Raúl Grijalva

I think we are in a really important phase.

One of the things that I see is that erosion of that public institution, and part of it is trying to control what people read and do not read.

The importance of public schools, and in particular, the value of libraries, and the value of a diverse opportunity for all students to be able to access information.

I think access is the most important thing.

Are we going to vote again on the Floor or should we make other plans?

The fact that Biden in this latest fence wall construction waived 18 laws, including NEPA, I opposed that

When it is convenient to use it as an issue, NEPA is wonderful. When it is in the way of a mine or an extraction or a drill, then it is absolutely awful and we have to get rid of it.

I think consistency would be important for your presentations before Congress.

Well, I am a lawyer, so I am talking about what is legal and what is not legal.

The wall doesn't work, in part by demonstrating that it has been breached so often that there are full-time welding crews down there to do the repairs.

H.R. 2 is the panacea and fundamentally will not solve the issue, neither will a wall.

It doesn't deal with the crisis that we are seeing globally.

It ends asylum entirely as a concept and as a legal responsibility in this country and internationally.

I think that one of the centerpieces that my Republican colleagues have promoted as a solution is H.R. 2, Secure the Borders Act.

That is not a solution. That is a way to try to seek attention, politically.

This is about organized, well-financed crime on both sides of the border. And we need to put the focus and the attention on breaking that up.

We must establish responsible immigration policies like those found in Republicans' H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act.

It is not right, nor is it proper, that local communities bear the burden, financially and otherwise, for the processing, shelter, and transition of those seeking refuge and asylum in this country.

The unprecedented number of refugees and asylum seekers that are coming to the border is a reality. It is a humanitarian crisis, and it needs to be dealt with.

President Biden has brought the nation to a breaking point with his reckless immigration policies.

I can't do anything to take away the damage nativists and racist rhetoric that permeates and infects this issue...

I believe, it is very transparent, that everything, all the hearings that we have seen from all the committees, including this one now, on this issue, is to tee up the ball so that when we finish the hostage negotiations after the…

A schizophrenic policy back and forth from hardline to more humanitarian, back to hardline, back and forth, back and forth.

These policies have actually put them at risk by forcing them to wait in areas where cartels target them for kidnappings, torture.

2 is not a solution. It is just the opposite. If people are fleeing a burning building, it is not a solution to lock the door and prevent them from fleeing.