Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference on the Need for Executive Action on Immigration Reform

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered the following remarks today at a press conference, where he was joined by veterans, military service members, and Members of Congress to advocate for executive action on immigration reform. Below is a transcript of his remarks:

“I am very pleased to join so many of my colleagues, and so many veterans.  We celebrated Veterans Day yesterday, and we said great things about veterans. Action is what these families want; families – to make sure they’re unified. This is a moral and an economic issue for our country.

“Every Republican who sits in [the House of Representatives] believes the immigration system is broken. In the [Senate] they thought the system was broken, and they passed a bill some eighteen months ago. That bill has been sitting, ready to be put on the Floor, ready to be considered on the Floor of the United States Senate , and, if it was – in my view – it would pass.  We have not done so.

“I chaired the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe – Helsinki Commission – for ten years.  One of the activities that I participated in and led was the treaties with the Soviet Union to let families be reunited, to bring families together, let people immigrate so that they could be with their father or their mother or their husband or their wife or their brother or their sister.  That was our position then.  It should be our position now – not to wrench family members apart… 

“[Rep.] Juan [Vargas], you responded in Spanish.  Of those who came here, they spoke Gaelic, they spoke Italian, they spoke French, they spoke Chinese, they spoke Japanese.  They came to this country.  My father spoke Danish.  He came from Denmark at the age of 32.  He served in the military in World War II and, as a result, became a citizen of the United States of America.  That’s what these folks are talking about behind me, the Members and those who have served our nation in uniform.

“So I join with my colleagues in urging the President to take action, and I urge my Republican friends to understand that that action will be temporary and can be replaced by a bill that we pass through the Congress of the United States.  But what the President needs to do is give immediate and significant relief to those families that are being wrenched apart and living in fear.  I’m proud to join my colleagues in that request, and I will be proud to support the President of the United States in acting in a big, bold manner – and then work with my colleagues in the House of Representatives to make sure that we have a system that works for America and for all people.  Thank you very much.”