Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the work and service of Jaime Carranza, a senior warehouseman for the Anaheim Union High School District who was recently recognized as one of nine California Classified Employee of the Year honorees.

For the past five years, Jaime has been an integral part of the Anaheim Union High School District. Students and faculty alike know that Jaime goes above and beyond to ensure that all students are supported in their education and in their lives. As senior warehouseman for Food Services, Jaime ensures that all of the Anaheim Union High Schools are able to provide kids with healthy meals, safe campuses and transportation, and a supportive infrastructure during difficulties and unexpected changes. Known for his friendliness, expertise, and willingness to assist others, Jaime is the first person his colleagues call when they need help.

For his work and dedication to our community, Jaime won the award for top classified employee in the Food and Nutrition Services category. He was selected for this honor from a state-wide pool of 151 nominees. He was distinguished by his exemplary work performance, involvement in his campus and the Anaheim community, and the support of his colleagues.

I thank Jaime for his service to Anaheim's students.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Anaheim Public Library from my district, who is being honored as a finalist for the 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Services.

This honor recognizes museums and libraries' services to their communities. Through innovative programs and partnerships with nonprofits, the Anaheim Public Library helps close economic gaps, expand digital inclusion, and ensure that our students access to the education they deserve. The Anaheim Public Library is an important resource to our community and provides critical resources, including WiFi and laptops, food and diapers, and even mobile educational programs that travel to schools, parks, and senior centers. Last year, the library's mobile services reached more than 235,000 members of our community in Anaheim.

The work that the Anaheim Public Library has done to support and transform the lives of people like me, makes me proud that they are honored as a finalist for the 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Services.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, as you know, this week is National Police Week. I thank every peace officer and law enforcement officer for doing their service and for protecting our communities day in and day out.

I want to make clear, Mr. Chairman, that no Democrat or Republican condones a serious assault on any peace officer, period. To the contrary, we want to help our police officers do their job.

Yesterday, my local Orange County sheriff was here to testify to address public safety issues. After that meeting, he pulled me aside, and he reminded me of how hard and long we had worked in Orange County to gain the trust of the immigrant community--trust that public safety needs to do their job--to report crimes when they happen and to cooperate with public safety because police officers need the help of the immigrant community to do their job.

That is just the fact. This bill threatens to undo decades of hard work and of building trust between public safety and the immigrant community.

This bill, in fact, is so broad that individuals can be deported for actions they are merely accused of.

Let me repeat: People can be deported for actions that they are merely accused of. We are talking about the ability to deport lawfully permanent residents, people with green cards.

Do we really want to deport these individuals--many of whom are close to becoming U.S. citizens--not based on convictions but simply an accusation?

What about the constitutional notion of innocent until proven guilty?

Mr. Chairman, in this bill a conviction is not required.

One would hope that someone who did not intend or did not cause harm would never be charged let alone convicted of a crime. However, any conduct could be considered an assault under this bill, and by the bill's broad definition, it would make someone deportable even without a charge and even without a conviction.

It is important to remember that convictions for serious assaults on a law enforcement officer are offenses today that make someone deportable under current law. In fact, we have a wide variety of criminal grounds for deportation, almost all of which require a conviction.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment is a simple amendment. It is simple. It requires a conviction. My amendment simply requires a court--a judge-- to decide on the facts and the law before a green card holder can be deported.

My amendment is simple. It asks for due process under the law.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the winners of the 2022 Congressional App Challenge from my district: Jessica Nguyen, Henry Vu, and Jasmine Chau.

These constituents created a MnewNote study app that improves their classmates' productivity and academic performance while preventing mental burnout.

These students are part of the Garden Grove High School's first AP computer science group where they learned coding and design skills.

Together, these students combined scientifically proven study techniques, psychological studies on motivation and productivity, and the result: The MnewNote app.

Madam Speaker, we are proud of Jessica, Henry, and Jasmine. Keep up the good work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the achievements of Saul Garcia.

Saul Garcia graduated from Santa Ana High School in 1999. After graduating, he completed a regional occupational program. In 2002, he attended Santa Ana College and became credentialed in transportation by the San Diego County Office of Education in 2016.

In 2001, he became a technician and completed mechanical and electrical diagnosis and repairs on automobiles at Caliber Motors of Mercedes Benz.

