February 12, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 29 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages H1121-H1123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         CONGRESS MUST DEAL WITH OUTSTANDING IMMIGRATION ISSUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the

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gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, today I would like to address one more 
time what I think is the most important issue facing the country, 
because it deals so much with the country's future and who will be 
living in the country 10, 20, or 30 years down the road: And that is 
immigration.
  To a large extent we haven't addressed this issue as we should have, 
I think, in part, because we are spending a great deal of time on 
impeachment, and that kind of sucked the air out of other critical 
issues facing the country. I think even conservative media, be it talk 
radio or other media, have not dealt with what is going on with 
immigration, have not pointed out the progress that President Trump has 
made, but also have not highlighted the things that have to be done if 
we are going to assure in the future the people living in this country 
are people who are going to make a positive contribution to the Nation.
  President Trump on his own, through a variety of efforts, has reduced 
the number of people who are coming in this country from over 140,000 
people processed last May--a time in which at least 90,000 people were 
placed in the United States somewhere--to well under 50,000 with under 
1,000 people in January being placed in the United States. Dropping 
from over 90,000 to under 1,000 is the type of progress you rarely see 
anywhere in government.
  First of all, I thank President Trump for the things he has done. We 
now have the Mexican military patrolling the southern border, so it is 
not just our border patrol minding things.
  Even more significantly, the Mexican Government has agreed to hold 
people who are seeking asylum. Prior to this, people seeking asylum--
and anybody can seek asylum--were placed with a social services agency 
in the United States, frequently Catholic Social Services, placed 
somewhere in the United States pending a hearing and frequently never 
showing up for that hearing. Now they are held in Mexico, which is a 
big benefit and also will discourage people from coming here 
unnecessarily. And I think the vast majority of people that were 
seeking asylum in the past were not even really subject to any fear or 
any possible danger in their home country.
  Just as significantly, President Trump has reached agreements with 
Central American countries to hold people down there who are seeking 
asylum from further down south. It should go without saying that if I 
leave Venezuela because I feel a threat to myself, I would probably 
stay in a country relatively near Venezuela. If I am going all the way 
to the United States and having passed through five or six other 
countries, my primary goal is probably to improve my economic 
condition, not just escape danger in my homeland. President Trump's 
efforts with Central American countries to hold more people are also 
bearing fruit.
  However, we also have to talk about what has to be done in the future 
and what should be done by Congress, commonsense things--now, I am one 
of those Congressmen using the phrase ``commonsense,'' it is kind of 
overused--but commonsense things I think the vast majority of Americans 
would agree with.
  First of all, the Flores settlement right now requires having to 
release families after being held for 20 days. That obviously should be 
extended, and it creates a very difficult situation for the United 
States Government.
  Secondly, President Trump is trying to crack down on people getting 
welfare payments if they are coming here as immigrants. Obviously, we 
have no problem taking care of Americans who are going through a tough 
time, but we take immigrants here--given that we have a trillion-dollar 
debt--who can take care of themselves. It would be a big mistake, both 
cost wise and as far as the future of people who are coming here, to 
allow people to come here if they will be taking advantage of our 
generous welfare system.
  In particular, we have to do something with what some people want: 
Free medical care for people coming here as immigrants. I have been 
down to the border several times, and it is something that frustrates 
the Border Patrol.
  So, many Americans right now have large deductibles and have to 
hesitate before they go to the doctor or hesitate before they have a 
procedure done. That is not true of people who come here illegally. And 
the Border Patrol believes that right now some people are coming to the 
country primarily for the free medical care that is being offered. That 
is something we have to get rid of.
  President Trump continues to build the wall as quickly as he can, 
given the way government operates. I am glad that President Trump was 
able to find money in the Defense Department to help along the wall.
  I want to point out that every Border Patrol agent that I have talked 
to, and I must have talked to dozens, believe the wall is a good idea. 
I realize there are people who haven't gone to the border or dealt with 
the experts down there, but unless you secure that southern border, you 
have a tremendous problem. And part of that problem, by the way, is the 
danger people trying to come here face.
  Somebody is going to control that southern border; it is either going 
to be the United States or the Mexican drug cartels. If the Mexican 
drug cartels continue to control the border, it means that some people 
are going to wind up dehydrating in the desert, it means some people 
are going to wind up drowning in the Rio Grande, and it means the 
people who come here are frequently going to be subject to the whims of 
the Mexican cartels. Sometimes that means sexual assault. Sometimes it 
means their relatives back home are going to be threatened. But we want 
to be the ones controlling the border and who comes across. Again, if 
we don't determine it, the Mexican drug cartels determine it.
  I have to point out that we believe that over 1,000 gang members were 
caught last year. Among certain drugs, over 90 percent, of course 
according to the DEA, have gotten into this country by going through 
the southern border. We really can't say we are serious about 
addressing the opioid crisis until we do something at the southern 
border.

  The next thing we should be addressing is sanctuary cities. Sanctuary 
cities are an invitation for people to break American law. It is hard 
to say we have a serious immigration system when, on the other hand, we 
have individual, local government people, in essence, saying come here, 
we will not enforce our law.
  Another huge problem with sanctuary cities is it makes it difficult 
to deport the criminals. Obviously, we don't want the next generation 
of Americans to be criminal in nature, and the only way to deal with 
that, I believe, is to get rid of the sanctuary cities. Last year, 
68,000 people died of various drug overdoses in this country.
  The next thing that should be done is we should be doing something 
about birthright citizenship. When I was down at the border, it was 
very apparent there were women coming here, and not a few, who were 7 
or 8 months pregnant. In other words, they are coming here, not because 
we handpick them, they are coming here because they realize that their 
children become citizens, and largely, if their children become 
citizens--and we are not for breaking up families--the parents will be 
able to stay here, too.
  The United States is only one of two of the 45 wealthiest countries 
in the world which allows birthright citizenship. It is obviously 
something that we ought to get rid of, and this is another thing that 
Congress ought to do.
  In the upcoming budget bill, having talked to the Border Patrol and 
having talked to ICE, it would be a good idea to get more dogs on the 
border, not just to detect things coming into the country but to detect 
cash going out of the country.

                              {time}  1845

  Dogs today can do something about that, can detect cash. It would do 
a lot, I think, to stop the drug cartels from using our border.
  In any event, these are some of the suggestions that I hope Congress 
takes up.
  I think it is such an important decision, because we know that very 
frequently when somebody comes to this country, they are not leaving.
  If we are picking good people--and under President Trump in the last 
few years, the number of people sworn in legally has gone up. We are 
now over 650,000. So nobody says President

[[Page H1123]]

Trump is anti-immigrant. We are getting more people here legally.
  But we have got to prevent people from coming here illegally. By 
continuing to do this, we will continue to create a situation in which 
the future of America will look more bleak because the type of people 
coming here are not the type of people who are handpicked.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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