vote in the ballot box, but that first vote that Professor Lessig talks about--that financial commitment to you as a viable candidate.

I think my constituents want me making that pitch to them, both as voters and potential donors, much more than they want me to make that pitch here to corporate interests who are headquartered in D.C., who may never have been to El Paso, Texas, and have no real understanding or sensitivity to the concerns and needs that we have here.

The last thing that I will say that really contributes to that sense of a closed system, again quoting from my favorite source on this, Professor Lessig, who says:

The pernicious effect of these large-dollar donations is not really on your core issues.

Issues 1 through 10 are your core convictions. That is what you ran on. That is what people expect from. You are never going to sway from them. No amount of money is going buy you off, but issues 11 to 1,000-- and we vote on thousands of issues every year--become much more persuadable for Members, I think, when you have large amounts of money involved. If you don't know much about issue number 259 because it doesn't really affect your district, you are not a subject matter expert in it, you have never really thought about it before, and someone is offering to give you $5,000, you are probably going to listen to their side of the story and you may not listen to other one.

So I don't know if that is corruption. It certainly comes quite close to it. It is certainly not the way that I want nor my constituents want this body to run itself and govern our country.

Again, Mr. Sarbanes, I am so grateful that you introduced this. I am so

grateful that we have so many cosponsors. I look forward to working with you to hopefully pass this and make this law in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Catholic Diocese of El Paso as they celebrate their 100 year anniversary.

El Paso and the Catholic Church have shared a long history. The El Paso region was settled by Franciscan missionaries in the 1600s. Since then, the Catholic Church has contributed to El Paso in many important ways. From the founding of the first hospital in El Paso, Hotel Dieu; to building the Ysleta Mission, the oldest continuously operating church in the State of Texas; to installing the first Hispanic bishop in the nation, Bishop Patrick Flores installed in 1978.

The current Diocese serves more than 680,000 Catholics in and around El Paso. As champions of the poor and the vulnerable, the Diocese of El Paso operates one of the largest legal aid clinics in the southwest and provides health care and education to thousands in my community. It has also welcomed and given shelter to migrants and refugees from Mexico and around the world.

The Diocese of El Paso has been of the El Paso community for one hundred years. I invite my colleagues to recognize their history of service as they embark on their next century.

Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor to join my colleague from the State of Texas in this Special Order hour today to recognize our history in this country when it comes to achieving civil rights and perseverance in the face of adversity and some of our shameful past that has been turned, through the very hard work--the blood, the sweat, and the tears referenced by my colleague--into victories and triumphs, victories that are not yet complete, victories that we are still working on, but victories, nonetheless.

And I thought it might be appropriate at this time to share a little bit about the community that I represent, El Paso, Texas, and its role in this struggle to achieve civil rights, human rights, and equality for all men under the law.

I will begin with one of my favorite stories about El Paso. It is the story of the 1949 Bowie Bears high school baseball team. This was a team that was made up of members who lived in the Segundo Barrio of El Paso, all Mexican American members, all members who lived in what would be seen today as extreme levels of poverty, who played baseball with balls that were made of scrap pieces of clothing, gloves that were stitched together in their own homes, and who won the city championship and won the regional championship.

And as they traveled by bus in 1949 on those country highways to our capital in Austin, Texas, they were denied the ability to stay at motels. ``No Mexicans or dogs allowed.''

They were unable to eat in restaurants. They had to eat in the kitchens or eat outside on the bus. The night before the championship game in Austin, Texas--against an Austin, Texas, high school team--they slept under the bleachers in the field that they were going to play on, instead of being able to stay in a hotel or motel in that city; and they went on to win the first high school State baseball championship in Texas.

Not too long after that, in 1955, El Paso became the first city in the State of Texas to integrate its public schools; and as my colleague from Texas has pointed out, up until that point, there were separate schools for Black children, there were separate schools for White children, and not too long before that, separate schools for Mexican American children.

