Congress Must Fix Our Broken Immigration System

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, Congress must act to fix our broken immigration system, including passing legislation to protect DREAMers.

Like many Members of this body, I was deeply disappointed with the President's decision regarding DACA, to take away the promise of possibility that DACA provided young people who were brought to this country as children--many of them just months old--by their parents and have grown up here. They work here. They go to school here. They contribute to the quality, to the greatness of this country.

The one thing I did believe is right that the President said was that Congress ought to act. I have sat here and watched us name post offices, bring back legislation that we have passed in previous Congresses on suspension and brought them to the floor and debated them for hours. We have time in this House to stand up for 800,000 young people and give them hope that they deserve, to show that this country is as great as we say it is.

When the Speaker was elected, he said he would open up the process. Here is my challenge: Bring the Dream Act to the floor of the House of Representatives. If you believe these DREAMers should be deported, then vote ``no,'' but give them a vote on the floor of this House. That is the moral thing to do, and we should do it now.

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