Hon. Tom Tancredo - U.S. House speech June 9, 2003
Mr. Speaker, if there are laws in the books in America that
are no longer valid and meaningful, repeal them. I urge this
body to actually address this issue head on and bring a bill
forward in this body that says we will repeal all laws regarding
immigration. We will essentially erase our borders. We will eliminate
the Border Patrol, close the stations, the ports of entry because
after all, we cannot control it. And if people want to come to
the United States, for the most benign or most wonderful reasons,
the reasons that we can all applaud, let them come. Why should
we call someone here illegal? Why should we draw any sort of
conclusions about someone who came into this country without
our permission? Let us just let them all come from wherever they
want to come and as many as wish to come.
Now, I want that debated in this House. I want Members to
vote yea or nay to this concept. If you vote ``yea,'' you are
for erasing the borders. You can make that case to your constituents.
Try and make that case. Some of us will be able to do so. Some
of us will not be at all excited about that possibility and will
vote ``no.'' I will not vote for such a bill, of course. I am
a ``no'' vote because I do not believe it is good for America.
I will tell Members I am a ``no'' vote on the issue of eliminating
borders. I believe it goes to the very basic, to the heart of
what we call our country, to the heart of national sovereignty.
I will make the case as strongly as I can against any sort of
bill that would in fact invalidate the borders. But that is exactly
what we are doing, Mr. Speaker, every single day.
That is the problem. It is happening, our opponents, the people
who want the elimination of borders, know they can accomplish
their goal by pretending that they support national sovereignty
and national security. They can stand up and suggest that all
day long. They do not want to vote on this idea of whether or
not we should erase our borders because in their heart of hearts
many people want to, and many times they want to for political
reasons. They know that people coming into this country as immigrants
tend to vote for one party over the other. They tend to vote
for the Democrats. The other side of the aisle knows that.
Again, this is not brain surgery we are dealing with here.
It is politics 101. How do they gain supporters, especially when
their side is losing? Where do they look? If the majority of
Americans are now turning to the Republican Party or becoming
more conservative and expressing that, where do the Democrats
look for people who will support their efforts? Where do they
look for people who support their efforts, for greater welfare
and expanded government? They go to the immigrant class coming
into the United States.
So it is not unusual, it is not illogical, it is not crazy
for us to deal with it in that way, for political parties to
look at it that way. So our friends on the other side of the
aisle see massive immigration and say, I do not care whether
they are coming here legally or not. They eventually become my
voters, so I am for it. So I am going to on the one side of my
mouth I am going to suggest that we need national security, everybody
should come in legally, wink, wink. On the other side I am going
to say we need your help, we need your labor, and vote for me
when you get here, whether you do so legally or not.
On our side of the aisle, on the Republican side of the aisle,
we have many Members who look at this whole thing and say there
is an awful lot of cheap labor that is coming into this country,
and that is good for business. That keeps wage rates low, prices
low, and what is good for business, as Calvin Coolidge said,
is good for America.
Mr. Speaker, in this case it is not good for America. I would
challenge my opponents on the other side of the aisle and I would
challenge my opponents on this side of the aisle that massive
immigration today both legally and illegally is not good for
America.
Now, as I mentioned, the first consequence of ignoring the
fact that people come in illegally and break our laws is that
is the wrong way to start off your citizenship in the United
States. Of course it is not citizenship, your residency in the
United States.
The second consequence of this law-breaking behavior, the
consequence of entering our country illegally, is that they also
enter our labor market illegally. It is this consequence that
I wish to talk about this evening.
I want to ask you to consider, Mr. Speaker, some aspects of
this underground labor market that is not getting much attention
or discussion in the press and not much attention by this body
or policymakers in general. In the first place, with the possible
exception of a few agricultural jobs, it is simply not true that
Americans will not do certain jobs because of their low status
or because they involve hard labor. We have done these jobs throughout
our history and well into the second half of the 20th century.
