Joe Garcia

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my friend Steve Sauls, Florida International University's vice president for governmental relations, who is retiring after more than 30 years of commitment to the community and the State of Florida.

During his tenure at FIU, Steve helped secure funding for the International Hurricane Center in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, fought to receive authorization for the College of Law at FIU, and played a key role in creating the College of Medicine. Through these efforts and countless others, Steve has helped develop FIU into one of the top public universities in the country. I have been honored to represent FIU in my district and work with Steve to help support this vibrant educational community.

After building a long track record of impressive accomplishments, Steve will be sorely missed. I urge you to join me in recognizing his contributions to south Florida and our country.

Mr. Speaker, I am a very fortunate man. I am the son of immigrants. My parents came here at the ages of 17 and 18, respectively. Through the great fortune that we had, they were adjusted, and they were part of this great Nation, but since then, many more have come after.

In particular, I represent a community that is almost 69 percent Hispanic, the majority of which were born in a foreign land. The reality is that our immigration system for years has worked and has worked efficiently to make what we do better than any other nation in the world: we make Americans.

In the last decade and a half, this system has ground to a halt. In the last few years, our President has moved steadily to use his executive power to try to make the system work a little bit better. I believe that is an important step.

But we had an opportunity. We had an opportunity in this House to pass the Senate version that received 68 votes, something that would have made the system function better, brought more investment into America, more dollars into Federal revenue; yet the House punted. I am appreciative of the President's action because he is well within executive power.

If the other side does not like the President's action, they can bring up the Senate bill. There are enough votes in this House to pass it. We will have an orderly process. It is not a perfect bill, but it does do the right thing, which fixes a broken immigration system.

I want to beg the other side to understand the implications that fighting on this issue has. This is a nation of laws, there is no question on that, but the

executive has plenary authority in this area. The time has come to move, since this House would not move.

Mr. Speaker, we all agree that it is up to Congress to overhaul the broken immigration system. However, despite all the talk and promises, there is one thing that is clear: this Republican Congress has done

nothing to address immigration reform and has only been an obstacle to this process.

Now is the time for the President to act. His legal standing is solid. It is time for us to act. Now is the time to do what is right, what is fair, what is just, not only for the immigrant community, but for this great country.