Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) addressed leaders from across New Jersey’s public and private sectors at the Chamber of Commerce’s 82nd annual “Walk to Washington,” dinner. During his remarks, he urged business leaders to use their influence to bring a rational, fact-based, forward-looking debate around comprehensive immigration reform back to life in the nation’s capital.
Remarks prepared for delivery are available below:
Thank you, David. As always I’m proud that innovators like Samsung have made a home in New Jersey.
Good evening everyone. It’s great to be among so many friends for another “Walk to Washington.”
Let me first say thank you to Chamber CEO Tom Bracken and Board Chairman Robert Doherty for keeping this uniquely “New Jersey” tradition going strong and for their leadership on behalf of New Jersey businesses.
Governor Murphy, thank you for making the trip. It’s good to see you in Washington but even better to have you in Trenton every day fighting in common cause for the many priorities we share.
And though his busy schedule kept him away from us tonight, I do want to say a few words about our junior Senator, my good friend Cory Booker.
It’s no secret that I think Cory would make a terrific President of the United States, for many reasons: his creative policy ideas; his energy and optimism; his ability to bring people together. But no matter your politics, I think there’s something that we can all agree on, as New Jerseyans, about Cory Booker.
As he travels the nation, Cory is putting New Jersey’s best foot forward.
Unlike some candidates in the past, he’s not putting people down on the campaign trail – he’s lifting them up. And in doing so, he’s giving more Americans a clearer picture of the New Jersey that we all know and love.
I realize this is the first time I’m seeing many of you in the new year, so to those of you who stood with me in 2018 – thank you. As I begin my third full-term in the U.S. Senate, I hope you all know that my door is always open.
I also want to recognize the newly-minted members of Congress here with us. Today, we have more leverage to advance our state’s most critical priorities. And these days, we New Jerseyans have to fight for what’s ours.
That’s why I’m glad that nearly our entire delegation has come together on bipartisan legislation to restore the state and local tax deduction that was gutted by the recent tax reforms. We’re calling it the SALT Act – which stands for Stop the Attack on Local Taxpayers.
Look, we know that in New Jersey and many of America’s most economically-productive states, families face high property tax bills and a high cost of living.
Well, our bill would provide some relief. Simply put, the more you pay in property and state taxes, the more you can deduct.
This will not be an easy fight, but it is a fight worth having. Because beyond the harm being done to individual taxpayers and their families, the property tax deduction is vital to protecting the investments that have made New Jersey an economic powerhouse and a great place to raise a family: outstanding schools, public safety, infrastructure and more.
Speaking of infrastructure, New Jersey faces real challenges there too.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There’s something big that New Jerseyans want to build, but it’s not a wall at our southern border – it’s new Gateway tunnels to span the Hudson.
Too often this Administration has undermined Gateway instead of recognizing that the economic might of the northeast corridor is at stake. But ultimately, rebuilding our tunnels isn’t just about growing our economy, creating new jobs and reducing traffic congestion.
This is a matter of life and death. This is a transportation ticking time bomb we cannot afford to ignore.
That’s why I’m proud that even in today’s uncertain climate, the New Jersey delegation worked in a bipartisan way to secure another $130 million in additional funding for New York and New Jersey to move Gateway forward. That’s on top of the more than $600 million in transit funding we bring home to New Jersey annually, and on top of the $650 million dedicated to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, a huge portion of which will go to the Gateway project.
Look, I could go on. But just as I decided last year to focus on the challenge of gun violence and many of you responded -- a challenge that, by the way, Democrats took on this week by passing universal background checks through the House -- I think our time together is best spent addressing the big issues that weigh on our country.
And this year I want to talk about the sorry state of debate around immigration policy we have today.
My friends, we used to talk about fixing our broken immigration system.
We used to talk about leveling the playing field for American workers – and ensuring that your companies had access to high-skilled labor.
We used to talk about modernizing our laws for the 21st century while honoring our identity as a nation of immigrants who came here in search of freedom – just like my own parents.
We used to talk about keeping families together, and giving Dreamers a path to citizenship, and providing the undocumented with an opportunity to get right with the law.
Simply put we used to talk about truly comprehensive immigration reform that reflected America’s highest ideals.
I know a few companies in this room, such as Johnson & Johnson have made advocating for Dreamers a priority – and I commend them for standing by their employees even as their future remains uncertain. Likewise, I thank law firms like McCarter & English for their work providing legal defense to undocumented children.
But all of us must do more to end the insanity and restore rational debate about our immigration laws!
Think about it. We have now spent two years -- two whole years -- mired in a divisive, dishonest debate about a wall at our southern border that experts say can be climbed over and tunneled under, and that Mexico was supposed to pay for.
Tonight, we come together just weeks after the longest government shutdown in American history. A shutdown that actually ended with less border construction funding than what was offered before the shutdown began.
