[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 90 (Thursday, May 23, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3865-S3866]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Border Act of 2024

  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, when I was a kid growing up, the last 
thing I thought I would do when I grew up was to be involved with 
government and politics. But when I returned home from college, I came 
home to California to find hateful TV ads warning of an ``invasion'' at 
our border. These were in support of a ballot measure demonizing 
immigrant families and communities like mine.
  A generation of Latinos in California grew up knowing that officials 
who were elected to represent us were actually more than happy to 
scapegoat our families as the root cause of the State's challenges. But 
instead of just putting our heads down and waiting for the political 
tides to turn, my generation decided to get involved, and we started a 
movement that put more people from our communities into positions of 
power.
  Now, three decades later, the State of California is not just home to 
more immigrants than any other State in the Nation; we also represent 
the largest economy of any State in the Nation. That is not a 
coincidence.
  But, sadly, today, we are also seeing some of the same hateful 
rhetoric once again. And when I hear it, I feel it, and I think about 
my children and a whole new generation of Latinos across the country 
that see leaders of the Republican Party demonizing immigrants and 
people who look like us.
  Yes. The Republican Presidential nominee warned that immigrants are 
``poisoning the blood of our Nation,'' echoing rhetoric from Nazi 
Germany. That is happening.
  I have had to come down to this Chamber earlier this year, just a 
couple of months ago, to object to one of our colleagues seeking to 
declare an ``invasion at our southern border.'' That is the moment that 
we are in, and it is an undeniable part of the context in which the 
bill that we are going to be voting on soon was written.
  The proposal before us was initially supposed to be a concession, a 
ransom to be paid to Republicans to pass urgent and critical aid to 
Ukraine--not my words, theirs. The proposal was 3 months ago.
  But guess what? We passed the foreign aid. It was the right thing to 
do. And so I can't help but ask: What is this concession for now? 
Because it surely cannot be the new starting point for negotiating 
immigration reform.
  I am disappointed because this bill contains some of the same tried-
and-failed policies that would actually make the situation worse at the 
southern border. It includes arbitrary border closures and practically 
eliminates the right to seek asylum for people fleeing for their safety 
or for their very lives.
  Now, many of us have acknowledged--both sides of the aisle in both 
formal conversations and informal conversations--that one of the 
biggest reasons that so many people come to the southern border is 
because it is so hard to come to the United States legally. So I look 
at this bill. And guess what. It fails to address the root causes of 
migration or to establish more lawful pathways.
  And it is not just what is in the bill that troubles me; it is what 
is not in the bill. If enacted, this bill would fail to provide relief 
for a single Dreamer, for a single farmworker, or a single essential 
worker or long-term resident of the United States who has been here for 
years--in some cases decades--working, paying taxes, contributing to 
the strength of our communities and our country and the success of our 
economy.
  So the Senate is voting on this package now for a second time? But 
still no votes on the Dream Act--which, by the way, does enjoy 
bipartisan support? It is hard to swallow.
  And there is more. We hear that there are some extreme Executive 
actions coming soon. Now, for as much as has been accomplished by this 
body, this Chamber has also served as a backdrop for some of the most 
vile rhetoric in our Nation's history. The same hatred that met Irish 
and Italian immigrants coming through Ellis Island permeated these 
walls to help pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, before spreading west to 
villainize immigrants from Mexico and Latin America at our southern 
border.
  And every time political leaders villainize immigrants, communities 
like mine feel the effects. Just ask any Latino kid who has been told 
to go back to where they came from. Ask anyone speaking Spanish in 
America who has been told to speak English. Ask any Asian American who 
was harassed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  Colleagues, what chapter of our Nation's history are we choosing to 
write today? I ask because, yes, there will come a time when history 
judges us. And what will you say? Will you say that you worked to 
defend the American dream for future generations? Or settled and denied 
opportunity for future generations?
  Today, countless immigrants and children of immigrants will ask 
whether Republicans and Democrats will leave them behind once again. 
Colleagues, I urge you to vote no today and to be more thoughtful in 
how we address border safety.
  I urge you to join me in staying true to our values in modernizing 
our immigration system. I urge you to join me today in doing what is 
right for Dreamers, farmworkers, and other long-term undocumented 
members of our communities. They deserve better, and we--we--should be 
better than this.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. King). The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, it has been more than 100 days since 
Republicans killed a border deal that they

[[Page S3866]]

specifically demanded and they actively helped to write. From start to 
finish, this bill is not some partisan Democratic wish list. In fact, 
the previous speaker, the senior Senator from California, is correctly 
upset at our lack of attention to legal immigration, to the plight of 
DACA individuals, and to try to anchor our policy and our core values 
of understanding that we are a Nation of immigrants and maybe even, 
separate and apart from that, immigration is one of the most effective 
anti-inflation policies out there.
  But the vote we are about to take is not about immigration. It is 
about border security, and it is fair to say that the Democratic 
conference has come a long way on border security. We negotiated with 
one of the most conservative Members of the U.S. Senate, James 
Lankford. And when I heard that Chris Murphy and James Lankford were 
negotiating, I was not hopeful--not because I don't think they are 
serious legislators, but I just figured they were too far apart. And so 
when they came to a conclusion, I didn't love everything in that bill; 
but I still support it, and here is why: because it makes real reforms 
and meaningful investments to address a real crisis at the border that 
needs to be fixed.

  There is no contradiction between believing in legal immigration and 
believing in the core values of the United States and believing in the 
need for order and security on our northern and southern borders.
  And so this bill will expedite the asylum process; it would provide 
immediate work authorizations; it would expand legal immigration 
pathways; it would provide billions of dollars to law enforcement to 
stop the flow of fentanyl.
  Those are all necessary measures, but the reason the bill failed back 
in February, the reason the border continues to be the way it is today, 
is Donald Trump. Donald Trump woke up one day and decided that doing 
nothing on the border would help him politically. He literally said: 
Blame me. Blame me.
  And so the funny thing about this situation is if you describe what 
happened exactly accurately, which is that we--with Chris Murphy and 
Kyrsten Sinema and James Lankford--negotiated the toughest border 
package in many generations that has a chance to pass, a bipartisan 
bill where Democrats were understandably uncomfortable, that when this 
thing came out, I was in conversations with Republican Members of the 
Senate, and they were saying they expected a vote in the high 70s, 
close to 80 votes. They were very comfortable that this was going to 
win going away. And then Donald Trump said: Kill it. And that is what 
happened; it got killed.
  And so the thing about describing things factually in this instance 
is it sounds like I am trying to, you know, lob rhetorical bombs or 
make a partisan statement, but that is just literally what happened: We 
negotiated this thing. They told us: Work with James Lankford. They 
told us: Reform the asylum process. They told us: CBP needs more 
resources. They are overwhelmed. They told us: We need technology.
  We did all those things. Chris Murphy negotiated all those things. It 
is not easy for--I am not sure if he would like to be called this--an 
unreconstructed progressive to negotiate such a bill.
  He is looking at me right now. I think he doesn't love that term.
  But they voted to kill it anyway. Republicans chose to preserve chaos 
at the border, and now this crisis is on them. So spare me the 
crocodile tears. Spare me the press conferences. Spare me the unanimous 
consent requests. Spare me the cable news hits. Spare me the memes. 
Spare me the TV ads. You had your chance.
  And now the beauty of this is you have your chance again. An hour and 
45 minutes from now, you can decide: Am I going to vote for the 
strongest border package in a generation? Or am I going to vote no 
because my boss is Donald Trump and he doesn't want this to pass? The 
choice is theirs.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.