[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 3, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2510-S2518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SECURE AMERICA ACT
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schmitt). The clerk will report the bill
by title.
The bill clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 2) to provide for reconciliation pursuant to
title II of S. Con. Res. 33.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Amendment No. 5453
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 5453 and ask that
it be reported by number.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The bill clerk read as follows:
The Senator from South Dakota [Mr. THUNE], for Mr. GRAHAM,
proposes an amendment numbered 5453.
Mr. Thune. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment
be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of
Amendments.'')
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
Recognizing 75 years of KRVN
Mr. RICKETTS. Mr. President, 75 years ago, the voice of rural
Nebraska made its debate on air. Broadcasting from Lexington, NE, farm
families officially had a voice--KRVN.
KRVN doesn't just cover rural Nebraska, though; it belongs to rural
Nebraska. The station started out of necessity. Blizzards in the
winters of 1948 and 1949 killed farmers and ranchers. Livestock and
crops were lost, causing economic hardships. Women and children were
left worrying about their husbands and dads. Farming and ranching
families were also struggling to get relevant news and government
updates. Our agriculture communities were facing a bleak reality:
Timely, lifesaving information was nearly impossible to come by.
In an industry that moves at the speed of information, this was
unacceptable. Agricultural economist and cooperative leader Max Brown
had an idea. Max believed he could organize rural Nebraskans to fill
the need. He envisioned a farmer- and rancher-owned public service
platform for agriculture, weather, markets, and rural education.
This idea was untested and widely doubted. Despite this, 4,719
farmers and ranchers each bought a 10-dollar share to become owners of
KRVN. On February 1, 1951, KRVN had its first broadcast. From this
humble beginning, the station grew. Max hired well, mentored his staff,
and made sure everyone knew KRVN's vision. Max's vision continued
through the stewardship of his son Eric, whom I knew when he worked at
KRVN, and folks like Otto Geiger. Otto served for more than 30 years on
the Nebraska Rural Radio Association board. They both guided the
station through agricultural and media change while preserving its
farmer-owned identity.
Since its beginning, rural Nebraskans have received the info they
need when they need it. Our rural communities are safer and better
informed.
Today, KRVN is the flagship of the Rural Radio Network. It is the
only farmer- and rancher-owned news network in the country. The
founding charter doesn't allow any of the joint owners to profit.
Revenues are reinvested into the station and into agricultural
education. KRVN's unique ownership model and community commitment
remain strong.
We now have Nebraskans from multiple generations who can say they
grew up with the voices of KRVN from dawn to dusk. The voices of radio
legends like Dave Thorell kept Nebraskans company on long drives, and
Jayson Jorgensen brings play-by-play coverage of local high school
sports into our homes.
Even amid unprecedented disaster, Nebraskans know we can rely on KRVN
for lifesaving updates. Their coverage has included special wildlife
broadcasts to help ranchers recover and find resources for rebuilding.
They kept us informed on State politics and ag markets, and they kept
us prepared during disasters.
Over the last 75 years, KRVN has kept public service at the core of
its work. Over the last 75 years, KRVN has been there for Nebraskans,
and the need for KRVN still remains. AM radio stations in Nebraska and
around the country are still the lifeblood of rural communities.
In the Senate, I am working to preserve this important service. Every
vehicle sold in the United States should be equipped with AM broadcast
radio at no charge. In Nebraska, we know this is common sense. My AM
Radio for Every Vehicle Act would do that.
KRVN was a necessity at its origin, and it remains a necessity today.
Thank you to our farmers and ranchers who have made KRVN possible. I
look forward to KRVN's next 75 years.
Border Security
Mr. President, I have another matter I am going to talk about--the
work that needs to be done on the Senate floor today. To protect
Americans and our national security, we must fund Border Patrol and
ICE.
Senate Republicans have a narrow bill to do this. Our bill only funds
Border Patrol and ICE. Senate Democrats refuse to vote for it, putting
every American at risk. They are falling back on the typical ``defund
the police'' agenda and lack of support for law enforcement. Their
refusal is a clear threat to our national security.
Democrats stood by while President Biden and his open border policies
allowed every State to become a border State, putting communities
across America, including Nebraska, at risk.
They released at least 99 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Watchlist
into American communities, including 3 with potential ISIS ties.
They have prioritized the care of illegal immigrants over Americans.
Let me give you two examples: When Laken Riley a 22-year-old college
student was murdered by an illegal immigrant, Republicans introduced
legislation to make sure no other families have to live through the
same tragedy as Laken's family had to live through. The legislation was
common sense. If an illegal immigrant breaks the law, they have to be
held accountable, and ICE has to do their job of picking that person
up.
A majority of Democrats refused to support this commonsense solution.
When our brave troops successfully captured the Venezuelan dictator
Nicolas Maduro, Democrats were more concerned about the operation than
national security. Maduro is a narcoterrorist responsible for the
deaths of countless Americans. He was a puppet of our adversaries, like
Communist China, Russia, and Iran. Simply put, he was a threat to our
national security. Capturing him was a win for Americans and our
national security.
