Pelosi Remarks Calling for Comprehensive Immigration Reform at Foot-Washing Ceremony with Immigrant Families
San Francisco – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the need to pass comprehensive immigration reform at a foot-washing ceremony with immigrant families at St. John the Evangelist Church in San Francisco. In her remarks, Leader Pelosi highlighted the importance of passing H.R. 15 – bipartisan immigration legislation that will reduce the deficit by nearly $1 trillion, secure our borders, unite our families, protect our workers, and provide an earned pathway to citizenship. Below is a transcript of the Leader's remarks:
"Buenos días. Good morning everyone. Thank you for affording me this opportunity to express my humility by participating in the washing in the feet and paying respects to our special guests here today.
"The story of Maribel, David, and Mariana is a story that could be told a million times, over and over again. The testimony that they give makes us feel so terrible. Because this is the United States of America, with liberty and justice for all – except, not so fast if you happen to be having some lack of documentation.
"I'm honored to be here with Father Smith – and I listened very carefully to his words to the Rabbi. Although I didn't understand the words, I understood the spirit that he expressed. And Mark Andrews, and Reverend Siebrasse, and Pastor Nunez, and Reverend Deborah Lee – thank you for your very strong leadership over and over again, on an ongoing basis.
"And Olga, thank you for your invitation to be here. We were having one of our regular meetings of immigration activists, and Olga said: ‘Will you come to the washing of the feet?' And I'm honored to have that invitation to be here with Supervisor Avalos, Supervisor Kim, President of the Board Chiu, and [Tim Paulson], the Chair for the San Francisco Labor Council. Because Labor has been such a very important part of this initiative.
"We have Bibles that are faith based, the business community supports this, and the badges – the law enforcement community. And they all support all of this. We have a great representation from the Board of Supervisors here – not just here today, but ongoing in this effort.
"So, here's what I want to say to you today: I thought we were just going to be talking about the religious washing of the feet, and how much humility Christ demonstrated before on Holy Thursday, and how this is a tradition – as has been described – in the Islamic community, as well as the Jewish community. That's why Christ was doing it. It flows from the Jewish community and then became a Christian rite.
"These families are families that I've seen in churches all across the country. These families are families that have been spoken about from the pulpit in many denominations across the country. There isn't an aspect of the community of our country that doesn't support comprehensive immigration reform. The legislation has passed in the Senate in a bipartisan way. It's a bill that I would not have written. I would have gone shorter in terms of the time it took to get citizenship. But it's a bill. It's a place.
"I think it's really important though – because so much focus has been on deportation – that we understand why these deportations are taking place. The law requires it, and the Republicans – and I'll say that word – in the House of Representatives insist that President Obama fill those 34,000 beds, that they are constantly filled. There are 11 million people that are not fully documented, and 1,100 deported every day, and one person standing in the way of the bill.
"Thank you, Reverend, for calling upon the Speaker to bring the bill to the floor. The votes are there, in a bipartisan way, to get this done, to be on the President's desk. And it is the answer to ending deportations. Instead – and I say this prayerfully and respectfully – instead, there are those in the House of Representatives who are saying to the President: ‘If you don't deport to the tune of those 34,000 beds always being filled, we will never pass comprehensive immigration reform.'
"They passed a law, a bill in the House – just in the House – that said: ‘You can sue the President if you do not believe he's upholding the law. And two examples of him not upholding the law is that he issued DACA,' the deferred action for our DREAMers. The President did the deferred action for our DREAMers. There are those in Congress who said: ‘That is sufficient reason for us to sue the President and not pass an immigration reform bill. Because clearly he does not obey the law as we see it,' in their view. They've also said that, if the President uses any prosecutorial discretion in how we choose who is deported, they will not pass an immigration bill. And, that is grounds for suing the President. Because he clearly, in their view, does not obey the law.
"So, we have some deep prayers to make to move the souls, and minds, and hearts of some of our colleagues in the Congress of the United States. The votes are there. We have 199 co-sponsors – three are Republicans. But, we know we have the rest of the votes if the bill were brought to the floor.
"So, I come to you hearing what you're saying – understanding. I just listened to these meetings in Phoenix and in Los Angeles, just in the past few days, and big signs saying: ‘Tell the President to stop these deportations.' No – tell the Congress to stop demanding that the President execute these deportations.
