Andrea Joy Campbell: “if we have illegal children and illegal families in this country, it is our duty to deport the family and deport those…”

“if we have illegal children and illegal families in this country, it is our duty to deport the family and deport those who came here illegally. If we do not do that because we have not devoted enough resources to immigration and naturalization, then at the very least we should not impose the cost upon our States. It is a Federal failure that has led to this influx, and the Federal Government owes the States its support. But if both of these have not occurred, and that is the case today, we are left with children in this country. Now in that world it is far better that those children be educated and be in school than that they be on a street corner or in a gang. The first best preferred outcome is, of course, that those who came here illegally be returned to the country of their origin with their children, and that would be constitutional to do because the children are under the custody of the parent. But we do not have the resources to do that. This bill does not give us the resources to do that. We are not hiring INS agents to expel every illegal family that is here. So, Mr. Chairman, I put to my colleagues the essential tradeoff. Is it better to have such children in school, or kept out of school at the risk that their parents would be turned in to the Immigration and Naturalization Service? Are there gangs in Los Angeles waiting to recruit such children? Are there gangs in San Jose willing to recruit such children?”