Democrats didn't see it that way. The reality, though, is that
President Trump campaigned on securing the border. He won an
overwhelming majority of votes from Americans. The American people
voted for stronger national security. Republicans have worked with this
administration to secure their border and deliver for the American
people.
To maintain this strong national security, we need to fund ICE and
Border Patrol. I am ready to vote with my Senate Republican colleagues
today. Democrats cannot delay this vote any longer. We want to get this
done for the American people. Everything else is a distraction.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
[[Page S2511]]
Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, I ask time used by Democratic speakers
during today's session count towards the bill S. 2.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Cuba
Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, ever since the capture of Nicolas Maduro,
the Trump administration has been ratcheting up pressure on Cuba in the
hope that Cuba's leaders will either capitulate or the Cuban people
will rise up and overthrow them.
Three months ago President Trump said:
Cuba is going to fall pretty soon . . . They want to make a
deal so badly . . . and we'll see how that works out.
Like so many of the President's apocalyptic predictions, there is no
sign the administration wants to negotiate a deal, and Cuba has not
fallen. Instead, the United States oil blockade, which if the tables
were turned every one of us would denounce as an illegal act of war,
has absolutely paralyzed Cuba's economy. It has plunged the Cuban
people into darkness and to misery.
Then on May 20, the Department of Justice announced that it had
indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro who is 95. Another U.S.
aircraft carrier group has been sent to the Caribbean. The writing on
the wall is unmistakable. President Trump is tiptoeing up to leading us
into another reckless war, this time with Cuba.
Cuba is a bankrupt country. It is smaller than Virginia. It has
neither the capacity nor intention to threaten the United States. And
even before the Trump administration cut off the oil, Cuba's economy
was barely functioning. Today, electricity is unavailable for most
hours of the day and night across the entire island.
So this means that hospitals, schools, factories, food production
have ground to a halt. Havana's streets are overflowing with garbage.
The country is facing economic collapse literally, and the United
States is complicit in that. In fact, that is the point of the U.S.
actions.
By causing Cuba's economy to collapse and leaving millions of
innocent Cubans without enough food or access to medical care, the
White House hopes to create a ``national security emergency.''
It seeks to justify regime change, including, if necessary, using
military force. President Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force
against Cuba. Without any legal justification he has said:
[I]t may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly
takeover. Wouldn't really matter because they are really down
to . . . fumes. They have no energy, they have no money.
You know, the reason Cuba is ``down to fumes'' is due to its own
government's repressive failed policies and because of the United
States oil blockade. But no American President under any circumstances,
friendly or unfriendly, should threaten to take over another sovereign
nation that poses no imminent or credible threat to our country. And no
U.S. Congress should condone such flagrant misuse of military power.
You know, there is plenty of blame to go around for how we got to
this point. Cuba's leaders whose priority is holding on to power
systematically violate the rights of the Cuban people and align
themselves ideologically with some of the world's worst regimes.
The Cuban military's corrupt grip on the economy has practically
ruined the economy, and that is on Cuban leadership. But for our part,
the United States has tried to overthrow the Cuban government by armed
invasion, by assassination, financing Cuban dissidents, and imposing a
web of punitive sanctions with extraterritorial reach. Yet after 65
years, the U.S. embargo has not achieved any of its goals. Instead, it
has contributed to the daily suffering of the innocent Cuban people.
There is no doubt that political and economic changes in Cuba are
long overdue. Neither is sufficient by itself. The Cuban people, 90
percent of whom were born after the 1959 revolution, want leaders who
accept the need for fundamental changes in how to govern, with greater
participation of the people, greater transparency, greater freedom, and
real accountability.
But attacking Cuba would be another reckless and illegal use of
United States military power. And no matter what hyperbolic or false
accusations are used as a pretext for attacking Cuba, Cuba poses no
credible threat to the United States.
Instead of starting another unnecessary war, the United States and
Cuba can and must negotiate a deal that puts United States national
interests and the needs and aspirations of the Cuban people first.
And, you know, the elements of the deal are pretty obvious. On the
United States side, President Trump needs to end restrictions on travel
by Americans to Cuba--many Vermonters, when that was allowed, went to
Cuba, many Americans did--and should support Cuba's struggling private
sector. We should support that.
The President should remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of
terrorism. That has no credible legal or factual basis, and no other
country agrees with us on that designation. And it should also, the
administration, call on Congress to repeal the failed embargo so that
reconstruction can begin.
On the Cuban side, Cuba's leaders' only choice is to make a deal.
They are staring, literally, at the barrel of a gun. They need to end
the military's control of the economy. They need to take steps for
American companies to invest in Cuba and help rebuild the country's
broken infrastructure. Cuba's leaders must release all political
dissidents and accept the right of the Cuban people to express
themselves freely and without fear of persecution.
If President Trump and Cuba's leaders take these steps, they could
finally put the last vestige of the Cold War in this hemisphere behind
us.
But that, regrettably, is not where President Trump is leading us.
