Floor Speeches

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis
Remarks at Ad-Hoc Hearing on Arizona S.B. 1070’s Impact on Women and Children
Thursday, June 10, 2010

POLIS: I'll be brief so we can get to questions, but I want to welcome the panel and thank the panel.
Thank you for really showing us what it means to be American. By being here today and participating in our democracy and using your political voice, you are showing yourself to be true Americans, despite what anybody says. And you should know that many of us here, myself included, feel embarrassed as Americans by the actions of people like Sheriff Arpaio, by S.B. 1070 and, indeed, by the federal 287-G enforcements.

I feel those to be un-American laws. And it is my hope and my belief that sooner rather than later the American people, who are a good people, will allow the laws to catch up with the reality and -- and welcome you and help you fulfill the promise that you have to be great Americans. I yield back.
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GRIJALVA: Let me ask Ms. Rodriguez. The students in your situation are all over the country and certainly all over Arizona. And it's a sad commentary because, you know, this is -- this is the American dream. You know? Go to school, get good grades, don't get in trouble, don't mess with the law. And at the end, there'll be a rainbow for you. You can go and collect your pot of gold.

And -- and it's not happening. One of the -- one of the underlying questions that keeps coming up is not with the Dream Act. It is -- it is -- and you mentioned the word stand-alone. So I want to -- I want to follow-up on that.

The context of immigration reform comprehensively with the Dream Act in it or some other discussions that go on about a part or not a part. How do you feel?

RODRIGUEZ: I think that a lot of students like me have been waiting a lot of years. I got involved in advocating for the Dream Act in 2002 when I got into high school. And since then we've been waiting and waiting, and the Dream Act has changed a lot.

I, with a lot of students, encouraged Congress to pass the Dream Act as soon as possible as a stand-alone bill, not attached to any comprehensive immigration reform. Well, yes, that might give us a path towards citizenship, the comprehensive immigration reform that's currently being offered would criminalize our families and separate us further.

Representative, I didn't catch what state or what your name is, but before right now I had never been called or referred to as an American. And the only time that I felt to be the slightest happy or accepted or proud of this country was when President Obama won his presidency. And for him to not step up and fulfill his promises really, really breaks a lot of hearts.

And I thank you for acknowledging my contributions. And I -- I hope and I pray that those contributions of a lot of students who are getting impatient and being arrested and turning themselves in for the sake of other students like me -- I hope that their contributions are acknowledged as well.
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POLIS: Yes, my -- my first question is for Ms. Rodriguez.

Thank you so much for joining us today. And you've reached a great degree of success. And, you know, frankly, much of what we're hearing, again, is so upsetting to -- to so many of us. And I -- I know that we are sharing this hearing with the American people. I know that they, too, are upset with this.

But I'm sure that along the way you've also encountered the other side of the American and have had mentors and -- and people who have helped you achieve your heights. I would love to give you the opportunity to share with us a story of one or two, maybe teachers or professors or people who believed in you that you have the opportunity to -- to recognize in -- in a public situation so that we can also share that side of -- of the American people.

RODRIGUEZ: I can't even begin to think who because there are so many. When I was 10, I already was involved in getting tobacco prevention in my community. I started doing theater for social change when I was Katherine's age. And I -- my parents didn't know how to put me in -- in school. They didn't know how to pay for school. They didn't know how -- how to apply for college.

And so, I made up tons of mentors. And even -- they -- they've paid for my fees to apply for graduate school, my books, teachers that have talked to me and opened their homes to me when my family left and I didn't have a place to live. I would just like to thank Judy Bertain from the Cultural Arts Coalition. She works in communities opening creative ways of expression for community students and -- and children and people of all ages.
Salvador Roesa (ph), (inaudible) -- a lot of people that really have helped me -- Dr. Velez-Ibanez, the department chair of Chicano Studies at ASU. He's the one that told me, "Mija, you can go to Harvard. They'll be honored to have you." And I didn't believe him because I -- they don't even want me in Arizona, I thought.

And when I got my letter and I saw that it's a congratulations, you've been accepted, I thought that I had applied to the wrong school or that they sent it to the wrong Silvia Rodriguez. But it took such a huge effort. It took a community, a whole group of people to carry me through all these 20 years that I've lived in Arizona.

And still now it's a struggle to get to Harvard. I don't know how I'm going to be able to pay for it, how I'm going to get there. But it's taking a huge amount of people to carry me there and take me there. And I -- I have a huge commitment with that community to come back and to serve.

POLIS: Well, thank you for acknowledging so many great people. And I -- I think for every, you know, Joe Arpaio there are many, many others that are -- are -- are good Americans and patriotic Americans and believe in our founding ideals.

When we see polls that show that Senate Bill 1070 is popular, it's important to know that many of those who say it's good they -- they are doing something are not supportive of the impact that this has had on -- on your families, on -- on -- on Arizona. And if they are watching here today, that is not the 1070 that they supported.
What they are saying is that want Congress, that's us, to fix our broken immigration system. And this is something that all of us across the ideological spectrum from the most conservative person to the most liberal person in the house. You all agree, even Joe Arpaio would agree, our immigration system is broken. The only place that that can be fixed is Washington.

So I hope that, you know, a message that is -- that is spread in the communities is that just because the people of Arizona in the polls support that bill they by even larger margins support comprehensive immigration reform. And there (ph) in the state cannot do that. And I know that frustrates them.

Only us in Congress can do that, which is why you are all here. And I hope that by carrying your stories to our colleagues in this body and in the Senate we can help build that fierce sense of urgency to make our country stronger and to make our immigration system one that we can be proud of as Americans rather than one that places families in fear and is an embarrassment to the good American people. And I yield back.