[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 203 (Monday, December 11, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S5885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Immigration

  Mr. President, I want to close on the topic that Senator McConnell 
raised, immigration. It is not an easy issue. I have given 20 years of 
my life here in the Senate to the issue of immigration and feel it was 
time well spent. It is over 20 years ago that I introduced the DREAM 
Act. Before I introduced this bill, if you asked most people what the 
``Dreamers'' were, they would say a British rock group headed up by a 
guy named Freddie. Well, today, when you say ``Dreamers,'' people know 
what you are talking about: infants, toddlers, and children brought to 
the United States by their parents, growing up here, going to school, 
and determined to help this country succeed in the future. And what 
they find when they are teenagers is that they are undocumented; they 
don't have legal status in the United States.
  I have always believed that they deserve a chance. The overwhelming 
majority of Americans of both political parties believe the same thing. 
But we have been unable to enact that law, and, as a consequence, at 
least 800,000 who were helped with the DACA Program by President Obama 
still have their fate in doubt as it courses through our Federal court 
system. That is something we should do automatically--we should have 
done it a long time ago--to protect these young people and the 
aspirations they have to make us a better nation. These are young 
people who will serve not only as teachers and engineers, but doctors 
and nurses and members of our military. If we give them the chance to 
fight and die for America, they will do it. They want to be part of 
this Nation's future, and they deserve that opportunity.
  But, currently, we are debating only one thing, and that is the 
policy at the border--the southern border of the United States. I will 
tell you this: I have taken a close look at the situation at the 
border, and I know that change is necessary. But it must be change 
consistent with our values and realistic.
  For the Republicans to propose change which says that those who come 
into the country seeking asylum will either be detained or sent to 
remain in Mexico--a policy that Donald Trump tried during his 
Presidency--there are some fatal flaws here. How in the world are we 
going to detain all those people presenting themselves at the border? 
That is simply a promise that can't be kept. And, secondly, as for this 
notion of ``Remain in Mexico,'' there is only one party to this 
conversation that hasn't agreed to it, Mexico. They don't want to have 
these people residing in their country for long periods of time while 
we work out changes in America's legal system.

  It is hard to imagine, when you see the intractable positions taken 
by some on immigration, that there actually was a moment when we agreed 
on a bipartisan basis to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The 
Gang of 8, which I was part of, put that together. It was an 
extraordinary effort, and it was successful because of the hard work of 
a lot of people and a lot of time spent going through--painstakingly 
going through--each and every provision of the bill.
  It can be done. It needs to be done. But the notion that in 7 days or 
14 days we can craft some change in immigration policy that will help 
us, from time immemorial, is unrealistic and naive, and to condition 
any assistance to Ukraine on the achievement of that political goal is 
nonsense.
  What we can do is come up with an agreement, I believe, on a 
bipartisan basis to enforce provisions and rules at the border that are 
consistent with American values but really do make it clear that we 
cannot sustain the number of people who are presenting themselves at 
the current time. I think that can be done, but only as a preliminary 
step to move us toward comprehensive immigration reform.
  There are some, incidentally, who call for immigration reform but 
have never voted for an immigration bill one time in their political 
lives. That is a reality. So we shouldn't listen to their guidance if 
they haven't proven that they are open to vote for anything on the 
subject.
  This is an important issue to a lot of people. I was in Guatemala 
City yesterday, as a matter of fact--or was it Saturday? This weekend, 
I met with people from Venezuela who were making their way to the U.S. 
border--they were mothers with small children--and I thought to myself: 
Who would embark on that dangerous, deadly journey with small children, 
realizing that every step of the way they are the most vulnerable 
person in the country?
  As you travel through these countries, they are assaulted by people 
who steal everything that they own and threaten them with physical 
abuse and other things. I can't imagine how desperate these people must 
be to risk their families and their kids to make it to America. But 
then I think back: As a son of an immigrant myself, I know there was a 
determination in my family to make it in this country.
  We have got to find a way to carefully construct a border policy that 
still takes advantage of the opportunities of immigration--the people 
who will come here and make us a better nation in the years ahead--and 
do it in a fashion that is thoughtful, not vindictive. That is what 
immigration requires, and I hope that we can reach that goal.
  I yield the floor.