'What Is Going On?': Lou Correa Comdemns Trump's Deportation Efforts, Calls For Immigration Reform

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) spoke about President Trump's immigration policies.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Chairman Guest. I now recognize a ranking member for the Subcommittee on

00:03Border Security and Enforcement, the gentleman from California, Mr. Lou Correa, for his opening

00:08statement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today.

00:14Concur, words just said, need legislation to guarantee to support American security,

00:22American prosperity, too. I'm going to ask, what happened? What's going on, folks? President

00:32Trump got elected, said he was going to deport criminals, those that have been in the country

00:39less than two years, and those with orders of deportation. Last I looked, 70 percent of the

00:48individuals being deported right now don't fit any of those categories. They're essentially

00:55hard-working individuals, many individuals that have been in this country 25, 30 years.

01:02My district, just a couple of weeks ago,

01:07man, been here 25 years, not a ticket to his name, not a traffic ticket, was apprehended by ice.

01:16He has three children in the U.S. Marine Corps. Let me repeat, man held by ice, 25 years in this

01:32country, not a ticket to his name, not a traffic ticket, apprehended he has three children in the U.S.

01:41Marine Corps. I don't know about you, but we make movies about people like that. We give people like

01:48that a tour of the White House. Patriots. He raised three patriots that were ready to make the ultimate

01:58sacrifice for this country. What do you say to those three Marines? Spirit the Corps, keep up the good

02:07attitude. Everything's going to be okay tomorrow. A lot of people in that situation.

02:20I know the president understands that this policy is hurting this nation economically. Just a couple

02:29of weeks ago he came out and said, I'm going to suspend the deportation of those that work at farms,

02:35those that work in hospitality industry. Two days later he said, I was just kidding, never mind. We're

02:40going to continue to sweep them up.

02:47You know, each one of us represents a different part of the country, a different state.

02:52I'll read a little bit about California and I've said this before, so please excuse me for repeating

02:56myself. It's important to note, California, a big portion of our workforce is undocumented.

03:05As a state we've done everything we can to document those workers, driver's licenses,

03:13other things that we need to do. As a result today, California is the fourth largest economy in the

03:19world and if we deregulate a little bit we could be number three in the world. Number one nationally on

03:27agriculture, 50 to 70 percent of those workers are undocumented and we feed a lot of parts of this

03:35country and the rest of the world. We're also number one in manufacturing in Southern California.

03:41It's not Pittsburgh, it's not Michigan, it's Southern California. Manufacturing sector of the United

03:49States center of manufacturing in the U.S. Guess what? A lot of those workers are what? Undocumented.

03:57I thought we were supposed to do some near-shoring to bring back a lot of those jobs from other parts

04:03of the world. That's what we were supposed to be doing. Let's talk about venture capital. Guess what

04:10state and union has about 60 to 70 percent of the venture capital today? California. Talk about high

04:17tech, Silicon Valley. A lot of those workers are guess what? Visa holders, overstate visa, India, China,

04:29Europe. We attract the best and brightest. We have the best biotech in the world right now. We invent the

04:37best medicines in the world right now in California. As a result of that folks, we pay a hundred billion

04:45dollars more in taxes to the federal government than we get back. I hear statements, burden. Well, no. We are a

04:56net donor to the federal government. And now the federal government is going to tell us how to run the

05:04economy of the state of California. Is that what I'm hearing to today?

05:08Let's stop for a minute and not talk about undocumented. Let's talk about American citizens.

05:20I live in Orange County. Not LA. Orange County.

05:25We have the National Guard downtown. Okay. Almost had the Marines there. Sheriff Barnes, who's been in this

05:33committee testifying. Okay. He's told me, I didn't call for backup. Local police, I didn't call for

05:43backup. Why are they here? They're messing things up. Work that we've done for public safety for the

05:50last 30 years. And when they leave, we got a mess to fix. We didn't call for them. Go downtown Santa

05:58Ana right now where I live. It's peaceful. Why is the National Guard there? American citizens right now,

06:09American citizens afraid of going out on the streets. Parents telling their kids, take your

06:19birth certificate. Take a passport. Are you kidding me? Is this America or is this a communist country?

06:29American citizens? Just two weeks ago, female attorney, American-born citizen,

06:39walking down the park. There was a raid going on. Turn around. They took her into, arrested her,

06:49never been so frightened in her life. She said, masked man grabbed me, put me in a van with no windows,

06:57took me in a holding cell that I had no idea where I was going. A few hours later, she was let go.

07:03Why? Was she profiled? I thought you weren't supposed to be doing that. Okay. Home Depot.

07:14Heard another story. An off-duty police officer walking into Home Depot.

07:22They were about to grab him. He turned around and said, back off. I got to conceal a weapon.

07:28Can you imagine what we almost had? We almost had a shootout there. Because you have masked

07:34individuals, and I have no idea who they are. I have no idea what training they have.

07:38I'm about to grab somebody without even a warning.

07:42These are our streets in the United States of America. What are we coming to?

07:51You know, the other day, President Trump was meeting with President Bukele.

07:59He said, quote, the President, homegrowns are next. You got to build about five more of these places.

08:07This place is not big enough. So we're sending American citizens now to foreign prisons?

08:16Forget about green card holders. I'll tell you, I've told them, do not leave the country.

08:21You will not be let in.

08:25What are we coming to, folks? What is going on?

08:29California is the fourth largest economy in the world. Our ag industry is getting devastated.

08:38I won't even talk about the trade that the ports of LA long beats, the biggest ports we have in this

08:42country. I think the trade is down 30, 40 percent.

08:46This hearing is about parole, but I think the bigger issue is about immigration policy.

09:01My colleague just said we need to protect, legislate, protect American security.

09:07We've also needed immigration reform for a long time.

09:10It's not only California. I've got some articles here talking about the Wisconsin dairy farmers.

09:1670 percent of the workforce is undocumented.

09:21So you get rid of those workers and I guess our milk will be less expensive,

09:26I would imagine, if you can get it at all.

09:28Another one here. Immigrants contribute greatly to the Social Security's

09:33trust fund solvency. They pin in Social Security, never get a dime back.

09:38Labor and immigration reform. Many dairy farmers struggle to recruit and retain native workers

09:48despite higher wages and benefits. But I guess we're going to take our graduate students and now

09:53tell them to go milk the cows and take care of the cows. That's what we're saying.

09:58This is an interesting one, a little bit off point. Irish tourists jailed by ICE for months after

10:03overstaying the U.S. his visa by three days. By the way, tourism is a big industry in my district.

10:12They're down 20 to 30 percent.

10:16Dairy farms are vulnerable to Trump's mass deportation threats.

10:20All you have to do is read the newspapers every day.

10:35I'm not quite sure what we got off on this track.

10:37We're supposed to deport criminals. And I can tell you back home, I've talked to people

10:44who believed the president when he said he was going after these three sets.

10:50Criminals, overstays, those here with less than two years, and now going after hard workers.

10:58Our economy is going to suffer. Inflation, shortages.

11:02Maybe the president doesn't know what's going on. He needs to know that ICE is doing more than maybe

11:14he knows we're doing. I look forward to hearing the testimony from our witnesses today.

11:20Mr. Chair, take over the gavel.

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