Madam President, today marks the 510th day as so well represented on the poster the Senator from California had on display. That is how long it has been since we passed an immigration reform bill--comprehensive immigration reform. The…
Madam President, today marks the 510th day as so well represented on the poster the Senator from California had on display. That is how long it has been since we passed an immigration reform bill--comprehensive immigration reform. The House of Representatives simply has refused to address this issue. They have refused to address the fact that we have a broken immigration system that needs to be fixed. All the Speaker would have to do is bring this up for a vote and it would pass. The bill that passed here 510 days ago would pass the House overwhelmingly. But he refuses to bring it up.
In this bill we passed 73 weeks ago, we were able to pass comprehensive immigration reform because Senate Democrats and Republicans recognized that our immigration laws are failing the American people. We sent that same bipartisan bill to the House 17 months ago. For the last 17 months, the House Republicans, led by a small, vocal, really radical group, has forced the Speaker, I assume, not to do anything. They have neglected to tackle the real issues affecting our immigration system.
We have talked about 510 days, we have talked about 73 weeks, and we have talked about 17 months. That is enough time for them to consider the bill the Senate considered and passed in just a few weeks, but they still refuse to do anything, even as families across the country have been ripped apart.
I have been present at meetings, meetings--I remember one of the last at the White House--where the Republican leaders of the House and Senate have said: Give us some time, give us some time. We have given them time--510 days, to be exact. And they are always saying: Let's do something. Well, something is not enough, they need to do comprehensive immigration reform, and they refuse to do that.
So in light of the fact that families are being ripped apart--and there is no question they are. The first time I saw this, where I really felt it in my heart, Bill Richardson, with whom I served in the House--he was Secretary of Energy and Ambassador to the United Nations--he came to Las Vegas, and he said: Let's go out to the Rafael Rivera Center. It was, at the time, a new place, named after the first non-Indian to see the Las Vegas valley--Rafael Rivera. I have a painting in my office that reflects that. So we went to that center, and I can remember so clearly these mostly women crying over the fact that their husbands had lost their jobs, they were being deported, and they had little American boys and girls there with them. These were boys and girls who had been born in the United States. I thought, gee, that is terrible. I mean the suffering and the sadness. I have never forgotten that, and that is one of the main reasons I have worked so hard on immigration reform.
In light of the Republicans' inaction, and our action and our advocacy of this issue, it seems to me what the President said at his State of the Union Address is really applicable here. Here is what he said: If the Republicans continue to do nothing, I am going to be forced as the President of the United States to do something by Executive order. And I am glad. I am glad he is going, in the next couple of days for sure, to use his constitutionally established authority to fix as much of our broken immigration system as is possible. He told everybody he was going to do it in his State of the Union and he has waited and waited and nothing has happened.
Some Republicans are threatening to shut down the government. They have done it once before, so I guess we should take their threat seriously. They want to shut down the government because of what the President said he is going to do and what he is going to do. But this isn't about the Republicans and President Obama, this is about where the Republicans stand with the immigrant community.
My father-in-law, my wife's dad, was an immigrant. He was born in Russia. He came to the United States to escape the oppression in Russia. So this whole issue is about how Republicans stand with the immigrant community.
The immigrant community is what has made this country what it is. Those who will come forward under this Executive action the President is going to take are, with rare exception, hard-working immigrant dads and moms who are supporting their families. They came to America for the same reasons early immigrants came to America, just like my father- in-law, Earl Gould, did. By the way, he changed his name when he came to the United States. He came here as Israel Goldfarb, and he changed his name, as many immigrants have done.
As my father-in-law did, the people who are going to come here under this Executive order can build a better life for themselves and their families. They have deep ties in America. They work hard. As I have indicated, they have spouses and children. Under our broken immigration system, there is no line for these people to get into, no process for them to sign up for, and no way to remedy this situation. They are in limbo. They are in the shadows. They are in darkness.
President Obama, fortunately, is going to do something to give them just that, a line to come forward, a line that he recognizes must be done to get the system started.
We can't give these people their green cards and put them on the path to citizenship immediately. Only Congress can and must finish the job in overhauling and rewriting these laws. I want to be clear that Executive action is important, but it is not a substitute for legislation, and the Speaker should understand that.
Yes, we passed a bill. The President will be happy to sign such a bill. But because Republicans have refused to legislate, President Obama is taking what steps he can to keep these families together and enforce the laws. The President is acting within his legal authority to use his Executive power to improve the immigration system.
Did he just dream this up one night meeting with his staff? Did someone suddenly come to him and say, I have a great idea. Why don't we try to do something different? He is going to do something that has been tried 39 times since Dwight Eisenhower was President. Virtually every President since Eisenhower was President has done Executive actions as relates to immigration.
I would also say to my Republican friends who are always talking about, boy, we have to do something important financially for the good of this country, why not pass this bill? It would benefit our country to the tune of $1 trillion.
I strongly support the steps the President is going to take. I support him, and I hope he does it as soon as possible, because his Executive action will help keep families together and focus law enforcement resources on real criminals.
We have waited a long time for House Republicans. Since they won't act, the President will, and he should act.