Our immigration system is fundamentally broken, and ICE's role in supporting the existing system - including separating families seeking refuge in the United States and conducting indiscriminate deportation raids in our communities - is creating an atmosphere of toxic fear and mistrust in immigrant communities.
Our broken immigration system has left too many people uncertain of whether they could be torn away from their homes, forced to leave their families, their communities, and their dreams behind.
Of course, our immigration system isn't broken. The enforcement of our immigration system is broken. The president Barack Obama, the Democrat Party, and several in the Republican Party are trying to break the immigration system. The system itself is not broken; it's just fine. It's just being ignored.
The system isn't working when 12 million people live in hiding, and hundreds of thousands cross our borders illegally each year; when companies hire undocumented immigrants instead of legal citizens to avoid paying overtime or to avoid a union; when communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids -- when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel. When all that's happening, the system just isn't working.
The immigration system is broken and it needs to be fixed. And it needs to be fixed comprehensively, because this country depends on immigrant workers, but we don't have a system that reflects that. Our system is absolutely antiquated.
Every level of government has a role to play in combating the rise of MS-13 and other gangs, and we must crack down on the aspects of our nation's broken immigration system and other policies that have allowed MS-13 and other gangs to take hold in our communities and stay there.
Immigrant families have integrated themselves into our communities, establishing deep roots. Whenever they have settled, they have made lasting contributions to the economic vitality and diversity of our communities and our nation. Our economy depends on these hard-working, taxpaying workers. They have assisted America in its economic boom.
We know that the United States Senate has passed comprehensive immigration reform. We know it can happen. And that, to me, is what we need to do. We have a broken immigration system. And I say this because we are a country that has always opened our doors. That's who we are.
Passing comprehensive immigration reform and making DACA and DAPA permanent will free people from living in the shadows of fear from deportation to be able to pursue higher education, buy homes, start businesses, and expand our economy and strengthen the communities of the 10th district and our nation.
If you change our immigration system to a skills-based system that respects and treats people for who they are as individuals as opposed to residents of a certain country or relatives of certain people in the United States, it's a system that is more in keeping with American values.
We have to educate our communities about the immigration system and dispel the myths that have been fed to us. Immigration isn't going to go away. A wall isn't going to 'solve' the issue.
We do not build new Jewish communities in Samaria, Judea and Gaza. The United States has never accepted our building of communities or of the fence. Yet, I've managed to develop relations between Israel and the United States even though President Bush never supported settlements.
I ran for president to present the citizens of America. I am here to change the broken system so it serves their families and their communities well.
Besides taking jobs from American workers, illegal immigration creates huge economic burdens on our health care system, our education system, our criminal justice system, our environment, our infrastructure and our public safety.
Since 2013 alone, the Obama administration has allowed 300,000 criminal aliens to return back into United States communities. These are individuals encountered or identified by ICE, but who were not detained or processed for deportation because it wouldn't have been politically correct.
Whether it's raising the minimum wage, fixing our broken immigration system or supporting an economic climate that gives our businesses that chance to succeed, I hope to continue to fight these important battles on behalf of my constituents.
One key question for the United States in the 21st century is whether noncoastal towns and rural communities, including many communities of color, will be able to participate in the digital revolution.