Post by bot on Jan 30, 2017 0:15:09 GMT -5
Hoyer Discusses President Trump's Executive Orders on Immigration on Press Conference Call with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) discussed President Trump's executive orders on immigration during a press conference call led by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Below is a transcript of his opening remarks:
“Well, thank you very much, Chair [Michelle] Lujan Grisham, I am very pleased to join you. Once again the President is charging ahead and not giving time either for thought, criticism, or input from American citizens. We all support securing our borders. And I might add, not just at the southern borders, we need security at our northern borders, our southern borders, and on our coasts, as well. And that’s not the issue, because we are all in agreement on that issue. The question is how best to do it.
“Senator John McCain was on television this morning, raising real doubts. And, of course, he comes from Arizona, next door to you Madam Chair, he comes from Arizona and he knows how to keep borders secure and what resources need to be deployed, and he would not say that this wall was the answer.
“Furthermore, during the course of the campaign, President Trump said over, and over, and over again that Mexico was going to pay for this wall. Yet, in the Executive Order itself, and I’m quoting one of the paragraphs, he gives a direction to the Department of Homeland Security to identify and to the extent permitted by law, allocate all sources of federal funds, meaning U.S. taxpayer’s funds, to the planning and constructing of a physical wall along the southern border.
“The fact of the matter is, this wall won’t work. It may be that barriers are part of the solution. The United States Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill, which is exactly what we need. We need to fix a broken system, everybody agrees this system is broken, and we have been urging for years and years to fix this system. The United States Senate passed a bipartisan bill, and they did in their bill, instruct to the Department of Homeland Security, to come up with their suggestions as how to best protect and make our borders secure. That’s what the President should have done, rather than have his own idea, which was a political slogan, not a policy.
“In addition to that, the sanctuary cities they talk about, there is no legal definition of these sanctuary cities. Clearly, local law enforcement is trying to make sure that they can combat crime, while at the same time encouraging people to come forward to testify as to criminal activity and not be fearful that that will result in their deportation from the country. That will make the country and the cities and the rural areas less safe, not more safe.
“So I join with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and, frankly, the large, large number of our Caucus in saying to President Trump, don’t take political slogans, which have not been thought through, which will not be effective, and turn them into policy, which is going to cost the American people a great deal of money, billions of dollars, if you will, and will not make our country safer.
“So the Hispanic Caucus in the forefront trying to make sure we have rational policy. And I want to now turn it over to [Rep.] Joaquin Castro, who is from a border state, Texas, also knows as Senator McCain and Chair Lujan Grisham know, the challenges and what can succeed and what can not succeed.”