Rep. Gutiérrez Testifies Before Whip Steny Hoyer’s “Make It In America” Hearing

Rep. Gutiérrez Testifies Before Whip Steny Hoyer’s “Make It In America” Hearing 

“Immigrants are not here to take a slice of the pie away from us, they are here to build a bigger pie.”

Washington, DC – Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) joined House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and other House Democrats for the third “Make It In America: What’s Next?” hearing today in Washington.  The Congressman testified on the role that immigrants play in the economy of Chicago and the nation.

Rep. Gutiérrez’ remarks, as prepared for delivery, are pasted below.

Video from the event was streamed live at: https://youtu.be/s5of10G2kDs

Background on Make It In America: In 2010, House Democrats launched the Make It In America plan to spur the creation of high-wage, private-sector jobs here in our country so that more workers and their families can secure a place in our middle class. Since then, sixteen Make It In America bills have been signed into law. However, five years after Make It In America first launched, our economy has significantly changed, and we are facing a different economic landscape.  This series of hearings provides an opportunity for Members to explore new ideas and solicit feedback as we work to update the Make It In America plan for 2015 and beyond.  This will be the second “Member Day” hearing, featuring House Democrats testifying about ways we can update the Make It In America jobs plan to ensure that it reflects the challenges and opportunities of today’s economy.

Rep. Gutiérrez represents the Fourth District of Illinois, is a Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, and is the Co-Chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.  He was one of the main subjects in the PBS FRONTLINE and Independent Lens documentary “Immigration Battle,” a film by Michael Camerini & Shari Robertson, which aired on Tuesday, October 20.

Testimony of Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (IL-04)

Member of Congress

“Make It In America: What’s Next?” Hearing

Rebuilding America Panel

October 28, 2015

Whenever I give a floor speech about immigration or if I go on Fox news, I always get a few predictable reactions.  First, I am told to go back to Mexico, even though I was born in Chicago to a Puerto Rican family.  And second, I am asked why I spend time working on immigration when I should be “helping Americans.”

I understand the first one.  Most people do not do a very good job of distinguishing between Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, or any other group, and frankly when I hear Donald Trump say most Mexicans are rapists and drug-dealers, I know he is insulting my family too.

The second one is a little more complicated and it is why I am here today, because I think many people see both the politics and the economics of immigration as a zero-sum game. 

In many people’s minds, what you do for immigrants is necessarily something you are not doing for the people who were born here.  But immigration is not a zero-sum game. 

Policies that promote legal immigration and legal status for immigrants actually make things better for everyone.

As one advocate in Tennessee said, immigrants are not here to take a slice of the pie away from us, they are here to build a bigger pie.

One of the best examples of this is in my home town, Chicago.  Everyone knows about the Magnificent Mile, the section of Michigan Avenue that is the main street of the Midwest economy.

What most people do not know is that the second biggest jobs and tax revenue-generating corridor of  Chicago is 26th Street, in the heart of La Villita, or Little Village, the center of the Mexican-American community in Chicago and the economic engine of my District.

If you take a drive down 26th Street on a Saturday, there will be stop-and-go traffic because it’s a bustling business district with limited parking.  You will also see crowds of families shopping and running errands. 

They buy, the business owners sell, and the City’s tax receipts grow and grow. 

Today’s immigrants are simply a part of the pattern that has been repeating itself for as long as we have been a nation.

Immigrants, often with few resources, build up congregations and parishes, then neighborhoods and business districts, and then businesses and corporations. 

Eventually they are so integrated into our society that we cannot imagine our cities without their contributions. 

Whether it was the Irish, the Italians, or the Polish, Chicago has given people opportunity and they paid it back by making the pie bigger.

African-Americans who fled slavery and Jim Crow in the South, or my parents who fled poverty in rural Puerto Rico are a lot like immigrants today. 

We are usually treated with a great deal of skepticism and sometimes outright hostility at first, but eventually each group takes their place contributing to the community and the economy.  They make the pie bigger.

While immigrants have the highest workforce participation rates in America, they contribute to the economy not only as consumers and employees, but also as entrepreneurs, job-creators and business owners.

A Pew Research Study released last week shows that immigrants are more likely to be self-employed than the native population. 

And that in turn expands the economy and workforce, for both the native born and immigrant workers. 

Not only did Sergey Brin found Google, but he and other immigrant entrepreneurs make native-born job-creators like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates improve their game because of the competition. 

Longitudinal studies show that when immigrant workers gravitate to sectors of our economy, they increase the productivity of the native born and have a positive impact on wages. 

That’s right, the evidence shows wages for native-born workers tend to improve when there are more immigrants.

Despite everything the immigration naysayers believe, the reality is that immigrants tend to fill gaps in the economy and do not tend to compete directly with native workers for the same jobs, as shown by a new Urban Institute study. 

For example, there are plenty of capable American workers who could pick fruits and vegetables, but there are not many Americans who aspire to that job.  The reality is that 90 percent of the workers in some sectors of agriculture are immigrants and many are undocumented because we do not have a functioning legal immigration system.

So, despite all the rhetoric and simplistic answers we get from politicians trying to scare you into voting for them, the reality is that immigrants are not taking a piece of our pie.

Instead, on average, immigrants are contributing and making a bigger pie.  And as it turns out, they are also picking, washing, and packaging the apples, the cherries, and the blueberries we have in those pies.

Thank you very much for letting me testify today. I look forward to your questions.

# # #