And like Maduro, Cuba's leaders have always cared more about their own
privileges and power than the welfare of the Cuban people.
Nobody here or in Cuba should be under any illusions. An
unauthorized, unjustified, reckless war with Cuba is where we are
headed. The United States has one playbook that fits all, and that is
its approach to dealing with regimes that it doesn't like: pile on the
economic sanctions, threaten to wipe them off the face of the Earth,
and when that fails, attack.
There is no plan B if things don't go as predicted, no plan for what
comes next, and no plan for how to pay for it. A United States invasion
of Cuba with warplanes and missiles and Special Forces would pose real
risks for the United States, for our troops, and for the Cuban people.
It almost certainly would not be a repeat of the swift capture of
Maduro. More likely, Cuba's leaders, sworn and determined to defend
their failed revolution, would not give up easily. The fighting could
go on for weeks or months.
And assuming they would all eventually flee or be captured or killed,
who would govern Cuba? Who would prevent the country from descending
into lawlessness and becoming a haven for transnational criminals? Who
would be responsible for public services? There is no Cuban Delcy
Rodriguez, nor any organized political opposition.
The American people would be saddled with the immense cost of
providing security and rebuilding Cuba from the ground up, while
millions of Cubans would likely abandon the island to seek refuge in
the United States.
The American people overwhelmingly do not want a war with Cuba,
especially not after the costly, ill-conceived debacle in Iran, which
has defied all the administration's rosy predictions. Rather than
causing more suffering and more chaos in Cuba and triggering yet
another refugee crisis 90 miles from Florida, President Trump could
make history through effective--effective--deal making, not by a
violent takeover financed by American taxpayers.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Anti-Weaponization Fund
Mr. HICKENLOOPER. Mr. President, on Monday, Tina Peters walked out of
prison. The convicted felon and former county clerk is free after
serving less than a quarter of her sentence, a sentence she earned when
she violated her oath and tried to undermine Colorado's free and fair
elections.
[[Page S2512]]
That doesn't just make her a conspiracy theorist; it makes her a
criminal. Tina Peters had her day in court. She was prosecuted by a
Republican district attorney and convicted by a jury of her peers in a
Republican stronghold. The verdict was unanimous. Tina Peters was
guilty as sin. But if you ask the Trump administration, they believe
she needs and deserves a payday.
Last month, the Department of Justice announced the creation of a
$1.8 billion fund, a slush fund--can't call it anything else--for
criminals just like Tina Peters.
President Trump plans to hand out nearly $2 billion of your tax
money, taxpayer dollars, to January 6 rioters, to wealthy business
partners, and people who have attacked democracy.
We are going to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't
happen. The Acting Attorney General says they will no longer pursue
this slush fund. I am not sure I believe that for 1 second.
The only promises this administration has seemed to keep are to
billionaires and President Trump's cronies. The President calls it the
``Art of the Deal.'' Well, what is the deal? The taxpayers pay in; his
allies get payouts?
This administration isn't just trying to give your tax dollars to
criminals. They are spending literally trillions of dollars, when you
add it up, trillions of dollars on bombs and tax breaks for
billionaires. And what do Americans get in return? Higher bills,
benefits that have been gutted, and a tab that they never agreed to
pick up.
While the Trump administration is busy cashing in, people working--
the so-called working people of America--are facing a cost-of-living
emergency. The President's war in Iran--his war of choice--is sending
costs through the roof. The costs are already adding up. On energy
alone, Americans have spent an average of $450 per person more since
the start of this war. Gas in Colorado is now roughly $4.50 a gallon.
Before the year is out, Americans will spend hundreds of dollars more
than they would have before just on groceries.
Here is how bad it has gotten. Americans now carry a record $1.25
trillion in credit card debt. That is the highest level since the stock
market crashed in 2008. That is the equivalent of every single American
owing $3,600. That is not a working class that is thriving. That is one
that is barely surviving.
And here is the cruel reality: People are working harder than ever.
Coloradans are doing everything they can to hold up their end of the
bargain--long days, multiple jobs, paying taxes. But the more they
contribute, the less they get back, the less they get in return.
And there is a clear explanation for this: The President doled out
roughly $4 trillion in tax breaks--so that is over 10 years--but
roughly $4 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans so that
the largest corporations, so the wealthiest individuals like him, can
skip their taxes. And to pay for it, they slashed--over 10 years, they
slashed $1 trillion from the healthcare of Americans. That is
astounding.
Trump's tariffs generated $133 billion. Nearly every dollar came
right out of the pocket of American consumers' pockets--an average of
more than $1,000 a person.
Now, the Supreme Court ruled that these tariffs were illegal, and a
Federal court ordered the administration to repay American businesses.
Has the government responded? Have they complied? No, of course not.
They are using every excuse they can to resist. They have failed to pay
back the $166 billion that they owe. Even worse, just yesterday,
President Trump announced new tariffs on 59 countries, in addition to
the European Union.
