Capps takes to House floor in support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Lois Capps (CA-24), along with several of her colleagues, spoke on the House floor on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 25 about the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Capps spoke about the economic benefits of comprehensive immigration reform and the contributions of immigrants to the Central Coast economy, according to a media release.

“These are immigrants who contribute to key sectors of our economy, like agriculture, housing, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, tourism, engineering and technology, but who too often face separation from their families, lower wages and deportation – forcing them to take their skills to our competitors,” Capps said. “We can all agree that our current immigration system is not working. It is holding back our country and economy and now is the time to fix it.”

She also highlighted a letter sent to the California Republican Congressional delegation from a group of California Republican state legislators, including 35th District Assemblymember Katcho Achijidian.  In it, the state legislators expressed their support for comprehensive immigration reform, and urged their Republican members of Congress to tell House Speaker John Boehner to bring the issue to the House floor for a vote. Read the letter here.

“This letter outlines components of comprehensive reform that most of us agree on including, I would note, the opportunity for undocumented residents to earn their way to citizenship,” Capps said. “Wisely they wrote, ‘There is no policy debate more important to the future of California and America than passing comprehensive immigration reform.’ I could not agree more.”

See video of the House floor speech here.

The text of the speech is below:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in strong support of comprehensive immigration reform.

As we honor the many contributions immigrants have made to our country during Citizenship Day this week, we must not forget the millions of immigrants left behind by our broken immigration system

These are immigrants who contribute to key sectors of our economy, like agriculture, housing, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, tourism, engineering and technology, but who too often face separation from their families, lower wages and deportation – forcing them to take their skills to our competitors.

We can all agree that our current immigration system is not working. It is holding back our country and economy and now is the time to fix it.

While traveling in my congressional district, I heard personally from many sectors hurt by our broken immigration system.

Hi-tech companies in Goleta, California, are frustrated by seeing some of our brightest graduates being sent back to their native country to work for competing companies because of a lack of high-skilled worker visas.

I met with those in California’s agriculture industry – which is critical to our economy – who struggle to find a stable and consistent workforce – threatening the sustainability of our crops.

And I met with workforce and labor organizations who want to ensure workers can earn fair wages and contribute to our economy and community.

We must act now and establish a fair but tough pathway to citizenship to provide the security and stability our economy needs.

Comprehensive reform would boost California’s economy alone by $7.3 billion and create nearly 77,000 new jobs in the state next year.

This should be one of our top priorities!

Mr. Speaker, I would note that while members of my party are most enthusiastic about advancing comprehensive immigration reform, this is an issue with bipartisan support.   For example, the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform legislation on a strong, bipartisan vote.

And just last week a number of Republican members of the California State Legislature made their voices heard on this issue, sending a letter to their federal counterparts to take action in the House on comprehensive immigration reform. I would ask unanimous consent to have this letter placed in the record.

This letter outlines components of comprehensive reform that most of us agree on including, I would note, the opportunity for undocumented residents to earn their way to citizenship. Wisely they wrote, “There is no policy debate more important to the future of California and America than passing comprehensive immigration reform.” I could not agree more.

Mr. Speaker it is time that we have the opportunity to debate and finally have a vote on comprehensive immigration reform here on the House floor.

Our country and economy can’t wait any longer.

I yield back.