Political Quotes

“I thank the distinguished gentleman from Los Angeles, California, for hosting this Special Order hour on a very important topic, and that is immigration reform. Madam Speaker, recently I previewed a screening of ``The Dream is Now'' in Fort Worth, and Representative Castro also came to Fort Worth to join me on that. And I can assure you that the hundreds of constituents who attended the event represent a microcosm of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. who need us to act now on comprehensive immigration reform. The dream for 11 million people to come out of the shadows and contribute economically to the only country they've ever known rests in the hands in the United States House of Representatives. Immigrants contribute to our economy as workers, as future entrepreneurs, as consumers, and as taxpayers. Latinos account for increasing shares of the economy and electorate in Texas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas's almost 450,000 Latino-owned businesses had sales receipts of nearly $62 billion and employed over 395,000 people in 2007, the last year for which data is available. Additionally, over 61,000 foreign students in Texas contributed $1.4 billion to the economy in tuition fees and living expenses in the 2011- 2012 academic year. These monumental numbers cannot be ignored. In Dallas alone, immigrants accounted for 16 percent of economic output as of 2007, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute.…”