The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUPPORTING OVERLOOKED UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. Espaillat) for 5 minutes.
Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, I rise today as I do every day in strong support of the millions of undocumented immigrants whose contributions to our communities cannot continue to be overlooked.
We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide sound immigration reform through reconciliation, and I urge my colleagues to join me in prioritizing this timely and long-overdue effort. We must find the collective will in this House, in the Senate, and in the White House to finally resolve this pending issue.
The American Dream is for all of us, Madam Speaker. It is for TPS recipients. It is for Dreamers. It is for farmworkers and essential workers who put their lives on the line during the pandemic.
How can we build back better without providing real reform for our undocumented immigrants? Or are we to abandon a nation of immigrants? That is the question.
Let me be very clear, Madam Speaker: Including immigration reform in budget reconciliation is not without any precedent. While the Senate Parliamentarian's decisions have not gone our way, we must forge ahead and continue to bring solutions to this community.
If not now, then when? How many times will we be able to tell vital members of our communities to wait in line to be treated fairly and equally in our country?
These are our neighbors, Madam Speaker. These are folks who helped us through the pandemic. These are the food delivery people who came to our homes while we shivered in fear during the pandemic. These are the over 400,000 farmworkers who picked the fruits and the vegetables that we put on our table during the pandemic. These are the home care workers that took care of our very frail seniors, that scrubbed themselves clean before they went to work, and when they went back home, had to do the same not to infect their children.
They are heroes. These are American heroes who kept us alive during the pandemic.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass much-needed legislation that reforms our broken immigration system. More than two-
thirds of all undocumented immigrants work in frontline jobs and are essential workers in industries such as healthcare, home care, transportation, agriculture, food production, and construction, among others.
Including sound immigration reform would advance our economic recovery from the pandemic, reduce our national deficit, raise wages, add a cumulative $1.5 trillion to the GDP over a decade, and create more than 400,000 new jobs.
President Biden and Vice President Harris have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to pass immigration reform and have expressed strong support for including immigration reform in our budget reconciliation process. It is also broadly supported by the American people.
Congress has not passed substantial immigration reform in more than 35 years, Madam Speaker. Due to the Senate filibuster, a cynical remnant of Jim Crow, budget reconciliation provides the only glimmer of hope that will turn this into a reality.
It is an unfortunate truth that the other side of the aisle has rejected every proposal, Madam Speaker, every single proposal, and obstructed every single piece of immigration reform legislation that we have put forward. The filibuster has once again blocked our progress every step of the way.
For decades, we have failed to sign into law permanent legislative solutions to this problem. Budget reconciliation is the only tool we now have available.
Millions of immigrants in our country have lived their lives in fear and uncertainty for far too long. They are counting on us to get this done, and I am committed to making it happen. I will always stand behind asylum seekers, refugees, and families who come to this country to make a better life for themselves, just as I once did. That is the promise of America, Madam Speaker.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 171
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