When they are not busy taxing Americans, the Trump administration is
pouring hundreds of millions into this new ballroom. Meanwhile, 9,000
families in Colorado just lost their SNAP benefits. That is their food
stamps, their nutrition. Our economy is leaving too many Americans
behind.
Just talk to Leah, a young woman I met recently at a healthcare
roundtable in Colorado Springs. She is the full-time medical caregiver
for her daughter Victoria, who was diagnosed as a baby with spina
bifida. Victoria is a paraplegic, fed through a tube, and requires a
ventilator.
Leah works around the clock to keep her child alive. That hard work
is about to get even harder. This year, Leah's income will be cut by 40
percent as a direct result of this administration's Medicaid cuts. That
cut puts her daughter's life at risk.
The Trump administration claims these Medicaid cuts were about
preventing graft and fraud, but there is clearly no fraud whatsoever in
a mother doing everything she can, trying to keep her child alive.
Leah doesn't even know if they will be able to keep their house,
whether they will have enough money to make their payments. That house
had been specifically fitted to take care of Victoria's needs.
Without Leah's around-the-clock care, Victoria would have to be
institutionalized in an acute care facility at a dramatically higher
cost. Now, that is waste. It might not be fraud, but that is waste.
Leah is living every parent's worst nightmare. She works as hard as
she possibly can every day to try and keep her child alive, and now it
is still not enough. So many Americans are living with these kinds of
fears.
At a local nonprofit in Boulder--I take that back. At a local
nonprofit in Denver, I met a woman named Brittany, who told me that
healthcare is one of her biggest stressors, one of the major things
that causes her emotional stress.
Brittany's daughter recently had a severe asthma attack. Brittany
watched her daughter gasp for breath and begin to turn blue. In that
split second, she faced a second fear. Should she rush her daughter to
the hospital herself and risk the drive with no one to care for her
daughter or call an ambulance, which she knew she wouldn't be able to
afford?
That is a fear no parent should have to live with. The Trump
administration made it a reality because they chose these tax breaks
for the wealthiest people in this country, many of whom--if not most of
whom--don't even want the tax breaks. But they chose tax breaks for
these billionaires over healthcare for working people.
At another event in Denver, I met Luisa, who spends $90 a week on gas
as she drives 28 miles to work and home every day. She had moved
farther from Denver because the housing was more affordable. Now she
wonders if she made the right choice.
Luisa is watching costs increase while she takes home less every
week. She does everything she can to insulate her kids from fear--from
her fear. On weekends, she tries to take her kids to the park right
about lunchtime. She hopes they are too busy playing to remember how
hungry they are. As she says, ``It's one less meal to buy.''
Our country is measured in these moments: the way we care for the
most vulnerable, the life-or-death journey between the house and the
hospital, the cost to fill an empty refrigerator.
By every measure, our President--President Trump--is failing. He has
run up costs; he has paid himself and his friends; and he has stuck
Americans with the tab, waiting for Americans to pay the bill.
This is the moment where we decide whether that is acceptable--
whether the people who work the hardest, already pay the most, and ask
for the least finally get a country that works for them. It is a
question that echoes throughout our entire history, one that built the
Civil Rights Movement, women's suffrage, and the long fight for workers
to have a seat at the table.
At its core, it is the American question: Whom does this country
actually work for? This administration has given their answer to
Coloradans. Leah from Colorado Springs will lose close to $80,000 in
support. Brittany calculates the cost of an ambulance while her
daughter is turning blue and can't breathe. Luisa hopes her kids will
not remember that they are hungry.
Americans fund the system. Trump takes billions for himself, and
Americans--Americans--get the shaft.
We know there is a better way. Americans have held up their end of
the bargain long enough, with long days and multiple jobs and taxes
paid over long periods of time. They have earned more than a slush fund
for felons, more than a government that builds ballrooms while 9,000
Coloradans lose their groceries. And these are families that are
struggling to put food on
[[Page S2513]]
the table. It is more than an administration that takes everything and
returns nothing.
And we have introduced an amendment to stop elected criminals like
Tina Peters from getting a dime of your taxpayer dollars. Soon,
Republicans are going to be forced to vote on it. So while hard-working
Americans struggle with rising costs, those who undermine our elections
are the last people our government should subsidize, the last people
that should ever get your hard-earned tax dollars.
We need to put an end to the slush fund. We need to put that end in
writing so the Trump administration can't change their mind later on.
Working Americans have paid in too long to keep getting played, and we
will fight tooth and nail to make sure they get what they are owed.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, before I begin my remarks that I
wanted to speak on today about law and order, I do have a couple of
comments I wanted to make that came to mind as my colleague was
speaking.
You know, I think that they are suffering not only from Trump
derangement syndrome but a little bit of Democrat amnesia. I think they
have forgotten that under Joe Biden, inflation hit 9 percent. It was
the highest it had been in over four decades. They didn't seem to be
concerned about costs or affordability, and every single day,
Republicans work to get down the cost of gas and groceries. Every
single day, we work on affordability.
Even a year ago, we had not one single colleague from the other side
of the aisle--not one--vote for the Working Families Tax Cut, the Big
Beautiful Bill. They all voted against it because they wanted a $4
trillion tax hike.