So in 1955, that school board in El Paso, Texas, made a very important decision to integrate schools. They were the first in Texas, one of the first in the former Confederacy.

In 1957, El Paso elected the first Mexican American mayor of a major U.S. city, Raymond Telles. And then, Mr. Speaker, on June 7, 1962, the El Paso City Council, under the leadership of Alderman Bert Williams, passed the first city ordinance of any major city in the former Confederacy outlawing segregation in hotels, motels, restaurants, and theaters; these places of public accommodation that my colleague has so eloquently described that were segregated and, in many cases, were barred to African Americans and, in some cases, in El Paso in earlier years, to Mexican Americans.

President Kennedy, in a speech that following year, in 1963, a speech which was titled a ``Special Message to the

Congress on Civil Rights and Job Opportunities,'' recognized this achievement in Texas, El Paso, where we were the first community in the former Confederacy to desegregate those places of public accommodation.

And lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would draw our attention to the 1966 Texas Western Miners, a college basketball team that fielded the first all- Black starting five to compete for a national title game.

Those five young men not only won the national championship against some of the longest of odds versus Kentucky, but in doing so, they effectively ended segregation in intercollegiate athletics and did a lot to further end discrimination more broadly in the United States.

So I would just join with my colleague and associate, myself, with his comments about the Voting Rights Act and the need to persevere in the face of adversity, to recognize those triumphs that we have achieved so far, but not to claim victory until we are assured that everyone is treated equally under the law, that everyone has access to the ballot box, and that we truly are a country that treats everyone equally under the Constitution.

So I hope that, as a representative of El Paso, Texas, a community that has such a proud history of leading in Texas and leading in the former Confederacy, in leading in the U.S. on important civil rights, human rights, and equality issues, that I will be able to join you, Mr. Green, in this fight and join this Congress in doing the right thing.

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to recognize Monica Dominguez, the lead counselor at Dr. Sue Shook Elementary School in Horizon City, Texas. Ms. Dominguez is in Washington D.C. to be honored as an American School Counselor Association (ASCA) 2014 School Counselor of the Year finalist.

Ms. Dominguez has led Shook Elementary's efforts to close the gap in services for low-income students through a counseling program that supports students' academic, social and emotional development. By reaching out to students beyond the confines of the school day, Ms. Dominguez has earned respect from fellow educators, parents, and most importantly, her students. In addition, Ms. Dominguez has developed effective relationships with local agencies to support the overall well-being of diverse students and families in El Paso County.

Before joining the staff at Shook Elementary, Ms. Dominguez served as the grants counselor for Project HOPE (Heightened Opportunities for Promoting Excellence) at H. D. Hilley Elementary School, which serves many students and families who experienced the negative impacts of violence in Mexico. Many of these families moved to El Paso to escape violence and the new students were in need of emotional and academic support. Ms. Dominguez set up Hilley's first data-driven, comprehensive school counseling program, where she maintained a low student-to- counselor ratio; decreased disciplinary referrals; increased attendance rates; and helped students and teachers succeed on state assessments.

Horizon City and the entire El Paso community continue to benefit from the positive impacts that Ms. Dominguez has on her students in her third year as a counselor at Shook Elementary. Her leadership skills and comprehensive vision shape the lives of her students and their families. I join the ASCA and the El Paso community in honoring Ms. Dominguez for her dedication to serving students and for the inspiring example she has set for school counselors across the country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of World War II Veteran and El Pasoan, Juan C. Marquez.

Private Marquez served as a rifleman in the United States Army during the Second World War. He began his tour of duty in Europe, where he served with the 44th Infantry Division, 3rd Battalion, and the 71st Infantry Regiment. While in combat, Private Marquez suffered shrapnel wounds. Later, while serving in northeastern France, a German tank struck Private Marquez, as a result of which he endured broken ribs and a separated shoulder.

