Gabrielle Giffords gave her first floor speech today. Not sure who was presiding on the floor as speaker at the time of the speech, so no “Mr. Pelosi” jokes, peanut gallery.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak for the very first time in this distinguished chamber, representing the 8th district of Arizona.
Mr. Speaker, we have made some major accomplishments this week, but one area that particularly pertains to my district and to the State of Arizona has not been addressed and that’s the crisis in illegal immigration. For too long Congress and Washington have failed to act and we must secure the border now.
My district in the state of Arizona has paid a heavy price for this burden, we know it in our schools, our hospitals, and our law enforcement agencies.
We must move this year with a sense of urgency to pass a comprehensive immigration reform package that’s tough, effective, and practical.We need to increase border security using modern-era technology radar, drones, electronic surveillance. There must be more border patrol agents and more support for those border patrol agents.
We also need tough employer sanctions for those employers who are knowingly hiring people illegally and a guest worker program so that people can come in and work legally, safely, and return back to their home country. Working to pass such measures will be my priority in this 110th Congress, and I look forward to working with members on both sides of the aisle on this important issue.
I thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At the leaast she sounds like a “Blue Dog/Reagan Democrat” at the most, possibly a moderate Republican.
Gabby has always sounded good. She’s said a lot of “great things” over the years when she was in the state senate, but she said those things while she was in the minority knowing they stood a snoball’s chance in hell of making it to law.
Now she’s in the big leagues and in the majority party where she can actually implement some of the “great things” she says.
The question now is, will she just continue to “talk the talk” or will she actually “walk the walk?”
The GOP is watching her every move very closely.
Steve Turley
Sirra Vista
Somehow I have no confidence that Ms. Giffords will do jack sh!t to deal with the real issues. Then again, none of the Democrats or Republicans are so why should she be any different?
Lip service and more slave benefits to the corporations. She supports the McCain exploitation plan.
“We also need tough employer sanctions for those employers who are knowingly hiring people illegally and a guest worker program so that people can come in and work legally, safely, and return back to their home country.”
We have a workers program, it is called a “workers visa” and a guest worker program is nothing more than legalized exploitation. “Tough sanctions”? The ones already on the books are not even enforced so what is the point? And why not mandatory jail time? Ah, that’s right. Because Giffords supports Free Trade and kisses the very ground the corporate oligarchies walk on so human rights is a secondary issue for her. She still needs that corporate money to fund her campaigns.