For many years he continued as a technician in Mercedes Benz and did a variety of maintenance activities and automotive repairs at Foothill Ranch. He educated clients and colleagues on repair needs and built long-term relationships based on the foundations of trust and integrity in his community.

In 2012, he became an automobile instructor in North Orange County ROP. He developed and implemented curriculum, lectures, lab activities in accordance with the non-profit organizations of NATE/ASE certifications. The NATE and ASE certifications were created by non- profit organizations to help students distinguish themselves as professionals in HV ACR and automotives respectively.

As an automobile instructor in North Orange County ROP, he also performed outreach and collaborated with fellow educators. He provided instruction to secondary school students and adults to help prepare them for a career and university.

In 2014, he returned to his community and began his journey as an automotive instructor in the Santa Ana Unified School District. He developed curriculum and lesson plans in alignment with approved on line courses. He also developed internship sites and facilitated internship opportunities for the youth.

Saul is a certified instructor with more than 20 years of experience in public education and the fields of automotives.

Today, he continues his journey as an instructor in the Santa Ana Unified School District. He continues to help the youth in his community and participates in annual committees, staff meetings, and professional development.

I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and celebrating the accomplishments and commitment of Saul Garcia to his community of Orange County, California.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor MOMS Orange County, one of Orange County's largest nonprofits dedicated to newborn and pregnancy health.

For more than three decades, MOMS OC has supported the needs of over 2,500 underserved pregnant and parenting families each year. This important resource provides low-income women and their families with free prenatal care, health and infant development screenings, mental health services, and resource referrals. They also offer parenting and health classes for mothers, fathers, and other caregivers in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

MOMS OC is committed to increasing women's access to quality prenatal and postnatal care, regardless of their race, sexuality, creed, class, or family composition, by helping to dismantle barriers to equitable health care.

The services MOMS OC provides lead to real positive outcomes for the families they support. Despite coming from low-income backgrounds, the children supported by MOMS OC are at health and developmental levels that exceed those of the general population. After graduating from MOMS OC's care 99 percent of children served have medical homes, 98 percent of children are up-to-date with appropriate immunizations, and 99 percent of children are on track for their developmental milestones.

Since its founding in 1992, MOMS OC has uplifted more than 100,000 families, including babies that have grown up to become healthy and successful Orange County parents. Through health coordination, education, and access to community resources, MOMS OC provides low- income parents with the tools and support to ensure their babies have the healthiest possible start to life.

I thank MOMS OC for their work empowering and supporting Orange County families.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleagues on the other side of the aisle for taking on such an important and difficult task: immigration reform, the refugee crisis.

My friends on the other side are absolutely correct. Title 42 is ending today. I have to remind you, when many of you voted to lift the COVID-19 emergency, you legally, effectively, voted to end title 42. Don't forget that. You voted to lift title 42.

Today, we are facing a worldwide refugee crisis, the likes that we haven't seen since World War II. In World War II, we had 60 million refugees moving throughout Europe. This is what we are facing today.

It is not only the United States. It is also Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia, who is housing 2.4 million Venezuelan refugees. This is a challenge for all of us.

We need real solutions. Under existing laws, we do have some solutions.

I am probably the only legislator here today that went to visit the Ukrainian refugee camps in Tijuana, Mexico, about a year ago. Let me tell you what I found: Ukrainian refugees in Tijuana waiting to cross into the United States.

What did we do? We lifted title 42. We gave them temporary protective status, and walked them into the United States. Today, that refugee camp is gone. Why? Because those refugees can apply for status from Europe directly. That is a model that worked under existing laws, and the administration, this Biden administration, is implementing something very similar to that as we speak.

Your proposal, my good friends on the other side of the aisle, has some challenges. I will start by talking about the biggest one: E- Verify, mandatory E-Verify.

We have a labor shortage in this country. Every time I get the small businessmen here, the large businessmen, or the farmers especially, 50 percent of our farmworkers are undocumented today in this country. They are the ones who pick our crops. With forced E-Verify, you are essentially forcing, making small business owners criminals. They are going to have to choose between firing those employees, harvesting their crops, or becoming criminals. That is not the intent of your legislation, but that is effectively what you are doing today.