Now, why did my colleagues on the other side of the aisle vote in
lockstep--every single Democrat? They want more money, more of your
money that they can spend. They want to control it. They want you to
give them the power so they can micromanage your life.
Inflation? They are all for it. When you talk about prices going up,
they are all for it. Even Barack Obama said: Oh, your electric bills
are necessarily going to go up because I am pushing the Green New Deal.
And, boy, did they ever.
So I think that it is interesting. I wish that they would actually
focus on the issue of affordability. I wish they would actually work
with us when it comes to getting costs down, but they don't because
they want more of your money.
Isn't it so interesting? They never get enough of the taxpayers'
money. It is a gimme, gimme, gimme every single day. Money and power--
they are all about it.
S. 2
Mr. President, I do want to talk this afternoon about a core
responsibility of any representative government, and that is the
responsibility to enforce the rule of law.
Now, questions that responsible governments will ask themselves is,
Can we protect law-abiding citizens? Can we make certain that our
citizens are protected from criminals? How do we get our crime rate
down in our communities? How do we maintain law and order? Can we make
certain that we are enacting justice, and we are punishing lawbreakers?
This is something that we as Republicans believe is a basic
responsibility, but it has become painfully clear--and I think it
should be regrettable--that our colleagues across the aisle do not see
this as a basic responsibility. They are for sanctuary cities. They are
for trying to make ``illegal'' legal. They put the interests and the
needs of illegal aliens in front of the needs of law-abiding citizens.
Every single Federal immigration law that we have on the books--every
single one of them--was passed by Congress, and that law was signed
into law by a sitting U.S. President. Now, some of those were
Republican, and some were Democrat. It is important to note that these
laws actually reflect the will of the American people, and these
immigration laws are just as legitimate as any other law that is on the
books. Every one of them is legitimate.
But what we have come to know over the last few years is that our
Democrat colleagues, many of them, see these laws as optional. They--
many of them--do not think we should have a border. They think we
should have an open border. We saw what that did under President Biden
when he laid out the welcome mat and you had millions of illegal aliens
flooding our country and overwhelming our communities. When we went to
the southern border to visit, we realized they were covered up with
illegal aliens. Crime rates were soaring. Indeed, we saw across this
country every State become a border State and every town become a
border town.
We are seeing, once again, that our colleagues across the aisle are
doubling down on putting illegal aliens and their interests in front of
American citizens'. I don't think you see this in any other country on
the face of the Earth, but for some reason, they have gotten it in
their minds that they need to take care of those who are illegally in
the country and that they should put the welcome mat out for them. Of
course, what we have learned, as you look at the drug traffickers, the
sex traffickers, and the human traffickers is that this is one of the
most uncompassionate policies ever. The horror stories of what has been
done to women and girls and children are absolutely horrific.
But that wasn't enough for our friends across the aisle. So, for 76
days, the Democrats kept the Department of Homeland Security shut down.
They left the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, FEMA, the TSA, and other
critical Agencies unfunded because they wanted to score political
points with the radical left. They just tossed them aside. Can you
imagine being told: We are going to use you as a pawn; you are not
going to get a paycheck? It is absolutely astounding.
In Tennessee, I have done so many meetings in communities across the
State, and I have done a lot of telephone townhalls. I did one last
night. What you hear from people in these townhalls is: What do the
Democrats think they are doing? Why? Why? At a time when there are so
many threats, why would they jeopardize our Nation's security?
Well, as I said last night on the telephone townhall: The Democrats
have a goal. They have been committed to this for years. They have not
been able to pull it off, so they have got a new way of doing it, and
it is called: Let's just shut down Homeland Security. Their goal is to
defund law enforcement and to abolish ICE.
I have got a chart that shows some of the statements that have come
from people on the left, from the Democrats.
Here, you have got Representative Omar:
Abolish ICE.
Representative Mark Pocan:
Abolish ICE.
Isn't that radical? Imagine that. Doing away with law enforcement is
not radical?
You have got another one, Ramirez, and she is saying:
Abolish ICE. Dismantle DHS.
Representative Ocasio-Cortez:
Abolish ICE.
Jim McGovern:
Abolish ICE.
See, the list goes on and on.
You have some of our Senate colleagues:
We need to abolish ICE.
Replace ICE.
Abolish ICE.
This is what they are trying to do.
ICE is Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and when you hear all of
these statements--``not one more dollar for ICE,'' they say, or ``ICE
is beyond reform,'' they say, or they even say ``Abolishing ICE isn't
radical''--they continue to push to abolish ICE.
Now, the sad thing, in my opinion, is that this isn't a fringe
position in today's Democrat Party. It has become a mainstay of their
political agenda.
Can you even imagine the chaos that would ensue if we wiped this
Agency, which is responsible for protecting Americans from cross-border
crime and illegal immigration--if we wiped that Agency off the map?
There would be more crime, more sex trafficking, more drug trafficking,
more human trafficking, more terrorism, and more lives lost.