"How can you be – and I've had this experience myself, where I'm admiring a little baby in church, the mom right there holding a baby, one month old. I admire the little baby. I admire the little boys who are her brothers. And the father tells me that the mother will be deported, and that she will be separated from her children, because of a visa violation. What is the family value involved in that? What is the family value involved in that? Separate the children from their mother? Separate the children and their mother from their father? This is just not right.
"This sits right up there with the Japanese internment as an unjust act that was a black mark. It's who we are. Because, we talk about family values. And I do believe that every person, every newcomer that comes to our country – as David described them, and others of you know – their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations to make the future better for themselves and for their families: that courage, that optimism – that's very American, that spirit.
"And, when they come here with that spirit, they make America more American – these immigrants do. And, historically, in our country, the constant reinvigoration of America has come from immigrants. The first thing they bring is their strength, their family values, their commitment to faith, to family, to community, to a better life. What would America be without that? We would be stale and stagnant. Instead, we're invigorated by our immigrant community.
"So let's work together. And I appreciate the frustration as I see it – family to family. I've embraced families, I've met with families all over the country, who are in this situation. It's terrible. It's heartbreaking. And it's awful. The solution is to pass comprehensive immigration reform – which is already passed in the Senate. We just bring it up, we have the votes, and it's over. I don't know what the answer is to why they don't do it. But, I'm greatly saddened by it. And, I'm also saddened by the fact that they're saying that: ‘If the President reduces the deportation, we will never have an immigration bill.'
"Perhaps you weren't aware of the obstacle that they are making of the deportation issue. The people who don't want a bill are thrilled that the President is now the object of the immigration community's concern. This is a victory for them, because it looks like they don't have any responsibility for passing the answer to many ills.
"I want to just say one thing that I'm hopeful about – that our House Congressional Hispanic Caucus has put forth, and said to the President – and I support what they're doing – that we should stop the deportations on every person who qualifies for legalization under the Senate bill.
[Applause]
"In other words, if some of these people are being deported only because they have a visa or an immigration document offense – if you want to call it an offense, violation – then they shouldn't be deported. If there are other concerns, take it up on an individual basis. But when we talked about passing immigration reform, it was never to say that 11 million of you are deportable until we pass this bill. It was, no, let's just say – establish the criteria. And if you meet that standard, then it's just in our court to make it the law of the land.
"By the way, every state in the union needs this bill to be passed. If you have agriculture, if you have tourism, if you have high-tech, if you have any vitality, you need the vitality of the immigrant community. By the way, in addition to that, when people talk about reducing the deficit: almost a trillion dollars; $900 billion in deficit reduction, that's what the Congressional Budget Office tells us, if you pass the immigration bill. That's why the President has it in his budget. We have it in our budget because it reduces the deficit, in addition to everything else.
"I really spent more time talking about public policy than I thought, because I was coming to share a religious experience with you. But hearing the concerns that were expressed, when we pray – and I appreciate the frustration you have with the deportations. Don't get me wrong – it's beyond frustrations. I'm saying to everyone: this is like Japanese internment. We will look back on this and say: ‘How could we have done this to people?'
"So, I'm honored to be here, to participate in the washing of the feet, in the recognition that our newcomers here – just like everybody else – have a spark of divinity that is worthy of respect. Even President Bush said: when you debate the issue of immigration for a big number, there is respect that we owe the people that we are talking about. So that value is something important to all of us. What more humble thing can we do than to wash their feet? How unworthy I feel to be a part of a Congress that has not passed this legislation already.
"But let us pray. Let us pray that our Republican colleagues – because that's where the problem is, I'll be direct – will stop insisting that the President is breaking the law if he tries to lower the deportations or enforce the deferred action on our DREAMers.
"So, thank you for the opportunity to be here in a religious setting. Because we are on safer ground when we're talking about immigration. It's in the Bible: the Good Samaritan, he was an outsider; Deuteronomy talks about the Jews being foreigners when they came to Egypt. So if we do believe – as my colleagues, with their insistance upon faith over science and the rest – if we do believe in the dignity and worth of every person, that spark of divinity, I remind them: not only is it in every one that we encounter, but that spark of divinity is in ourselves. And we have to act upon that.
"So I'm honored to be with you – personally, officially, in every way – on Holy Thursday for this very important act of humility. Even as humble as it is, it is something that, unless we can pass a bill, we feel unworthy to participate in. Amen. Thank you."
[Applause]