Mechanization of agriculture over the past 100 years has led
to a diminishing need for farm labor and our food is the least
expensive in the world because of this. This trend was well established
long before agricultural interests started relying on migrant
labor and becoming more and more dependent on illegal migrant
labor. Fewer and fewer Americans were needed to harvest our crops
and there was an adequate supply of indigenous labor in the vast
majority of cases. Harvesting peaches and tomatoes and strawberries
is indeed very hard work. Mechanization has taken over in many
crops but there is still a need for some amount of seasonal physical
labor in some sectors of agriculture. Does this require 8 or
10 or 13 million illegal immigrants? I do not think so.
There is another aspect of this that is very important to
understand, Mr. Speaker, and, that is, when we allow massive
immigration of low-skilled, low-wage workers, we have a tendency,
therefore, to screw around with the market in a way. What we
do is actually delay the implementation of the use of technology
to accomplish certain goals. Specifically I remember when we
used to have a bracero program in the United States. That was
a program that allowed migrant workers, mostly from Mexico, to
come in and do agricultural labor. And they had to return to
Mexico and they could not bring families. When that program was
ended, there was an outcry from the tomato growers in the United
States. There was a massive sort of rush to legislative remedies.
They wanted us to do something because they kept saying, it is
impossible for us to actually do our job. We cannot possibly
grow tomatoes, we cannot harvest tomatoes, without the help of
this kind of labor. So we ended up in a situation where we went
ahead and eliminated this bracero program. And what happened?
Did tomato growers go out of business as they said they would?
No. They were forced to actually invest in technology, to invest
in different kinds of technology and actually develop some sort
of mechanized approach to doing the labor that had been done
heretofore by individuals. So today tomato growers in the United
States are far more productive than they ever were before when
they relied solely on individuals picking tomatoes. Now they
can do it with machines, now they can do it more cost effectively,
and they are more productive in the process.
So when we import massive numbers of illegal workers into
this country, or even legal workers who are low-skilled, low-wage
workers, we need to actually again get involved and kind of skew
the marketplace. We mess up the process that should lead to a
development of greater use of technology and productivity. To
the extent that American workers cannot be found for some seasonal
agricultural jobs, that need can be met by a new guest worker
program. I intend to introduce legislation to accomplish that
goal very soon. A well-designed and properly managed guest worker
program would allow migrant workers to come into this country
legally, work as long as they are needed in jobs that are certified
as requiring foreign nationals and then return to their homes.
That is the important part we ought to remember about guest worker.
Guest worker is a program that allows people to come into the
country for a period of time, do a specific job, and return to
their country of origin. That is a guest worker program. On the
other side, you can have people come into the country and begin
the process of becoming a citizen of the United States; that
is called immigration. Two different things.
We are right now by far the most liberal Nation on the planet
in terms of who we let come into the country legally, 1 million,
1.5 million every year. We are also, of course, the most liberal
Nation in the world in terms of who we let come into the country
illegally, 1 million, 1.5 million people every year, that we
turn a blind eye to. We do so for the reasons I mentioned earlier,
political advantage for the Democrats, a business interest for
the Republicans. And so we ignore the law.
Once again I go back and say to my colleagues on both sides
of the aisle, if you want to accomplish your goals and let people
into the country at their desire, not in any way, shape, or form
connected to our needs in this country, if you want to do that
to the Democratic Party, fine. To Republicans, if you want to
just have a massive influx of low-skilled, low-wage workers in
order to reduce the cost of labor, fine, let us tell America
that is where we stand. Let us have a bill that actually eliminates
the borders, allows people to come at their desire, not in response
to our need. Let us do that. Let us let Americans know how you
feel about this. Unfortunately, I do not think we are going to
get that bill in this session or the next session, because I
have never seen it introduced by anybody on either side of the
aisle.