Since President Trump returned to office, we have seen the
consequences of this rhetoric on full display. You can
[[Page S2514]]
look at what is unfolding right now in New Jersey. For days, far-left
rioters have assaulted law enforcement outside Delaney Hall, which is
an immigration detention facility near Newark. By all appearances,
these are professional protesters; and yes, indeed, we have all seen
them. We see them in the halls of these buildings. We see them out on
the sidewalks. They are paid professional protesters. That is their
job. Outside the facility, they have set up entire supply stations with
masks, hard hats, goggles, and duct tape. This didn't just drop out of
the air and land there on the table. It was purchased. It makes you
wonder who is paying for all of this--for people to be out there and
being paid to be a protester.
The New Jersey State attorney general even admitted that most of the
arrested rioters were--guess what--from outside New Jersey--like I
said, paid political protesters. Some of these paid political
protesters have thrown rocks at officers. Others have pushed barricades
at the police.
One rioter screamed at an ICE agent:
Your children, your wife, all dead! I have your face . . .
You're dead.
Imagine if that were being shouted at you as you did your job.
Imagine if somebody were screaming at you that they were going to kill
your kids and that they were going to kill your wife and that they were
going to kill you. They had your face. They knew who you were.
This is what these agents are facing. Nothing compassionate about
that, is there?
Of course not. Absolutely not.
The death threats to ICE agents are up 8,000 percent. The assaults on
ICE agents are up 1,300 percent.
As I said at the beginning of my remarks, what they are doing is
enforcing the rule of law. They are enforcing laws that this body has
passed and that a sitting U.S. President has affixed his signature to
and signed into law--but no. We have colleagues across the aisle who
are saying: We don't like that one, so let's just not enforce it.
I think that is sick because, instead of condemning the violence, you
have got the State's--New Jersey's--Governor, who is a Democrat, who
has stood shoulder to shoulder with the rioters. After days of clashes,
she sent the State police to secure the area, not to ensure the safety
of Federal law enforcement but--and I am quoting her in her words--``to
avoid escalation from ICE.''
See what she is doing there? She is blaming the ICE officers, who
were abiding by the rule of law. She is not blaming the paid political
protesters, who are not peacefully protesting; they are there shouting.
They have got their hard hats. They have got their signs. They have
thrown rocks. She is citing the unrest to call for the closure of
Delaney Hall. This is how radical Democrats have become. They will
allow organized mobs to assault our Federal law enforcement. Then they
will cite violence as a reason to stop law enforcement from doing their
jobs.
While the Democrats try to abolish ICE, Republicans are doing
everything possible to uphold the rule of law. It is why we are moving
forward with a public security reconciliation bill that will provide
the funding necessary for ICE and CBP for years to come. As I said, we
are doing this through reconciliation. That is the same process we used
to pass the Working Families Tax Cut.
I will remind you again: Not one single Democrat voted for the tax
cuts. They wanted the $4 trillion tax hike so that they could have more
of your money.
What we are saying is: Come on. Join us. Vote for this reconciliation
bill. Let's fund these vital Agencies by a simple majority vote. There
are plenty of bills that I and others have put into place that we
should pass to make certain that we deal with this issue of illegal
immigration and so that we support our men and women who are working
with DHS.
This bill is going to come before us today and tomorrow. I encourage
swift passage.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagerty). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
S. 2
Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, we are back. We are back to finish the
job now, to make sure that ICE and CBP have the funding they need to
carry out the mission we have set out in Federal immigration law.
There was a time when this wasn't controversial. There was a time
when Democrat Presidents actually gave speeches about our border and
making sure that we deported people who were here illegally. But that
is a long time ago now. The Democrats have made their central plank of
everything that they hold onto in this town about open borders, mass
migration, and anti-law enforcement.
We saw this iteration with the ``defund the police'' movement. It
simply gravitated to the ``defund ICE'' movement. They don't actually
think, as a sovereign country, we should be able to tell people who can
come in, how long they can stay, and when they have to leave.
This is a fundamental issue for a sovereign nation, and so we are
back now on reconciliation, once again, to make sure that their
operations are indeed funded.
I won't even get into the idea of what a departure from the norms
this has been, for a policy reason, to hold up an appropriation, but
that is what happened.
But now, through the process of reconciliation, Republicans are going
to right that wrong, get this right. And the Democrats, they can talk
all day long about how they don't want to deport criminal illegal
aliens, because that is really what this is about.
I also want to tell the truth about something else very plainly. Mass
migration drove up the cost of living for the American people. More
deportations will bring that down.
For years, Washington treated immigration as a border issue alone. It
is that, but it is also a pocketbook issue. It shows up in rent, wages,
downpayments, crowded schools, strained hospitals, and city budgets
buckling under the policies their citizens never voted for.
Illegal aliens do not stay at the border. They went to New York City,
Chicago, Denver, towns and suburbs all across this country, into the
same labor markets, housing markets, classrooms, emergency rooms, and
public benefit systems already under strain.
Americans are forced into a bidding war with the entire world.