My colleague from California knows that because that is why he pushed an amendment for the farming industry, for this exact reason.

But we not only have farmers, we have small businesses as well in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I would say E-Verify, without true immigration reform, is not going to work.

My friends, I reach out to you across the aisle and say: Let's do this for America. Let's fix our broken immigration system, and let's address this worldwide refugee challenge right now.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to honor the career and service of retiring Anaheim Police Chief Jorge Cisneros.

Chief Cisneros is a 33-year law enforcement veteran and has served as police chief for the past 13 years for various southern California cities. He started his career way back in 1990 at the Long Beach Police Department, where he worked his way up through the ranks to become a commander.

At Long Beach, Chief Cisneros developed and administered a 15-week Spanish Community Academy for officers to enhance trust and partnership with the Latino community that then made up 40 percent of the residents of Long Beach.

In 2018, Chief Cisneros was selected as Anaheim's police chief, leading 600 employees in that department.

Chief Cisneros holds a master's degree in criminal justice from Chapman University in the city of Orange and has served as a member and current vice president of the Orange County Chiefs and Sheriffs Association.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to call Jorge a good friend and mentor. I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and

celebrating the career of Chief Jorge Cisneros and congratulate him on his well-deserved retirement.

Mr. Speaker, to my colleague from Texas, I say that this bill, this set of bills, criminalizes California's and the United States' private sector.

Why do you make small businesses and large businesses criminals? We have a 3.6 percent unemployment rate in this country. Every time I have businesses in my office, they say: We need workers. We need more immigrants. This is not what this set of bills is doing.

Let's start out by recognizing the reality that we are living in the greatest country in the world, the strongest economy in the world. We need workers, and these bills fail to recognize that reality.

Let's go back and work across the aisle. I say to my colleagues on the other side, let's come up with comprehensive immigration reform and a way to keep America as the greatest economy in the world. These bills do not do that.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that most of my life I have lived on both sides of the border, and since taking over my subcommittee this year, in the last 4 months, I have gone to Laredo, Brownsville, Yuma, El Centro, San Ysidro, Otay; and just Monday, Otay, Tijuana, Mexico.

I am doing this because I think it is important that we leave Washington and go and ask the border agents, go ask the port authorities what is going on, tell me what they need.

I saw these men and women in blue uniforms at our ports of entry. They are very proud of their work. They said: Lou, look, this is 99 percent of the trade we have, the integration of the North American markets. We are making it happen thanks to the investments by Congress in personnel, technology, and infrastructure.

Then they said: But we have to keep out that 1 percent, that fentanyl, those narcotics. They proudly said: We here at the ports of entry are responsible for stopping over 90 percent of the fentanyl that comes into this country.

I asked them, of course: What do you need to do your job better?

They said: We are looking to you in Washington for more support. We are 2,400 personnel down, CBP agents. They said the proposals here by my colleagues on the other side do nothing to support the additional hiring of men and women in blue uniforms. Those blue uniforms are responsible for stopping over 90 percent of the fentanyl that is coming across the border.

I proposed amendments to this legislation for better pay, retention, childcare for those workers that have to do forced overtime. All of my amendments were turned down.

If we are serious about stopping fentanyl, we have to invest more in those blue uniforms, and this legislation does absolutely nothing to do that.

Let's be frank here. I have also gone to farmers and small businesses in my district, and they are also very scared. They are scared of becoming criminals. You put in a mandatory E-Verify, and every one of those farmers who employ undocumented farmworkers is going to be criminalized. Every one of those small businesses in my district that are calling me and saying, ``Lou, we need immigration reform,'' will also become criminals because they employ undocumented.

We seem to forget we have a 3.6 percent unemployment rate in this country. Those folks that are coming across the border are disappearing into the fabric of our economic society. They are getting jobs. They are working. They are part of our fabric.

Unless we have immigration reform, unless we have a way to get workers into this country that is teamed up with some of these proposals, it is not going to work. At the end of the day, the private sector that needs workers, folks that need a job will figure out how to make it work.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is not enough. This bill is not about creating a solution. It is simply messaging.

This bill is not addressing the fentanyl problem. The best investments are where it will be stopped at the border.

