LEADER JEFFRIES "TODAY WE WILL VOTE AGAINST THE CHILD DEPORTATION ACT"
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries held his weekly press conference where he emphasized that House Democrats remain committed to serious immigration reform and protecting our economy from a catastrophic default, while extreme MAGA Republicans continue to engage in dangerous political stunts.
Leader Jeffries: Good morning everyone, another week, another extreme MAGA Republican bill on the floor of the House of Representatives. Today, we will vote against – as Democrats – the Child Deportation Act. The Republican effort to try to weaponize and politicize the border as opposed to doing something meaningful about it. Child Deportation Act, this extreme MAGA Republican piece of legislation will throw out children who are fleeing in many cases extreme violence and persecution. It will build a medieval border wall that is a 14th-century solution to a 21st-century problem and waste billions of taxpayer dollars. And it will adversely impact the ability of the Customs and Border Patrol agency to do its job in stopping dangerous drugs like fentanyl from coming into our country.
The Child Deportation Act is not a serious effort to deal with the issue related to our broken immigration system. Democrats do have a proposal championed by Congresswoman Linda Sánchez, the U.S. Citizenship Act, that is a real effort to address our immigration system, create a viable path forward, make sure that there is order at the border, while at the same time respecting our history as a nation of immigrants. But another week, another extreme MAGA Republican piece of legislation that the Republican majority is trying to jam down the throats of the American people.
Earlier this week, we had a very good, productive, honest, open conversation convened by President Joe Biden in the White House, and he has set us on a positive path forward to make sure that we do not default on America's debt for the first time in our nation's history. A default would be catastrophic. A default would be dangerous. A default will be devastating for everyday Americans. It would trigger a job-killing recession, resulting in the loss of millions of good-paying jobs. A default will crash the stock market and hurt in an adversely devastating way the retirement security of millions of older Americans, and a default will dramatically increase costs for people all across the country. We have to avoid a default at all costs. That's the position of House Democrats, that's the position of Senate Democrats, Mitch McConnell articulated that position from the White House on Tuesday. President Biden has been making that clear from the very beginning. And it's my hope that the extreme MAGA Republicans understand that we have to end the dangerous flirtation with default, make sure America pays our bills, and simultaneously, let's have the conversation about the types of investments and spending decisions and revenue raising that would most benefit the health, the safety, and the economic well-being of the American people.
Full press conference can be watched here.