And so when the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, talk
about job creation and the need to protect workers in America,
I find it always fascinating that they never ever want to talk
about the thing that would protect American workers to a very
large extent, and that is to actually control our own borders
and to allow people into this country based upon our needs and
to determine what those are. If they are, in fact, needs that
can only be filled by low-skilled, low-wage workers, fine. If
that is it, fine. If in reality, quote, no American wants to
do these jobs, then, yeah, they are open to anybody who wants
to come in and work hard and accomplish their life's goals.
What about the jobs in other areas, the so-called low-status
jobs that now employ illegal aliens? What about restaurants and
car washes and leaf blowers and gardeners and carpet installers
and hotel and motel housekeeping staff? These are a few of the
typical jobs we are told that cannot be filled except by illegal
aliens who will work for less money than legal workers or citizens.
But should we stop and think about the statement they will work
for less money, because that is really what we should add to
the first part of the statement. There are jobs Americans will
not do, at least for the money someone is willing to pay them
to do it. It is true, but it is half a truth and hides a deeper
reality. The illegal aliens will indeed work for less money because
they can, because they come from a culture where $6 an hour is
more than a living wage, and that family members often pool their
incomes and share living quarters. This is to their credit. I
do not mean to demean their efforts. They are doing exactly what
my grandparents did and our great grandparents or however long
ago our individual families ended up in this country. Most of
them came for the same reason. I do not for a moment mean to
demean that particular goal. But it is only half the story and
the half that everyone sees and understands. The other half is
that American workers used to do these jobs before the supply
of cheap foreign labor drove down wage rates relative to the
rest of the economy. In other words, the conventional wisdom
has the story exactly backwards. We do not have 8 to 13 million
illegal aliens in this country because we need them to fill jobs.
We have 8 to 13 million illegal aliens in this country because
there is a ready supply of cheap labor to keep wage rates low.
We have that ready supply of cheap labor because we have an open
border policy.
Once again, maybe you can make this case, Mr. Speaker. Maybe
it is something that all Americans will agree with. Maybe our
friends on the other side of the aisle and my colleagues on this
side will in their heart of hearts say, yes, it is true that
we have to keep people in very low-wage situations because it
is good for the economy. I just want them to make that case to
their constituents, that is all. That is all that I ask. I want
them to tell the people who are struggling in those low-wage
jobs that they are there and they are going to be there for a
long time, and there is no real opportunity for advancement because
open borders will keep wage rates low and, therefore, the economy
moving.
Do we need an open borders policy? Not to help our economy,
which would adjust and prosper without the supply of cheap labor,
just as I mentioned earlier in what I described about what happened
in the tomato growing industry. It is interesting how business
does adjust and how the economy does in fact relate to these
things called labor shortages. We would adjust and we would prosper
without the supply of cheap labor. But because it benefits Mexico
and maintains good relations with the Mexican Government and
because it benefits the cheap labor advocates in the Congress
of the United States and the political advantage that our friends
in the Democratic Party get because of massive immigration, we
will continue the program. If these workers were not available,
if we did not maintain an open border policy, our economy would
adjust and we would continue to be the most prosperous Nation
in the world. The few companies that must have such low-wage
workers in order to compete in the marketplace will move their
plants to the source of the labor. But our history teaches that
most employers will not do this. Denied a source of below-market
cheap labor, employers will generally not move their operations.
Instead, they do one of two things. They will either mechanize
their operations, as agriculture has in fact done steadily over
the past 150 years, or they will raise their wages to attract
American workers or legal workers.
Actually there is another part to this. We will increase productivity.
That is what we have done. Because in reality, no matter how
much we talk about the need for open borders, it is very difficult
to compete in a world in which, today especially, you can move
work to worker any place in the world. So how does American labor
compete? It is not, frankly, with just the importation of cheap
labor; it is with the development and the continual increase
of productivity by the American worker. When this is done across
the entire industry, it does not disadvantage any one employer
because all employers are in the same boat. Costs to the consumer
will rise as the cost of labor rises, but the product will be
produced and will be available on the market. To cite one of
the most obvious examples, if restaurants in New York City and
San Francisco and Dallas could not employ these illegal immigrants
as their dishwashers and busboys and valet parking attendants,
they would be forced to pay slightly higher wages to legal workers.