Teenagers looking for a summer job, young couples trying to buy their
first home, families trying to make rent, workers trying to get a
raise--all of them are told to compete with millions of new arrivals,
many here in violation of our laws.
This was a policy of choice. Washington flooded the labor market with
workers and the housing market with renters at the same time. The
result was exactly what any honest economist would predict: lower
wages, higher rents, higher home prices, higher taxes, a weaker
American middle class.
From 2021 to 2024, more than 20 million people came into the United
States, the largest short-term surge in American history. During that
same period, rents skyrocketed, housing prices surged, and communities
were priced out of their own neighborhoods.
The United States is short roughly 10 million homes. Washington
imported millions and millions and millions of people into that
shortage and then acted surprised when prices went up.
There is nothing mysterious about this. Add millions of renters to a
tight housing market, and rents rise. Add millions of buyers, and home
prices rise. Make housing unaffordable, and family formation gets
delayed.
Since 2010, the median age of the first-time home buyer in this
country has gone from 30 years old to 40 years old. The median
downpayment for a first-home buyer now is more than $40,000. That is
way more than the median net worth of Americans under 35.
A young American couple can work hard, save money, follow the rules,
and try to start a family. Washington's answer is to make them compete
against a migration wave their own government invited, subsidized, and
refused to remove. That is a betrayal.
HUD's own report admits that immigration drove as much as 100 percent
of
[[Page S2515]]
rental price growth in States like California and New York, and roughly
two-thirds of rental demand nationwide.
The same thing is happening in the labor market. Over the last 25
years, immigrants accounted for nearly three-quarters of all growth in
the prime-age civilian labor force. Since 2019, the American-born
workforce has not grown at all--not at all. And since February 2020,
roughly 90 percent--90 percent--of new jobs have gone to foreign-born
workers.
That is a labor market that Washington built: more workers for
corporate America, more competition for American workers, more pressure
on wages, and less bargaining power for citizens.
The fiscal costs are staggering. A recent congressional study
estimated the lifetime net fiscal cost to government at about $68,000
per illegal alien. But best estimates show deportation costs roughly
$13,000 per removal. Deporting 10 million illegal aliens would save
American taxpayers at least a half a trillion dollars.
That money could be used and should be used to strengthen American
households, schools, hospitals, police departments, and our
neighborhoods. Instead, Americans are being taxed to subsidize
lawbreaking.
A country that does that has broken the faith of its own citizens.
Look at New York City, Chicago, and Denver. Sanctuary politicians
attacked immigration enforcement, declared themselves morally superior,
and watched their budgets buckle. Services are strained. Citizens are
told to accept less.
When the bill came due, the same politicians demanded more money from
taxpayers. That is the sanctuary city model: benefits for illegal
aliens, fiscal strain for citizens, and moral vanity masquerading as
compassion.
It is not compassion to make citizens finance their own
dispossession. They call it compassion. They call it growth. Strip away
the language, and look at what the system does to real people. It
lowers wages. It raises housing costs. It strains public services. It
rewards lawbreaking. It transfers wealth away from citizens. It turns
the American dream into a luxury good.
So let's be clear about the alternative. If mass migration raises the
cost of living, more deportations will lower it. Remove illegal workers
from the labor market, and wages will rise. Remove illegal renters from
the housing market, and rent pressure falls. Stop subsidizing
lawbreaking, and taxpayers save money. Enforce the law, and citizenship
starts to mean something again.
The economy exists to serve the people of the Nation. The people of
the Nation do not exist to serve the economy.
For far too long, Washington inverted that principle. It built an
economy for global capital, instead of American citizens. It opened the
border in the name of an ideology that treats America like a labor
market with a flag attached to it. That experiment, ladies and
gentlemen, has failed. It failed the people we represent.
But this decline was chosen. What was chosen, though, can be
reversed. We can secure the border. We can end mass migration. We can
carry out more deportations. We can restore an economy that serves
American citizens again.
This fight is about whether Americans can afford to live in the
country their ancestors built. It is about whether citizenship still
carries a promise. It is about whether this Nation remains a home for
its very own people and whether we are going to fight to make sure
America remains a home for Americans.
Now, for the first time in a generation, we have a chance to choose
something different--to secure the border, to carry out these
deportations, to restore sanity to the labor market, to bring down
housing demand, to put American taxpayers first, and to rebuild an
economy that serves the American people once again.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about Minnesota
because the fight that is about to happen here on the Senate floor
started far away from this place on the streets of my home State.
Tomorrow, Republicans in the Senate are going to force through a
partisan bill to give ICE and Customs and Border Protection almost $70
billion, all because they have refused to do anything to rein in the
abuses of ICE--abuses that destroyed trust, killed American citizens,
and ripped Minnesota families apart. So I want to take a moment to
remind my colleagues of how we got to this moment.
