Debating Immigration Legislation - Opening Statement, Ranking Member McClintock, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration

Congressman McClintock serves as the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration. The Congressman delivered remarks in opposition to H.R. 7946 at a hearing held by the full House Judiciary Committee.

Congressman McClintock 's remarks as prepared appear below.

Click HERE or above to watch Rep. McClintock's remarks

Opening Statement
Congressman Tom McClintock
Ranking Member, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration
Markup of H.R. 7946, the "Veteran Service Recognition Act of 2022
July 27, 2022

Mr. Chairman:

DHS Secretary Ali Mayorkas has repeatedly asserted – including in sworn testimony to this committee -- that the southern border is secure. This, of course, is a lie and not even a subtle one.

We know the numbers. A stunning 3 million encounters since inauguration day, when Joe Biden reversed the Trump Administration's enforcement measures – with roughly half admitted and trafficked to every community in our nation. Another 900,000 known got-aways.

We are all now seeing the effect of these policies – the strain on our schools, our hospitals, our public safety, working class wages and opportunities, social services. No civilization to my knowledge has every survived the magnitude of illegal mass migration on a scale that the Democrats have unleashed in just 18 months. And Gallup warns there are another 42 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean who intend to come here now that they can.

When Mayorkas appeared before this committee, he couldn't tell us how it benefits the American people to have their classrooms packed with non-English speaking students, their emergency rooms flooded with illegals demanding basic care, how their families will be safer with increased gang activity and fentanyl inundating communities, or how working families will be made better by flooding the labor market with cheap illegal labor while they foot the bill for social services.

How do our Democrat colleagues react to this unprecedented illegal migration they have unleashed? Do they call on the Biden Administration stop the releases? Do they call on their President to actually enforce U.S. immigration laws or at least stop incentivizing this mass illegal migration?

No. They mark up this bill, that re-admits immigrant veterans who were later deported, mainly for committing criminal offenses. Using veterans for cover, it goes on to provide that any alien who adjusts status to, or is admitted as, a lawful permanent resident "shall" be presumed to have established good moral character.

What?

The effect of this will be that millions of people per year will be presumed to have satisfied their good moral character burden, simply by producing their green card.

The legal permanent residents who enlist in our military are offered special avenues for naturalization under the Immigration and Nationality Act. About 3 percent of U.S. veterans today are foreign born. Many have chosen to become U.S. Citizens.

For a while, we allowed non-legal permanent residents, including those here on student visas, refugee claimants and DACA recipients to enlist in order to claim a fast track to citizenship. Called the MAVNI program, it was such a debacle that the Obama Administration had to suspend it in 2016.

One MAVNI enlistment, Ji Chaoqun, was found to be a Chinese spy. A number of foreign nationals who enlisted in our military were subsequently deported for committing crimes.

Foreign nationals who come to America LEGALLY, who obey our laws and seek to serve our country because of a love for it and the principles upon which it is founded, are one of our greatest strengths. Eleven years ago, I spoke at the funeral of Gurpreet Singh, whose family had immigrated from India LEGALLY eleven years before. His father told a reporter that Gurpreet "was always a very patriotic man for the U.S. From the time he was a little boy, he knew he wanted to serve in the U.S. military. Gurpreet was very proud of his service with the Marines." Corporal Singh was wounded in combat, chose to return, overstayed his assignment to relieve a friend, and was killed in action in Helmond Province, June 22, 2011.

Yet the majority seems unable or unwilling to tell the difference between a Chinese spy like Ji Chaoqun and an American hero like Gurpreet Singh. I pray the majority is not attempting to equate such heroism, devotion and fidelity with the lawless, illegal, mass migration they are not only ignoring, but actively aiding and abetting with their policies.

31,000 foreign nationals now serve in our armed forces. This is less than four days of border incursions we are currently seeing.

H.R. 7946 does nothing to address the chaos on the U.S. border, makes major changes to U.S. naturalization law, and furthers the Democrats anti-enforcement agenda.

I oppose the bill and I yield back.