For his courageous efforts, Private Marquez was awarded two Bronze Star Medals, the Purple Heart, the Good Conduct Medal, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the Army of Occupation Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Honorable Service Lapel Button.

On August 29, 1948 after returning home to El Paso, Mr. Marquez was in a fatal car crash. He was survived by his wife and four children. This great El Pasoan's distinguished service is an inspiration to all Americans and his dedication and resolve is an example to all serving in the Armed Forces.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of Sgt. Jose R. Escobedo, Jr. III. Born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Mr. Escobedo became a United States Citizen with the intention of enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. During over 10 years of service in the armed forces, Sargent Escobedo served in both the Marines and the Army and he served courageously during two tours of duty in Iraq.

Jose Escobedo graduated from Bowie High School in El Paso in 1995. After high school, he decided to join the Marines and served for nearly 9 years. After his honorable discharge, he worked for the city of Albuquerque in the Department of Transportation, but he missed the military. Eager to continue his service, ``SGT Esco,'' as friends called him, decided to join the Army and after training he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 77th Field Artillery Regiment in Schweinfurt, Germany.

On November 19, 2008, Sargent Escobedo deployed to Iraq for the third time. Despite being in a combat zone, Jose was known by his fellow soldiers as a kind individual with a positive outlook on life that was infectious. He passed away on March 19, 2009 in Baghdad and at the age of 32.

Mr. Escobedo is survived by his wife, Angelica, and their three children, Elvida, Jose, and Mikey. He is interned in Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso. The dedication with which he served our nation for so many years is an inspiration. El Paso misses Jose Escobedo and we are proud to honor him as a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of Army Sgt. Velton Locklear III, who died while serving his nation in Iraq.

Sergeant Locklear, known as ``Lock'' by his friends, was an El Pasoan, and graduate of Eastwood High School. During high school, he excelled at football and was an All-Star wide receiver.

Sergeant Locklear, like so many of his family members, wanted to serve in the Armed Forces. His two sisters, Julie and Lori, served in the Army and his father is retired Sgt. Maj. Velton Locklear Jr., who served in the Army for over 24 years.

After going to college at North Texas University, Velton decided to serve his country by joining the Army. During his career, he served two tours of duty in Iraq. He volunteered for his first tour of duty and began his deployment in February of 2004. Soldiers who served with him, described Locklear as a gentle giant, who made the day better with words of encouragement during hard times and witty humor in good times. Another soldier said Sergeant Locklear was like a breath of fresh air; always positive, always had a smile on his face. His first tour ended in March 2005.

The second time Locklear deployed to Iraq was with the 25th Infantry, 3rd Brigade 2-27th Infantry Battalion in August of 2005. On Sept. 23 Mr. Locklear died in Riyadh, Iraq due to injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat.

Mr. Locklear was a committed and loving husband to his wife Denise and their two sons, Velton IV and Nathan, who reside in El Paso. He served our country courageously and with honor. Sergeant Locklear's service and dedication is an example to others and I am proud to honor him as a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the United States.

Madam Speaker, I have the honor of representing more than 2,500 Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas. They are a big reason why our border with Mexico is as secure as it has ever been, and they help keep El Paso the safest city in the United States; it was this year, the year before, and the year before that.

Now, despite their successful track record, their vigilance at our borders with Mexico and Canada, and the tough conditions under which they work, they are working with an antiquated, unfair, and inflexible pay system. That is why I am happy to work across the aisle with the gentleman from Utah, Representative Chaffetz, to introduce H.R. 3463, the Border Patrol Pay Reform Act. This provides a fair, flexible, and fiscally responsible way to compensate our Border Patrol agents. It allows management to deploy resources where they are most needed; it gives our agents some predictability in their work schedule; and it saves the American taxpayer over $1 billion over the next 10 years.

During a time of sequester and tight budgets, we need to use existing resources as judiciously as we can. I think this bill accomplishes that while supporting our Border Patrol agents. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.