Would they all go out of business? No, they would not. I respectfully
submit that it would not be a calamity for our economy to have
to pay a price for a prime rib dinner that would move from like
$16 to $16.50, and the price of delivery of pizza to go up 50
percent, if the car wash goes up from $12 to $13, if the price
of a Motel 6 room increases from $34.95 in Lubbock to $36.95.
I recognize that this might be a difficult adjustment for
some people, but we have been through hardships that we endured
and we can endure this one. To offset these temporary adjustments
in our life-style, there would be many favorable things that
would happen in our economy if the supply of cheap labor and
illegal labor was cut off. The first thing we would notice is
that our college students could in fact find summer jobs and
part-time jobs year around. Some of the 8 million unemployed
Americans would find jobs in the service industries at a higher
wage than is now offered. As the job magnet disappears, the flow
of illegal aliens across our borders, now estimated at 1.5 million
a year, would stop. This would have some very positive effects
on our economy. Hospitals, law enforcement agencies, and public
schools all across the border States and in many of our bigger
cities would notice a diminished burden on their budgets. As
a result, State and local governments all across the West and
South would discover they have revenues available that had previously
been devoted to the needs of a growing immigrant community. Legal
immigrants seeking jobs would not be competing with people willing
to work for below-market wages. The U.S. Border Patrol and the
Customs Service could concentrate all of their energies on stopping
the flow of illegal drugs into our Nation instead of worrying
about the flow of illegal people; people like several members
of my own community in Denver, Colorado; people in my own neighborhood.
One gentleman in particular comes to mind. He is employed in
the high-tech industry, and we will talk about that in a few
minutes, about exactly what is happening there because we have
spent most of the time talking about low-skilled, low-wage workers,
but there is just as big a problem, if not more so, in the area
of white collar workers, high-skilled workers in the United States
and the various programs that we operate to bring people into
this country to displace American workers in this area. My friend
is one of those. He is an individual that has been out of work
for a year or year and a half in the high-tech industry. He now
works a little bit for us, and at nighttime drives a limousine
to keep a roof over his head and food on the table. If you ask
him, you know, when you were a high-tech worker and in this very
high position in this industry that you were involved in, would
you believe that you would be driving a limousine at night picking
people up and taking them to the airport, he would said no; but
it does not matter, because that is what I need to do. That is
what I have to do today.
That is the case for millions of Americans. They are looking
for ways to keep the roof over their heads and food on the table.
They will take jobs. They will take jobs, if available.
As I said, Mr. Speaker, the 600 people that applied for that
$3-an-hour job at the Luna Restaurant as a waiter were not all
illegal immigrants. I do not know how many, but I would guess
50 percent were people who have lived here all their lives. They
were American citizens, and they were looking for a job; and
their chances of getting it were diminished by the fact that
so many people are here and working here and living here illegally.
I want to reiterate, it is not a slam against those people.
They are doing what they need to do, what they want to do, what
they have to do to try to improve theirs lives. I totally understand
and relate to that. I empathize with them in every single way.
I know what my grandparents went through, and I hear this a thousand
times, that we are a Nation of immigrants and everybody came
here and worked hard.
Mr. Speaker, this is a time when in America we have to determine
what our needs are, what our needs are, and to what extent we
want to disenfranchise and do things that do not benefit the
American citizens of this country, so as to improve the lot of
those people who are not citizens. How much of what we have in
America do we wish to diminish? How much has to sink in order
to allow this other part to rise? This is something we have to
think about. It is harsh. I know that to many people, they feel
that to be something that they would just as soon not think about,
not deal with; but it is important for us to understand and deal
with.
