Immigration

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, this Thanksgiving as our family gathered joyfully for dinner, we thought not only of our happiness, but of the many families that can be torn apart by our broken immigration system. We gave thought to those who were gathered at that very moment here on The National Mall going without food, fasting for justice. And they have been doing that now for weeks.

Thanksgiving is about the first immigrants in this land, this land of opportunity. But today, we find too many of our neighbors are denied opportunity because of their immigration status. They can't board a plane. They can't come out of the shadows. They don't know when they go to work in the morning if they will find their family members there at night. This is not right, and the time to fix that is right now.

The only thing preventing a bipartisan response to the immigration problems we have in this country is the unwillingness of the Speaker to permit a bipartisan vote on reform legislation.

And to those who are not moved by their heart, they should be moved by their pocketbook because of the economic potential of permitting these individuals, two-thirds of which, in Mexican families in Texas without documents, have been here for at least a decade. Let them contribute to America.

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