On the recordMay 10, 2023
To my colleague from Texas, I say that this bill, this set of bills, criminalizes California's and the United States' private sector. Why do you make small businesses and large businesses criminals? We have a 3.6 percent unemployment rate in this country. Every time I have businesses in my office, they say: We need workers. We need more immigrants. This is not what this set of bills is doing. Let's start out by recognizing the reality that we are living in the greatest country in the world, the strongest economy in the world. We need workers, and these bills fail to recognize that reality. Let's go back and work across the aisle. I say to my colleagues on the other side, let's come up with comprehensive immigration reform and a way to keep America as the greatest economy in the world. These bills do not do that.