Is it right? Is it okay? If it is, if you believe so, if you
come down on the side that says that we need to in fact allow
for markets to work and simply have as many people who want a
job in the United States to come across the border and get it,
if that is true, if that is what we want, then eliminate the
border. Erase the border. Forget about a border. Allow people
to come to this country at their whim, at their desire. Allow
them to come from every country in the world.
Now, what would happen, I ask? Would all of our lives be benefited?
Would everybody in the United States be better off, the people
living here, would they be better off as a result? Would the
quality of our life go up, or would it be diminished? If it would
increase, let us do it. Let us pass the bill. Let us put it on
the floor; let us debate it. To the extent you can make the case
to the American public that the United States should be open
to every single person in every single country who wants to come
here, then let us do it.
The thing I just hate, the thing that I rail against, is the
idea that we are going to actually accomplish that goal, but
we are going to sneak it through. We are not going to tell Americans
that is what we want, that is the goal we are trying to accomplish,
to reduce everyone's standard of living in order to accomplish
this sort of idealistic libertarian goal of having markets actually
determine all aspects of our society. Let us just say it. That
is what I want from this Congress. That is what I expect from
my colleagues and the President of the United States. I expect
him to tell the truth about where we are going, about what they
want to accomplish, because it is one or the other. We cannot
have it both ways. Either you have unlimited massive immigration
into the country, the elimination of the borders, or you do not.
There is another very important dimension to this whole debate
over illegal workers, and it is a good news story when you really
look into it and understand it. I am thinking of the role that
millions of American workers play in our Social Security trust
fund and the actuaries for payout to tomorrow's retirees.
One of the arguments frequently heard in this Capitol is that
the Nation benefits from all these illegal workers because many
of them do in fact pay into the Social Security system, but they
never gain any of the benefits. The argument runs that if they
are a net-plus for the system, they will help fund the future
payouts for retirees.
A recent research report by economist John Attarian called
``Immigration: Wrong Answer For Social Security'' examines the
numbers and the projects and comes to a different conclusion
entirely.
Dr. Attarian's analysis of all the most pertinent research
by many organizations and many pro-immigration advocates shows
that in order to make any significant dent in the long-term deficit
projected for the Social Security system, we would have to quadruple
the number of high-wage immigrants in the technology field, not
the low-wage workers who come from across our borders illegally.
Moreover, the actual fiscal effects of massive illegal immigration
are probably negative, because the low-wage workers contribute
less in Social Security payroll taxes than the workers they displace.
If you depress the wage rates paid to workers in order to
hire illegal aliens instead of higher-wage citizens, you decrease
the net income of the Social Security trust fund. You do not
increase it.
Yet there is another aspect of this labor market that needs
greater attention and some serious scrutiny. We have talked only
about the myth of low-wage jobs that supposedly no one wants
to do. There is a growing problem with higher-level jobs that
are now being taken by illegal aliens and that no one wants to
talk about.
This is a strange thing, this public silence about the loss
of jobs in the construction industry, jobs that pay $12, $14
and $15 an hour, that are being filled by illegal workers.
Please, someone explain to me how it is that contractors cannot
find legal workers to do these jobs? Do you really believe, does
anyone in this body, anyone even in Washington, where the air
here is so rarified that it has sometimes affected all of our
thinking and we have a hard time relating to the people we represent,
the working Americans, does it really occur to anyone that there
are in fact many Americans who will not take $12 to $14 or $15
hour jobs in the construction industry, and therefore they go
begging and we have to import illegal aliens?
The explanation, however, is simple. The jobs that a contractor
is willing to pay an illegal worker $14 an hour to do, he would
have to pay $16 to $18 to carpenters, union workers, brick masons
and union workers. More importantly, when hiring the illegal
worker instead of the American worker, the employer does not
have to pay withholding tax or workman's comp or health benefits.
Thus, he reduces his labor costs by as much as 50 percent by
breaking the law.
