Immigration Reform
Floor Speech
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Mr. GARRETT. Madam Speaker, it is a somber time to come into this Chamber as we have colleagues at the other end of the building who formed something they call the Common Sense Coalition, which is, I think, a gentle euphemism like so many things in this town are, which might well be called the ``kick the can down the road'' coalition, the ``doing the same thing again and again and again and again and expecting a different result'' coalition, or the ``those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it'' coalition.
The photo that is to my left and to your right if you are viewing at home is of me at a ceremony at Red Hill Farm in the Fifth District of Virginia, where a man named Patrick Henry lived.
Patrick Henry is notable as an early patriot who sought to ensure the blessings of self-determination and liberty for a fledgling nation that determined that it was unjust that they should be governed by edict from across the sea and most notably said the words: ``I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.''
Indeed, anyone who signed the Declaration of Independence understood at that time that they were literally signing their own death warrant, yet they did because it was the right thing to do.
Today we have degenerated into a political class that knows pandering and efforts to placate individuals without the interests of the mass constituency that we all unitedly serve, and that is the American people.
In fact, when Patrick Henry spoke about liberty one day in a separate speech, from the back of the room, someone shouted, ``Treason,'' and Henry responded eloquently: ``If this be treason, make the most of it.''
What has happened to our leaders?
So that day I spoke to a group of a couple of dozen new Americans from every corner of the world--from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and South America--who had, in some instances, worked decades to become Americans and to earn those blessings of liberty gained for us by people like Patrick Henry, like 1 million nameless faces who died of combat death, disease, or starvation during a war to end the horrific institution of slavery, and like Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
So they, indeed, looked like America--Brown people, White people, Black people, Asian people, American people--and they earned it. But what is coming out of the Senate now essentially throws aside the sacrifices of so many in order to score political points.
It was, indeed, one of the greatest honors of my life to welcome those new brothers and sisters to our American family. Yet the process through which they pained and labored does not in any way mirror the process that we would continue by kicking the can down the road under the proposed Senate ``compromise.''
I could really, literally, do this all day, all week, all month, and all year if I wanted to highlight the cases of individuals who had lost their lives because our Federal Government is completely unwilling to enforce the laws that it currently has on the books.
Many of you recognize the lovely face of Kate Steinle, who was enjoying a beautiful afternoon in the Embarcadero district of San Francisco on pier 14 with her dad. A graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, she worked in the medical field and had recently moved in with her boyfriend when an illegal who had been deported 5 times, who the local government refused to turn over to Federal authorities, discharged a weapon that he stole from a member of law enforcement at what he said was a sea lion--which is bad enough--and killed this lovely young woman whom her friends say loved yoga and helping others.
Reports indicate that among her last words was a plea to her father to please help. She passed away because we refuse to enforce our law.
Edwin Jackson, a linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts, was born in the same town that I was: Atlanta, Georgia. He didn't have big-time football offers out of high school. Indeed, instead of the University of Georgia or Florida or Clemson, he matriculated to Georgia Southern University. But he worked, and he worked with an optimism that radiated from the very smile on his face.
And not long ago, Edwin Jackson became one of nearly 1,000 people per year who die in alcohol-related accidents involving people in this country illegally; as well as his Uber driver, Jeffrey Monroe, who should also be noted. Edwin Jackson's obituary indicated that his greatest goal in life was to be a positive role model for young people to overcome challenges.
The individual who was detained had a blood alcohol content of .239, or nearly three times the legal limit. He had been deported twice before, tried to run from the scene, and lied to police officers about his name upon his apprehension.
Edwin Jackson and Jeffrey Monroe are dead because we refuse to enforce our laws.
Denise Mosier, in my home State of Virginia, in 2010, was riding in a van with two other nuns from the 33-women monastery where she made her home, aspiring to help people. Her two dear friends were horrifically injured in an accident that took Miss Mosier's life. This Benedictine nun had devoted her life to the service of others. Quite literally, you could find nothing bad that anyone could say about this woman.
The driver who took her life was ultimately charged with DUI third or subsequent offense. He had arrived illegally in this country and was only weeks away from a deportation hearing, which he was only having because of his multiple prior arrests for driving under the influence.
Tragically, our unwillingness to enforce our own laws cost about 10 percent of the community at the monastery where Denise Mosier made her home dearly and cost about 4 percent their life.
In fact, 13 percent of all drunk drivers arrested in the United States every year are here illegally--13 percent of 1.5 million. And the death toll of drunk-driving-related offenses in this country is about 10,000 per year. So extrapolating those numbers, nearly 1,000 people per year are killed in alcohol-related accidents involving those here illegally. And we refuse to enforce our own laws.
Peter Hacking was a volunteer fire department captain in Texas. One afternoon not long ago, Peter stopped off Highway 78 to pick up his children, which included 4-year-old Ellie and a son who was 2, when they were killed by a previously deported drunk driver, who ultimately received a sentence of about 2 years, and who was here because we will not secure our border and we will not enforce our laws.
Let me be clear: those two dozen or so individuals whom I had the great honor--of all faiths and all creeds from around the world--of welcoming into our American family are American just like everyone watching this today. But those who are not here legally, who will not go through the processes prescribed by this very body, are a discredit to those who work so hard and those who have sacrificed so much to make this Nation the beacon of freedom that it is. And no nation of laws can perpetuate itself so long as it looks the other way as its laws are selectively enforced and not enforced.
