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Rep. Gutierrez on Failure of House Republicans to Get Their Act Together on Immigration, Border Spending, Children and DREAMers


“I guess it is harder to take candy from children than they thought,” said Rep. Gutiérrez

Washington, DC –(ENEWSPF)—July 31, 2014. Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) commented on the failure of House Republicans to approve their harsh border supplemental bill and a bill House Republican leadership promised to the anti-immigrant wing of the GOP to revoke the Deferred Action initiative (DACA) for DREAMers.  Rather than see the bills fail in a vote, House Speaker John Boehner pulled the bill altogether.  At this hour (4 p.m. ET), Republicans are still trying to find a way forward and plan to regroup as a conference in the morning, postponing the beginning of the August recess.

Gutiérrez is scheduled to leave this evening for a tour of the Texas border with a bipartisan group of House Members led by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and a delegation of Senators led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).  They will tour border facilities in Texas on Friday, if they are able to leave this evening.  Rep. Gutiérrez, a Democrat, represents the Fourth District of Illinois, is a Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a Member of the Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, and is the Chairman of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

“I guess it is harder to take candy from children than they thought.  The Republicans planned to pass a bill to deport children quickly and take away protections from deportation that the President extended to children raised in the U.S., but it didn’t work out as planned.  They just couldn’t go far enough over the anti-immigrant ledge to satisfy enough of the GOP conference to get a majority.

“The number of kids who have come to this country from Central America fleeing violence could all fit in Soldier Field with room to spare, yet about 60,000 kids have made adult American legislators lose their marbles.  They could not agree on how to deport them fast enough and the Democrats were not going to let a decade or more of progress in improving our asylum and human trafficking laws get thrown out for election year politics.

Source: guiterrez.house.gov


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