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However, unless we do more, an enforcement-only approach will hurt the economy and cost American jobs over the long term.

Sensible worksite enforcement designed to identify and penalize those employers who violate Federal law is one important aspect of our Nation's approach to immigration policy.

As my colleagues and I travel around our Nation, we hear a consistent message from the American people: Fix our broken immigration system by enacting comprehensive reform.

I will be brief. Let me just say that there are 435 Members of this House; there are five Delegates representing the territories. Each and every one of these districts and the territories has its own peculiar needs, and the Members should…

H.R. 2499 is a bill about democracy, as the title suggests. It deals with the right of self-determination, and Congress doing the right thing.

This bill not only endangers the democratic principles that are the foundation of the United States of America but it also does not take into account the will of the majority of the people of Puerto Rico.

H.R. 2499 creates 'an artificial majority for statehood' because the territorial 'Commonwealth' option is, or was not competing directly with the other options.

Puerto Ricans are proud Americans who suffer second-class citizenship that is not constitutionally-guaranteed.

I strongly believe HR 2499 is the wrong way for Congress to address our political status issue since it does not signify a true, fair and democratic process of self determination.

First of all, on behalf of the 4 million American citizens that reside in Puerto Rico, but especially the men and women that have served in uniform in defense of democracy since 1917, I cannot put a price tag on their lives, I'm very sorry.

The defining element of free association in international law is that the parties be sovereign nations that remain sovereign.

H.R. 2499, for the first time, will allow voters to choose directly with their vote.

The proposed constitution is not merely a legal document; it is, however flawed, a symbol of the Virgin Islands' right to self-determination.

What is wrong is to, after 112 years, have formerly American citizens residing under conditions that are so unequal to their counterparts in the mainland.

I want to commend you and thank you for standing up for the American citizens residing in Puerto Rico...

The intervening months have only strengthened my conviction that the proposed constitution, despite its many flaws, must be returned to the people of the Virgin Islands for acceptance or rejection by referendum.

The voters must understand that what Commonwealth means, as the author of that amendment states to Pedro Pierluisi and I, is the present status quo, which is a territorial status.

I would respectfully pose to you that if the 'free beer and barbeque' option had been one of the options in Alaska, you would not have gotten a 2 to 1 margin.