Tessa Tranchant, from Virginia Beach, Virginia, was riding with a girlfriend and killed by a drunk driver here illegally.
Danny Oliver and Michael Davis were law enforcement professionals from Sacramento, California. They were murdered by a frequently deported individual who swears that he will find a way to kill more police officers.
Dominic Durden was killed while riding his motorcycle by an illegal drunk driver.
Jamiel Shaw was brutally shot and murdered by an illegal.
Marilyn Pharis, who devoted her life to the service of this Nation in the United States Air Force, was beaten, tortured, raped, and murdered by an illegal who had been arrested 6 times in 15 months, the most recent time being 8 days before this crime was perpetrated but not reported to Federal authorities because the sanctuary community that she was in did not deem it worthy to report.
I want to see a healthy and robust immigration system into this country, legally. I want to live in a nation that enforces the very laws that these bodies pass to protect those people who we are tasked with serving, the American people, be they naturalized or native born.
I literally could keep telling these stories for weeks and weeks and weeks.
So we now find fiscal responsibility a rallying cry from individuals who don't seem to care about that at any point in time except for when it is convenient to their political agenda. We have a President in the White House who suggested that we would build a border wall and we would have those who are responsible for the immigration problem pay for it. We have a media that glowingly and gleefully pokes fun and asks: How is that plan going for you?
Well, I have a proposal. About 92 percent of foreign nationals in U.S. Federal prisons are here illegally. That is over 9 out of 10. That comes out to about 34,500 inmates in our Federal prison system here illegally. And they are not here for immigration violations. They are here for robbery; they are here for rape; they are here for murder.
The cost to incarcerate one individual in the Federal prison system annually is about $32,500. I'm not that good at math, but that comes out to about $1.1 billion per year. If you move away from the Federal prison system and extrapolate those numbers across the State prison systems, you are looking at something like $9.5 billion per year to incarcerate illegals here convicted of violent crimes, felonies. We are talking about prisons, not jails.
Now, the Senate plan says: Okay. Well, what we are going to do is we are going to spend $18 billion over 10 years.
I will tell you what. If we can just secure the Southern border and stop the inflow of illegals, we could reduce our Federal and State prison expenditures by about $9.5 billion a year, and I'll get you your $18 billion in 2 years.
In other words, you want to pay for this wall?
Build it; it will pay for itself. And that is in dollars and cents.
But, folks, how do you quantify the lives of these people?
How do you put a dollar value on the life of a woman who spent her entire life serving our country and was tortured, raped, and murdered by someone who had been arrested just 6 days before and, under the Federal law, should have been reported to Federal authorities, but they didn't think it was necessary in California?
Or Jamiel, is there a dollar value you can put on this young man's life?
How do you quantify these lives? How about these law enforcement professionals? How about this teenage girl from Virginia Beach, Virginia? How about a firefighter and father of a 22-month-old and a 4- year-old? How about a nun who devoted her entire life to serving others? How about a football player who worked his way up from the bottom and only wanted to motivate and inspire young people who faced challenging circumstances?
I genuinely love my brothers and sisters of all races, creeds, and origins; I genuinely do. I welcome them to apply to a process to allow them to avail themselves of the benefits of, I believe, the greatest Nation the Earth has ever seen. Winston Churchill said: ``Democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the others.'' This is the worst country in the world, except for all the others.
But if we won't enforce the laws that we pass, who are we? What have we become? And if we won't protect those people who protect us-- firefighters, police officers, nuns, and mothers--how can we look at ourselves?
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Mr. GARRETT. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Budd for his comments.
At this time, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida, (Mr. Yoho).
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Mr. GARRETT. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho), my friend and colleague, for his comments.
In 42 years, 3,037 Americans have been killed on U.S. soil by foreign-born terrorists. There have been 182 foreign-born terrorists, to be precise, who have taken the lives of almost 3,050 Americans, and 63 of those 182, or greater than a third, came here legally on visas, to include the diversity visa scheme. In fact, our office has tried relatively diligently to calculate the actual death toll of native-born Americans by recipients of diversity visas, unsuccessfully. These are difficult data points.
But just in the last few years, the name Sayfullo Saipov has been in the American news. This jihadist who had an admiration for terrorists, to include the murderous raping, intolerant thugs of ISIS, took the lives of eight Americans and injured many more in a truck attack on Halloween, just last October. He was the recipient of a diversity lottery visa.
Before that, Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev from Uzbekistan was also the recipient of a diversity lottery visa, and he was arrested in 2015 for conspiring to ``kill as many Americans as he could.'' He wrote:
I am in the USA now. We don't have the weapons we need. Is it possible to commit ourselves as dedicated martyrs anyway while here? What I am saying is, to get guns, to shoot Obama, and then maybe get shot ourselves. Would that do? That would strike fear into the hearts of the infidels.
This legal diversity visa recipient from Brooklyn said:
If this is not successful, maybe bomb Coney Island.
Fortunately, he was arrested before he could bring to fruition his plans to assault individuals in the very Nation that had so graciously opened its doors.
It is incredibly interesting to me the results that I learned when my wife and I engaged in that which is all the rage these days and looked at our DNA. I found out I had relatives from multiple continents, and I am proud of that. But I am an American just like those people who stood with me that day at the home of the great American patriot Patrick Henry, from Africa and Asia, the Middle East, South America, Europe, Oceania. They are my American brothers and sisters. They did everything by the numbers and availed themselves of a dream that we all share. Those who do not, cheapen the sacrifice made by so many who have come before them.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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