And now, we have a constitutional crisis on our hands.
The President has declared a national emergency at the southern border despite the fact that illegal border crossings have been declining for years.
National emergencies should be based on real and urgent challenges. Not concocted to circumvent the congressional power of the purse.
Meanwhile, the Administration’s immigration policies have left too many communities across America in pain.
There’s the pain felt by the 800,000 federal employees who had to endure the shutdown and are only now being made whole.
The pain felt by the thousands of contractors who were excluded from the deal to reopen the government. Like the FAA contractors I met with in Egg Harbor City, many of them with tears in their eyes over the hardships faced by their families. Workers I’m still trying to make whole.
There’s the pain of Dreamers across America, including 22,000 in New Jersey, who were betrayed when this Administration ended DACA
The pain of New Jersey’s immigrant families who’ve heard their President disparage the color of their skin and the country of their origin, including nearly 14,000 TPS holders from nations like Haiti and El Salvador. People who strengthen New Jersey’s economy, to the tune of $870 million annually, and are parents to 8,800 U.S. born, American children growing up in our neighborhoods across New Jersey.
There’s the pain felt by thousands of unaccompanied minors we just learned this week may have suffered widespread sexual abuse while in U.S. custody.
The pain felt by the children who were torn from their mothers under a cruel family separation policy, and the American children who saw their parents picked up for deportation outside their schools.
There’s the pain felt by skilled foreign workers – the kind of talent many of your companies seek – whose spouses the Administration now seeks to deny work permits; a rule change that would deny immigrant women who are scientists, nurses and other professionals the chance to support their families and contribute to our local economies.
And yes, there’s the pain of the laid off workers from Bedminster who revealed the many years of abusive working conditions they endured.
Custodial staff, cooks, and others who not only highlighted how the President profits off of undocumented labor even as he disparages immigrants, but also shined a light on our need as a nation for reforms to ensure these kind of jobs are filled legally and transparently and in accordance with basic human rights.
How far we have fallen since 2013, when I worked with the late John McCain and the Gang of Eight to pass TRULY comprehensive immigration reform through the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Though Speaker Boehner ultimately denied it a vote on the House floor, to this day it remains a precious reminder to me that when Democrats and Republicans come together in common cause, we can overcome real challenges.
That’s what we did with comprehensive immigration reform.
We came together to solve problems – not create them.
To bring more people out of the shadows – not drive more into darkness.
Keep families together – not tear them apart.
Secure the border with smart investments – not with taxpayer-funded vanity projects.
Improve access to skilled workers – not destroy the family-based immigration system that has served us so well for generations.
Our legislation would have done more than bring real “law and order” to our immigration system. It would have also unleashed untold economic opportunity across America.
Because as all of the labor leaders here tonight know, American wages will rise when our workers don’t have to compete with undocumented labor.
And as all of my friends in the corporate world here tonight know, immigrants enliven our economy with their drive and ingenuity.
Indeed we see it in New Jersey every single day.
At the time, CBO economists projected our bill would have reduced the deficit by $850 billion over 20 years; grown our economy by nearly one and a half trillion dollars within a decade; and added nearly $300 billion to the Social Security Trust Fund.
So here is the question that weighs on me. Are we still capable as a country of seizing such an opportunity?
I pray we are. I pray for the day America returns to doing big things.
I know some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle agree – but they fear speaking out.
Well, it won’t be Democrats like me who change their calculus. It will be industry leaders LIKE YOU. That’s the truth.
It’s long past time the business community reclaim its leadership on this issue. Many of your companies have extensive footprints in other states – imagine if those public officials heard from you during your next meeting.
It’s time to remind Congress – with your words, with your actions, with your dollars – that America is better than all this pain and fear.
I cannot tell you the waves you make in the halls of Congress when the CEOs of America’s most respected companies take an outspoken and principled stand.
You remind the nation who we are as Americans.
So tonight I ask you to use your voice. Use your influence. Use your dollars to bring the cause of truly comprehensive, commonsense, compassionate immigration reform back to life!
Speak up for rational immigration policies – and make clear that you will accept nothing less.
Speak up for the immigrant families who make New Jersey such a diverse and productive place.
Speak up for children who’ve yet to be reunited with their parents, and those who arrived here alone and in need of our protection.
Speak up for the TPS holders running small businesses and raising children in your towns.
Speak up for the Dreamers we know are as American as apple pie and who inspire us with their patriotism.
Speak up for the foreign workers who contribute to your firms and came to America the hopes of building a brighter future for their families.
Speak up for a rational and intelligent debate on comprehensive immigration reform. Not a shouting match dominated by alternative facts and fear-mongering, but a real, good-faith debate.
One that’s informed by our history. Inspired by our values. And true to the motto that’s defined America from the start:
E pluribus unam. Out of many, we are one!
Thank you and have a great night!
