Hilda L. Solis: “I just want to encourage the public to know that many of us here in Congress do want to have this very serious debate…”

“I just want to encourage the public to know that many of us here in Congress do want to have this very serious debate, but we have been left out. In fact, we have been left out all the time. We are losing jobs. In my district, we are looking at unemployment rates of over 9 percent. I am going to talk about that later on this evening. But the fact of the matter is that the people we are inspiring here in our country to support us, to stick with us, we are telling them one thing and we are doing another. Our actions are showing them that we do not care about the quality of life for our families here. We have to make a statement, and I am proud to be here to say that we cannot go home and turn our backs on working families. Working families want to know that we are going to take care not only of the domestic front here but also those relationships that we want to set across the country. I know that in Tijuana, for example, there is a Hyundai factory along the border there. People tried to organize there, some Mexican workers. They were told not to worry, they will get their opportunity. Women and men were stuck in a situation there that was very unsafe. There were pools of water, electrical lines running, and no safety protections whatsoever. These people were putting their lives at risk to build automobiles that were going to be shipped all over the world and probably right here in our own home States.”