On the recordJanuary 13, 2015
I thank my friend from Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule for H.R. 240. It is sad, Mr. Speaker, that just 2 weeks into this new Congress, Republicans have turned a bipartisan issue, funding our Department of Homeland Security, into a cesspool of despicable amendments that cater to the most extremist anti-immigrant fringe. There is the Blackburn amendment mandating that we deport thousands of students who are as American in their hearts as you or I. There is the Aderholt amendment prohibiting DHS from prioritizing whether we deport hardworking parents or hardened criminals. And there is the Schock amendment decrying the legal immigration backlog but doing nothing, absolutely nothing, to fix it. Guess whose amendment wasn't accepted? The Deutch-Foster amendment, which would save taxpayers over $1 billion a year by ending the detention bed mandate, effectively an earmark that requires 34,000 beds be filled by immigrants every single day inside for-profit detention centers. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