You may be surprised to learn that this practice is very widespread
in our Nation, especially in the West and Midwest. The Denver
Post recently ran a front page investigative report on this phenomenon.
The investigative reporter revealed that there is a large underground
network of labor brokers who specialize in providing illegal
workers for the construction industry. They provide buses and
transport illegal workers from one site to another when a project
is completed. There are thousands of workers involved in this
scheme all across the West and Midwest.
Two very interesting questions arise when looking at this
matter. The first one is obvious: Why does the U.S. Labor Department
let employers get away with this violation of our labor laws?
Why are arrests and prosecutions so rare?
The second question is not so obvious, but it is equally curious:
Why are the labor unions not objecting to this loss of jobs to
their members? Thousands of jobs, and probably tens of thousands
on a national scale, are going to illegal workers who are not
union members.
Where is the voice? Where is the process of the AFL-CIO when
union workers lose their jobs and are displaced by illegal aliens?
Where is the protest from our deficit hawks when the IRS loses
millions of dollars in withholding because these illegal workers
are paid off the books or as independent contractors who do not
have to pay withholding?
Where is the protest by the proponents of workers' safety
rules and standards when it is revealed that hundreds of thousands
of workers are not being covered by workman's comp laws because
employers are skirting the law in wholesale fashion, and neither
the U.S. Labor Department nor State authorities are willing to
do anything about it?
Where are the Nation's frontline newspapers and news networks?
Is this story not told because it is not politically correct
to talk about it?
I will soon introduce a new guest worker program that will
offer a real and equitable solution to the so-called labor shortage.
We will authorize unlimited guest workers into this country to
fill legitimate jobs that cannot ``be filled by citizens and
legal residents.'' If the employer can demonstrate a real need,
if he can offer a job to a foreign national, then that worker
can enter the job market and work at it for up to 2 years. There
will be penalties for fraud, and a part of the worker's wages
will be withheld until he or she returns to the home country.
This is another issue. We will see other Members introduce
legislation for guest worker programs; and for the most part,
they will be disguised as a guest worker program with the purpose
of creating amnesty for people who are here illegally. This cannot
be. This is absolutely inappropriate. We should never, ever,
ever reward people for breaking the law, whether it is the employer
who benefits or the illegal alien. We should not do that as a
Congress; we should not do that as a Nation.
So if you need to come into this country and if we need the
labor, we should have a legal process for that to occur, a process
that guarantees the rights of the people coming into the country
so they are not abused by the people who are hired by them to
sneak them into the country, the coyotes, the people that packed
them into the back of semis, like in Texas, where they died,
19 of them just recently, or where they bring them into the country
or bring them near the border and the women are raped and the
men in the family are robbed and they are shoved into the border.
We have testimony from people who have ranches near the southern
border, and at nighttime they can hear the screams of women being
raped by the coyotes who have taken them to this point where
the promised land is just on the other side, but at that point
they take advantage of them in every single way imaginable and
shove them into the desert and they die there by the hundreds.
We can protect them. We can stop them from doing that. We
can stop the coyotes from doing this. We can protect workers
coming into the United States and make sure they are paid at
least the minimum wage. We can be sure they are in fact given
the kind of protection that American workers deserve, that all
workers deserve.
On the other hand, we can protect our own interests in this
country and protect the interests of Americans who need jobs.
If there are truly ``jobs that Americans will not do,'' fine,
let somebody prove that; and when they prove it, let them import
labor for that purpose. It is okay with me. But I will assure
you that if that test were really that difficult, if we truly
put it out there in that way, prove that no American wants this
job for what you are willing to pay, for what the going rate
is, by the way, not just what you are willing to pay, what the
going rate for this job is, okay, you can bring in a guest worker.
But I guarantee, Mr. Speaker, that most of these jobs that we
are being told would only be taken by people we have to bring
in here illegally would in fact be taken by American citizens.
To the extent that is not true, fine, import workers. Bring them
in legally so that they are protected in their rights and so
that our rights are also protected.
