[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 170 (Sunday, December 19, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10736-S10737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               DREAM ACT

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask the Record reflect that if I would 
have been present for yesterday's vote on the Development, Relief, and 
Education for Alien Minors--DREAM--Act of 2010, H.R. 5281, that I would 
have voted against cloture. My wife and I had a long standing family 
commitment to attend my grandson's graduation.
  The American people sent us a clear message on November 2, 2010, to 
focus on getting our economy moving again. It bears repeating: our 
country's unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent. Yet instead of 
listening to the true needs of this Nation, the majority in the Senate 
is moving full speed ahead with legislation in order to curry favor 
with political constituencies.
  Pushing this bill through during a lameduck session of Congress is 
not how Utahns or Americans want Congress to operate. The bill before 
us is one of many versions of the DREAM Act introduced in the last 2 
months. Though H.R. 5281 would result in a significant change to U.S. 
immigration law, the bill never received 1 day of a committee markup. 
An issue as important as this one needs to follow the regular order of 
the legislative process.
  Now more than ever, our Nation's porous border is flowing over with 
increasingly violent crimes--fueled by drugs, gangs and even human 
trafficking. Unfortunately, this chaos is spilling into our 
communities. That is why, when it comes to immigration, my primary 
focus is on how we can finally secure our borders and how best to fix 
our broken immigration system.
  The fight to control the border is no longer isolated to just the 
physical

[[Page S10737]]

boundary between the United States and Mexico. Indeed, it now includes 
addressing Mexican cartels; prohibiting mass deferral or parole; 
streamlining the visa process; requiring participation in key law 
enforcement programs; clamping down on identity theft; tracking the 
amount of welfare benefits being diverted by illegal immigrant 
households; ensuring that dollars are being used to cover newly 
eligible American children in CHIP and Medicaid; and keeping our great 
national parks and federal lands safe and free from drug traffickers, 
drug cultivation, and environmental damage. All of these important 
issues are addressed in my recently introduced bill, the Strengthening 
Our Commitment to Legal Immigration and America's Security Act, S. 
3901.
  Mr. President, I remain understanding about individuals who, through 
no fault of their own, were brought to this country for a better life. 
However, the urgent challenges facing our country must take priority.

                          ____________________