The publication is reproduced in full below:
Border Security
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I listened to the Republican minority leader, Senator McConnell, speak on the floor this morning. I have to tell you, on the issue of immigration, there are several things which he said which are not accurate and that I would like to clarify for the Record.
First, this morning, Senator McConnell said:
Orderly, legal immigration is part of what makes America strong. Anarchy and open borders make us weak.
I don't know of any rational person who would disagree with that comment.
But I think, for the record, we should make clear that, 8 years ago, when we considered comprehensive immigration reform--a bipartisan bill--on the floor of the U.S. Senate, the Senator from Kentucky voted against it. There were 14 Republican Senators who voted for this measure. It passed the Senate. It was the product of a bipartisan Commission--a self-appointed committee, really--the so-called Gang of 8. I want to recount the names of those who were on that committee who produced a comprehensive immigration reform bill. I was on the committee with Chuck Schumer, Senator Bob Menendez, and the Senator from the Presiding Officer's home State of Colorado, Senator Michael Bennet. On the Republican side, it was led by Senator John McCain, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Marco Rubio, and then-Senator from Arizona Jeff Flake.
We worked for months. We put in all of the effort that was expected of us to address an issue which had not been addressed by Congress for 25 years, which was to try to upgrade our immigration system--to do what Senator McConnell says needs to be done: orderly, legal immigration. That was what the bill sought to achieve. There were 14 Republicans who joined us in voting for it. Senator McConnell did not, and we have not had another measure since then.
The bill we passed in the Senate was sent over to the Republican-
controlled House of Representatives. They refused to even consider it in committee or on the floor or to bring it to a vote. We missed an opportunity, and it was an opportunity on many different levels. It would have finally addressed the issue of legal immigration in America, which is a critically important measure.
Throughout our history, without exception, year in and year out, legal immigrants have come to this country. There have been some terrible laws passed by Congress in relation to those having been allowed in this country. The reality is we have acknowledged from the beginning of America as we know it that immigrants have been a part of our present and are a part of our future, and now we face the same reality again without the benefit of having an update in the laws, which the Republican leader voted against.
I recall specifically the work of Senator Bennet from Colorado. He did a remarkable thing, something that people didn't think was really possible. He managed to bring together all of the interest groups on the issue of legal immigration for those working in agriculture. He managed to find an agreement among all of these groups as to the humane and sensible treatment of these individuals. If that would have passed, it would have changed the circumstances we have today--circumstances wherein we do not have nearly enough legal immigrants to work in the agricultural sector of America. It is estimated that one out of two--50 percent--of all of the ag workers today are undocumented. We still eat the food that they pick and harvest, and we still take advantage of their hard work in the meat processing plants. Yet the reality is that we know, in our heart of hearts, that they are not being treated in a sensible, reasonable, humane way.
Senator Bennet, time and again, has shown leadership on this issue as he did with the Gang of 8. Once again, we find ourselves, because the bill failed in the previous Congress, without a guiding law on standards of immigration.
There were other things said by Senator McConnell this morning which I want to make reference to as well, particularly as to the busing of those currently in the United States, as new, legally recognized immigrants, to various cities around the United States.
Governors from the States of Texas, Arizona, and Florida have been busing those who have been crossing the border and who are legally recognized to stay here until further hearing to communities like New York, Washington, Chicago, and even to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The thing that we have got to keep in mind is that these Governors do not call local officials first. They don't even contact the Governors of these States where they are sending these people. So they arrive, helter-skelter, in unpredictable numbers and conditions, and the local officials are expected to take care of them.
Listen to what Senator McConnell had to say in describing what I have just told you.
He said:
Out of desperation, a few Governors along our southern border are now giving some Democrat-run States and cities just a tiny, tiny taste of what border communities have been enduring literally for years.
What he is trying to say to us is this is an act of political spite. It is a political stunt by these Governors. And what are they using to make their point? Innocent people--here legally in the United States--
who are being shipped off, many times, with deception and promises that will never be kept in terms of opportunities for them in these various places.
Senator McConnell went on to say:
All those cities combined have had months to accept between them approximately 1 day's share of our Nation's illegal immigration.
Immigrants--about four dozen--were given secure transportation, according to Senator McConnell, ``to the wealthy, liberal destination of Martha's Vineyard, filled with millionaires' mansions''--so-called sanctuary destinations.
Do you see the point that is being made here? These people are being bused without any warning as to where they are going to end up--where their final destinations may be--simply to make the political point that the Democrats have to be reminded of the Republicans' position on immigration. We are doing this at the expense of many innocent people, and we are doing this in a dangerous fashion.
I will tell you that I visited the Salvation Army center in Chicago, IL, about 10 days ago, and I met with these families and individuals. Little children are involved in this calculation.
Why is it that whenever the Republicans want to make a point on immigration, it always ends up being the children who are the pawns, whether they are kids in cages or forcefully removing children from their parents or in this case, busing them off with their parents to communities they have never heard of? Why does it always involve families with small children? You would think there would be more sensitivity on the Republican side to that reality.
Then Senator McConnell made a statement which I want to correct. He said the Biden administration has been flying and busing illegal immigrants around the country on a regular basis. This is not true. We checked again this morning with the Biden administration. They are not exercising that right.
What we have going on are the transfers of those who are not in legal status back and forth between various facilities and the transfers of unaccompanied children, with escorts, to places like Chicago and other cities where, for decades, they have been cared for until their legal status is resolved. But this statement that the Biden administration is guilty of busing people back and forth is not true at all. I think the record should be clarified, and I hope the Senator from Kentucky will do so when he receives the first opportunity.
The Biden administration has said: We have the authority to do it, but we have not exercised it and will not unless we confer with Congress and also notify local officials as to whether anyone will be moved.
Now, there are circumstances and have been in the past that I know of personally on the border of Texas and Mexico where people had come and been released. They found they had credible fear. They asserted it. They have legal status, and they want to go to a specific location where they have friends and family. In those cases, there is help given to them to reach those destinations. But it is not the current situation where the Governors of Florida, Texas, and Arizona are deceiving these people onto these buses and sending them to places they have never heard of and not letting those who are in their destinations even know what it coming.
What is the right thing to do? The right thing to do is what we did 8 years ago: a bipartisan approach to fixing the immigration system. Instead of exploiting it for political purposes, let's fix it.
We have done that. We passed legislation on a bipartisan basis even in this evenly divided Senate. The CHIPS bill--this important semiconductor chip production bill--was a bipartisan bill. The infrastructure bill--the biggest highway program in the history of the United States since Dwight Eisenhower--was a bipartisan bill. The gun safety bill--a controversial issue, just as controversial as immigration--we passed that on a bipartisan basis. We can do it, but we have to stop exploiting these people who are here with children. We have to do it by stopping exploiting this issue and work together on a bipartisan basis, with give on both sides. That is how we can reach a bipartisan solution.
I am ready to do that. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, we would start as soon as we have Republicans of good will willing to sit down with Democrats and work together. But continuing to exploit these people and the children and these families is just plain wrong. It is not consistent with American values. It doesn't reflect well on our Nation.
I hope that the people who are inspired to do this--the Governors in Florida, Texas, and Arizona--will think twice about these kids and their families before they try it again.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 151
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
Alerts Sign-up