mr. speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume , and i thank the gentleman from texas ( mr. sessions ) xz4003670 for yielding me the customary time . 
mr. speaker , my colleagues on the other side , for the balance of these arguments today and during yesterday , said very frequently , and it was repeated again by the gentleman from texas , that the horrible people that were on the airplanes that did the dastardly deed here in america on september 11 had , collectively , 63 driver 's licenses . 
that is , without any kind of misunderstanding between the two sides , they had these driver 's licenses , and there is no question about it . 
but one of the things that goes ignored is the fact that in the days before 9/11 , including that day , airport review of driver 's licenses did not occur , and , therefore , it is a total irrelevancy . 
they were in this country , some on expired visas , some with visas that had been approved , and probably one or two with fraudulent visas . 
what in the world did driver 's licenses have to do with it ? 
mr. speaker , i rise today to oppose this rule and h.r. 418 . 
and once again we see debate limited on this legislation for no reason . 
the bill is the only item on our legislative schedule today , yet debate on this bill has been limited to less than 2 hours . 
in fact , the number of proposed amendments has been sharply limited as well . 
only a fourth of the amendments submitted to the committee on rules will be allowed on the floor today , and what possible reason can the majority give for limiting debate in this matter ? 
surely , given the drastic nature of the changes to our asylum laws contained in h.r. 418 , it is in the best interests of the country to hold an open debate on this legislation . 
mr. speaker , last wednesday , the chairman of the committee on rules sent out an announcement notifying members , as is his responsibility , that all their proposed amendments to this bill were due in the committee on rules by noon on tuesday , february 8. all members who submitted their amendments , republicans and democrats , followed this rule ; all members , that is , except the gentleman from wisconsin ( chairman sensenbrenner ) . 
later tuesday afternoon , after the deadline had passed , the gentleman from wisconsin ( chairman sensenbrenner ) submitted an extensive 18-page amendment that made significant changes to the bill 's already controversial asylum sections . 
members had never seen this language before , and of course , no subcommittee or committee had a chance to review it or mark it up . 
in the short time we have had to review this new language , it appears to be more controversial than the bill 's original provisions . 
it appears to make it easier for an immigration judge to reject on asylum seeker based on subjective and cultural factors that are notoriously unreliable indicators of credibility . 
it also allows a person to be denied asylum based on any inconsistencies or falsehoods in their testimony , whether or not these inconsistencies are relevant to the person 's claim . 
i continue to harp on the fact that it does not protect children who are here and in need of asylum consideration . 
it does not protect women who are in forced slavery and prostitution and are raped . 
it does not protect them at all with reference to any asylum claims . 
and it places in the hands of one judge the judging of their credibility . 
the other thing ignored is the difficulty that the criteria set forth in h.r. 418 present to asylum seekers , legitimate asylum seekers , to collect information regarding their birth records . 
in the district that i represent , more than a quarter of the work done in the district offices involves immigration , and one of the things that we find it difficult to accomplish is to have the people in a timely manner who are seeking status and naturalization in this country collect their birth records and records of a variety of things in their communities that simply are not there and are unavailable , and therefore their claims are delayed repeatedly . 
mr. speaker , this is a bad amendment , and members should have more time to study it . 
what is worse is that members today will not even have the opportunity to vote up or down on it . 
this rule makes it a part of h.r. 418 . 
it is called `` self-executing. '' it sounds like a cute way of circumventing the democratic process to me . 
stifling free speech is downright un-american . 
one can not fail to see the irony here . 
right this minute our troops are in harm 's way to further democracy in a far-off country , while democracy here in the halls of congress is being shoved out the door . 
when the opportunity for a free debate is squelched , america loses , democracy loses . 
there is nothing to be gained by limiting ideas ; and that is what we have here today , the limiting of the ideas of the majority . 
they should not and it is wrong for them to shut the american people out . 
mr. speaker , h.r. 418 also allows the secretary of homeland security to waive all laws necessary for the construction of the san diego border wall . 
none of us are of a mind to believe that the completion of the 3-mile gap in that wall should not be undertaken . 
but giving the secretary the power to override all federal laws that interfere with this project sets a horrible precedent . 
these laws exist for a reason , be it to ensure the safety of the environment or to safeguard important cultural artifacts . 
mr. speaker , how many more laws will we override in the name of homeland security ? 
none of us would argue that we should not do everything to protect the homeland , but rightly we should not argue to ignore the laws that also protect us in this homeland . 
the data collection envisioned by h.r. 418 troubles me a lot . 
in this age of diminished personal privacy , this bill throws around terms such as `` mandatory facial image capture , '' and `` electronic storage of identity source documents , '' without fully explaining , and it is not explained ; and i ask anybody to explain it on the majority side , certainly for the american public , explaining fully how all this captured data will be used and by whom . 
i represent a district that , like america , is comprised of immigrants . 
many of the people of the 23rd congressional district of florida came to america as asylum seekers themselves . 
they came from places where notorious persecution and violation of human rights occurred , like haiti and cuba ; and they have worked hard , as many immigrants in this country who sought asylum , to create a new life for themselves and their families . 
whether they came 5 years ago or 50 years ago , they know others like them will continue to come to our shores fleeing persecution and desperation , seeking hope , protection and the promise of a better future . 
we have a moral responsibility to help them make it . 
it has not been lessened any more after 9/11 than it was before . 
the immigrants who founded this country had that moral responsibility , and throughout our history we have waxed and waned with reference to that moral responsibility . 
last night , i watched the so-called `` fair and balanced '' fox programming , and on that programming it happened that the gentleman from wisconsin ( chairman sensenbrenner ) was one of the guests . 
he made a sterling presentation . 
he did not falter in any of his principles with reference to this matter , and he went forward in a dignified manner to answer the questions asked . 
he did say , i believe , and he has not said that this measure is something that he does not think will help secure the homeland , as my colleague from texas has just said . 
but let me quote the gentleman from wisconsin ( chairman sensenbrenner ) from last night . 
he said , `` the key to protecting our homeland is enforcing the immigration laws. '' let me repeat the quote : `` the key to protecting our homeland is enforcing the immigration laws. '' now , the gentleman from wisconsin ( chairman sensenbrenner ) knows that president bush has proposed a budget that , rather than fulfilling what we said would protect our homeland by having 2 , 000 border patrol persons and an added number , 800 , ins , or bice , their new name , to their rolls so that we could enforce the immigration laws , what do we get in the proposed budget ? 
two hundred border patrol guards and 143 personnel for the immigration and naturalization service . 
what i am saying is let us put our emphasis where it ought to be , and let us not divert ourselves in this manner , and certainly let us not continue to shut all of those organizations , from the governors association all the way back across the board that are opposed to this law , let us not shut them out from having an opportunity to present themselves at a hearing . 
let us not shut out the people here in the house of representatives , some 41 who are newly here who have no idea what we did with reference to this matter last year and have not had time in order to be able to review it , sufficient to be able to make arguments on behalf of their constituencies in a satisfactory manner . 
let us not shut out the american public by continuing to not allow for open debate . 
mr. speaker , i oppose this rule and h.r. 418 . 
i urge my colleagues to vote `` no '' on the rule and this ill-conceived legislation . 
mr. speaker , i reserve the balance of my time . 