The bill is not addressing the employment issue. In every sector of our economy, in every State of our Union, we need workers. We don't need to criminalize, make employers criminals for trying to hire somebody to harvest this crop.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary career of Edward F. Gerber.

During his 30 years of service at Lestonnac Free Clinic, he has been relentless at finding solutions to fill critical gaps in healthcare for the most vulnerable residents in Southern California.

Edward F. Gerber expanded from one primary care medical clinic to fourteen satellite clinics offering twenty-five specialties across four counties. Just last year, with his leadership, Lestonnac Free Clinic was able to provide free medical and dental care to 10,217 patients through 30,130 visits. Since 2008, when he began as the Executive Director, Lestonnac Free Clinic has provided 359,277 patient visits.

As the Executive Director, Mr. Gerber has collaborated with over 300 like-minded organizations, recruited over 1,400 volunteer doctors and raised over $25 million dollars to help ensure that no one in our community is forced to forgo medical attention due to cost. He also secured an additional $3.5 million dollar donation to build a state-of- the-art two operating room surgery center that will allow Lestonnac Free Clinic volunteer surgeons to provide free surgeries, which will alleviate financial strains and community resources on local hospitals. This surgery center will be the first of its kind in the United States and will model what is possible through love and a desire to help others.

It is my utmost privilege to honor this humble and hard-working man. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in acknowledging the career and accomplishments of Edward F. Gerber.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to commemorate the fall of Saigon, also known as Black April, on April 30.

Today, the Vietnamese-American community is comprised of businessowners, teachers, police officers, and American soldiers. The Little Saigon community exemplifies the American Dream and has always stood for the land of opportunity.

This Sunday marks 47 years since Vietnamese refugees came to America.

Today, I ask my colleagues to remember the 58,000 American soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom of Vietnam.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to celebrate the life of a very good friend, a dedicated father, a great neighbor, George Fenton.

He was born on Valentine's Day in 1935 and devoted his entire life to serving his country and his community. After graduating from high school in Detroit, Michigan, George joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Decades after his service in the Marine Corps, he often talked and relayed stories about his time at boot camp in Parris Island and Camp Lejeune, and he called it his hot weather training at Twentynine Palms.

Later, George moved his entire family to Garden Grove. He worked for the

city of Orange before joining the Orange County Sheriff's Department in 1971. That is where he met his wife, Lynn, at the courthouse on the job in 1989. They were married in Santa Ana in 1991, and recently they celebrated 31 years of marriage.

After George retired from the Orange County Sheriff's Department in 1993, he spent the next 15 years working at Disneyland as a cast member and ticket taker.

George, you will be missed. Thank you for your time and service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate students from my district, Orange County, California, for winning C-SPAN's 2023 StudentCam documentary film competition. Congratulations.

This competition invites high school and middle school students to make documentaries on issues of national importance.

This year, they were asked to answer the question: ``If you were just elected to Congress, what would be your priorities?''

Amber Khaub, Darwin Lopez, Evan Spence, and Christian Kim made exceptional films engaging with issues of artificial intelligence, agriculture, and the environment. Their films were among the best and few of those that actually won an award out of nearly 3,000 entries.

It is inspiring to see them grow and be so successful.

Congratulations to all of them. We are very proud.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Cal State Fullerton's president Fram Virjee and his spouse and partner of 37 years, Julie. I congratulate both of them on their upcoming retirement after more than 5 years at Cal State Fullerton.

As president of Cal State Fullerton, the largest university today in California, Fram and his great partner, Julie, have been part of the Titan community. Under both their leaderships, Cal State Fullerton is today the largest university in California and is number one in graduating women in California. Today, Cal State Fullerton is the number four best bang for your buck university in the United States.

Before coming to Cal State Fullerton, Fram served as executive vice chancellor, general counsel, and secretary to the board of trustees of the Cal State University system. Before coming to Cal State University, Fram was a partner at O'Melveny and Myers.

Fram and Julie are involved in a lot of nonprofits, and they both founded and have supported the Yambi Rwanda, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of Rwandans.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate, President Fram Virjee and Julie on their retirement. I am sure it is not going to be their retirement. As a Cal State Fullerton alumnus, I am proud to consider them both very good friends. Go Titans.