There would be penalties for fraud, and part of the workers
wage would be withheld, as I say. The penalties for fraud are
important, because we have to stop the demand side of this equation
just as much as the supply side. There are hundreds, if not thousands,
of American corporations that are taking advantage of our laws,
that are importing workers, that are actually involved in the
process, not just of hiring illegal aliens, but bringing them
into the country.
Tysons Foods, Tysons Foods in Arkansas is being prosecuted
by the U.S. Government, and it is a showcase. I really and truly
applaud the Immigration and Naturalization Service for bringing
this case, because I hope people in Tysons Foods, if they are
found guilty, actually go to jail for what they have done, because
they are part of, according to the government's case anyway,
Tysons Foods and the executives at Tysons Foods were actually
involved in the importation of illegal workers.
Well, that even goes one step beyond just hiring someone who
is here illegally, and the people who did that should go to jail.
American corporations who knowingly hire people who are here
illegally should be punished to the fullest extent of the law,
and we should not wink at it and we should not just pretend that
it is the problem of the illegal worker coming into this country.
He is coming or she is coming for a job. That job is being offered
by an American corporation or an American company or just an
American citizen, and we have to stop that. Each are culpable.
When those people died in Victorville, California, the people
who are responsible for their death, beyond those individuals
who put themselves in harm's way, who decided to actually take
the risk of coming into this country illegally, beyond those
people, there is still more culpability. Part of it goes to those
American employers who enticed these people into the United States.
Part of it goes to our own government and every Member of this
Congress who refuses to deal with the issue of illegal immigration.
Yes, it is our responsibility. Yes, their blood is on our hands.
Mr. Speaker, I state that categorically, that we have, over
the course of the last couple of decades, made it enticing for
them to come to the country illegally; made it illegal to do
so, of course, to come without our permission; but, on the other
hand said well, if you can do it, if you can make it, we will
look the other way. So, of course, millions do, and some of them
get caught in this trap, and some of them die. It is our fault.
We share the blame. So does the Mexican Government for encouraging
this flow, for doing everything possible to move unemployed young
Mexican workers into the United States to reduce their own problems
in Mexico and to increase remittances from people who come to
the United States and send money back to Mexico, which becomes
a significant part of their own GDP.
They also encourage the flow of illegal immigrants into the
United States from Mexico in order to have them, as I was told
by Juan Hernandez, who was at that time the head of the ministry
in Mexico called the Ministry for Mexicans Living in the United
States. He said that it helps them influence our government's
policy, the massive number of Mexican nationals living in the
United States helps them, he said, influence our government's
policy vis-a-vis Mexico. So Mexico has a role to play and is
equally culpable for the deaths of the people that have come
across this border and found themselves in horrible circumstances
and died as a result or were harmed in the process.
Mr. Speaker, all of these people have some role to play and
some degree of culpability, and I say to every single one of
them, I challenge you to actually deal with this forthrightly.
Stand up in front of the American public and state unequivocally
that what you want is, in fact, a Nation where there are no barriers
to immigration, where people can come at their will. Say that.
It may win. It may win a majority of the votes in the Congress
of the United States and the President may sign that kind of
a bill. I, as I say, am a ``no'' vote, but it may happen. I just
want the debate. I want it to happen in this body. I want it
to be done in a de jure fashion, not in a de facto way.
I know that what we are doing in America today is in fact
moving in exactly that direction. We are eliminating our borders,
but we are not doing it through a legal process; we are doing
it in a de facto way, by looking the other way. And there are
many, many bad things that happen as a result of that desire
on our part to look the other way. Well, I want to force this
Congress, I want to force this Nation, I want to force the President
of the United States to look at this straight in the eye, and
say we are going to deal with it one way or the other. Open our
borders or secure them. Those are the only two options open to
us as a Nation. Take your pick. Vote on one side or the other.
Let us get this job done. Let us tell the people where we really
stand. Let us get this problem solved one way or the other.
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