Collins statement on H.R. 6

"[Democrats] had a chance to show they are serious about an immigration solution for DACA recipients, and perhaps even for the DREAMers they have talked about 'protecting' for years. Instead, today we are considering a political messaging bill. The message: America won’t enforce its laws or protect its people. . . . Republicans want to provide legal status for DACA recipients. We want to do it the right way — to minimize fraud, ensure criminals cannot get legal status and bolster border security. Without these commonsense and compassionate measures, we will find ourselves repeating this conversation a few years from now.”

  WASHINGTON — Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, made the following statement on the House floor regarding H.R. 6. Below are the remarks as prepared. Ranking Member Collins: Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019. Last week, I went to El Paso to see what is going on at our southern border. I can tell my colleagues today that our border is an utter disaster. Last month, Customs and Border Protection apprehended an average of 4,500 people every day. During the first seven months of this fiscal year, CBP has apprehended more individuals than in any other full fiscal year since 2009. While I was in El Paso, a single group of more than 1,000 aliens illegally walked across the border from Juarez. A group of migrants the size of a high school strolled right into downtown El Paso and surrendered to Border Patrol. I personally witnessed hundreds of others, in smaller groups, doing the same thing. The number of family unit members and unaccompanied alien minors apprehended in April set records, and May numbers eclipsed those records. The number of single-adult apprehensions has now reached a five-year high. So far this year, Border Patrol has encountered over 180 large groups — those with over 100 people. With so many people entering illegally, it’s no wonder Border Patrol processing centers are far beyond capacity and ICE detention facilities are full. Even the NGOs providing shelter and other aid to migrants are completely overwhelmed by the unending surge of people who have learned we are rewarding those who break our laws and endanger vulnerable men, women and children in the process. Perhaps the worst part of this humanitarian crisis is the toll it takes on children. CBP has identified over 3,000 potentially fraudulent family units arriving at the border. As unbelievable as it sounds, aliens are admitting they have “borrowed,” “rented,” or “bought” — yes “bought” — a child because they know showing up with a child all but guarantees release into America’s interior. It is a crisis. One of the overworked and overwhelmed agents I met last week told me, “I’m doing my job — now go do yours.” I took that to heart, and I believe the surge of migrants can be all but ended by enacting legislation to fix the Flores settlement agreement, amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and raising the credible fear standard. What are my Democratic colleagues doing to address the situation? Zero. Democrats have the chance to help overworked DHS heroes, overwhelmed NGOs and the American people, who believe in our country’s sovereignty. Sadly, Democrats are making us consider a bill to worsen the border crisis by incentivizing more people to cross our borders illegally in hopes of getting a piece of the amnesty pie. No doubt at this very minute, the smuggling cartels are getting the word out: Congress is going to legalize millions. I have repeatedly implored my committee chairman to give us a bill legalizing some of the illegal immigrant population and include enforcement measures to secure our border and enforce the law inside our country. Sadly, Democrats refuse. They had a chance to show they are serious about an immigration solution for DACA recipients, and perhaps even for the DREAMers they have talked about “protecting” for years. Instead, today we are considering a political messaging bill. The message: America won’t enforce its laws or protect its people. H.R. 6 provides a special path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, as well as hundreds of thousands of Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure recipients. It places the interests of those who have violated our laws before those of people who have waited patiently for green cards to become available. Because the bill provides that same path to some legal nonimmigrants and even people living outside America, the number of potential beneficiaries is completely unknown. H.R. 6 allows criminal aliens and those who have committed immigration fraud to receive green cards. It rewards the parents who knowingly brought children to the U.S. illegally with green cards and eventual citizenship. It incentivizes fraud through lax documentation requirements, allowing affidavits to show compliance with some of those requirements and allowing people to withdraw an application at any time without prejudice. H.R. 6 pretends to prevent alien gang members from getting green cards, but the prohibition is so deliberately narrow it is virtually unworkable. H.R. 6 actually provides U.S. taxpayer funds to NGOs, in the form of grant programs, to help illegal aliens apply for green cards. If enacted, H.R. 6 would overwhelm U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to the point where adjudicators will be pulled off processing legal immigration benefits to process the millions of applications resulting from this bill. There will be several million applications for amnesty because H.R. 6 has no consequence for filing a false or frivolous application. CBO has estimated that, over the 2020-2029 period, the two bills combined to make H.R. 6 would cost $26.3 billion and $8.3 billion, respectively — and that’s an underestimate. As evidenced by two floor votes last year, Republicans want to provide legal status for DACA recipients. We want to do it the right way — to minimize fraud, ensure criminals cannot get legal status and bolster border security. Without these commonsense and compassionate measures, we will find ourselves repeating this conversation a few years from now. H.R. 6 does none of those things, so I urge my colleagues to oppose the bill.