What happened was that a masked and lawless Federal police force
occupied my State, kidnapping people in the street, tearing families
apart, and committing terrible acts of violence. The entire country
watched in horror. Your constituents watched. We watched Renee Good
killed in her car after dropping her child off at school. We watched
Alex Pretti swarmed by masked agents and then shot in the back and
killed. We watched 5-year-old Liam Ramos, in his bunny hat and his
Spiderman backpack, separated from his father. We bore witness to
countless acts of violence captured on camera and many, many more that
were hidden from public view. Across the country, it was impossible to
look away as we watched our government terrorize people.
But we also saw something exceptional, of course. We saw Minnesotans
showing what resistance and what courage look like. In subzero
temperatures, Minnesotans met guns with whistles and came out to
protect people they didn't even know. Churches and neighbors organized
mutual aid and delivered prescriptions to folks who couldn't leave
their own homes. They drove kids to school and back again, and they
coordinated food deliveries for people who were afraid to go to the
grocery store.
We marched--thousands and thousands strong--to demand that ICE get
out of our State. And it worked, colleagues. History will remember that
Minnesota won the battle of Operation Metro Surge, just as we got
through the long, long, cold Minnesota winters, by showing up for our
neighbors no matter what our differences might be, by helping people we
don't even know, and by peacefully demanding justice and
accountability.
But that victory was not without a cost. The great damage done by
this rogue, dangerous, secret police force is still felt in Minneapolis
and in St. Paul. It is felt in Chicago, in Los Angeles, in Portland,
and in countless communities across the country. It is felt in Newark.
Lives lost. Injuries sustained. Parents separated from their children.
Kids traumatized by these tactics and still not back in school.
Businesses that are shuttered.
Colleagues, we still have not had a fair and unbiased investigation
with State investigators into the killings of Renee and Alex. People
who have done nothing wrong are still waiting for accountability in
crowded courtrooms. Legal residents of this country are still being
held illegally in detention camps hundreds of miles away from their
families. Rent payments missed. Businesses closed. Cities and counties
spent their entire annual police overtime budgets to protect their
communities.
So I know that it is uncomfortable for my colleagues to hear all of
this and that everybody wants to turn the page on this, but on behalf
of Minnesota, I need to say out loud and to be clear that it is
unacceptable that this legislative battle is happening tomorrow because
of the complete failure to agree to even the most basic guardrails on
ICE, the same kind of guardrails that your local police department
agrees to live by every single day.
I have to say I was hopeful because in the days and the weeks that
Operation Metro Surge was unfolding, so many of my colleagues came up
to me to offer their support. Many of you both publicly and privately
said that what we are seeing in these videos is unacceptable and that
we need to do something.
When the former Secretary of Homeland Security declared that the
Minnesotans shot and killed by Federal agents were ``domestic
terrorists,'' many of you came out and said that we need a full and
fair investigation of what happened.
We must have a transparent, independent investigation into
the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible--no matter
their title--must be held accountable.
Who said that? Not me but Senator Curtis.
Here is another one:
I support a full and impartial investigation into the
events leading up to the death of
[[Page S2516]]
Alex Pretti. His family, law-abiding citizens exercising
their Second Amendment right and the trust of the American
people deserve a fair process.
Who said that? Senator Crapo said that.
We need a full investigation into the tragedy in
Minneapolis. We need all the facts. We must enforce our laws
in a way that protects the public while maintaining its
trust.
My colleague Senator McCormick said that.
So what happened?
Today, we have a partisan bill to send another $70 billion to ICE and
Customs and Border Protection. There has not been a full and impartial
investigation. There have been no reforms to stop ICE from kicking down
the doors of your home without a warrant. There is nothing to stop
masked, secret agents from pulling people out of their cars, following
people home, grabbing parents away from their kids--nothing to stop
that from happening. There is nothing to help small businesses that
were forced to close or school districts trying to help traumatized
students. There is nothing to help teachers or parents or police
departments that have the millions of dollars in overtime costs.
Now, I will be filing an amendment to make sure that an investigation
into Alex and Renee's death is done by the books, that it is fair and
that it is unbiased and that it is conducted jointly with State and
Federal investigators so that it has credibility in order to restore
the public trust. And this is how these investigations have always been
done in the past. But there won't be votes for that. My colleagues
won't vote for that.
So I want to be clear. I want to thank all of my colleagues who
worked with determination and heart to negotiate commonsense reforms to
stop the worst of these abuses from happening ever again. Our asks
weren't complicated. They weren't radical. We just wanted clarity that
Federal agents should follow the same standards as local police
departments: No random arrests or breaking down doors without a warrant
or probable cause. Wear proper identification and body cameras. No
masks.
ICE needs oversight and accountability when they violate the rights
of individuals, as guaranteed in our Constitution. Basically, we were
just looking for reforms that say ICE has to abide by the laws equally,
as they apply to every person in this country.
It is a shame that all of that hard work came to nothing because
Donald Trump and Stephen Miller don't want accountability under the
law; they want impunity.
And let's be clear. This is really out of step with where Americans
are. After months of this lawless behavior, Americans are strongly
opposed. They have seen it. Americans are opposed to this. They are
strongly opposed to this administration's domestic interior enforcement
policy. Fifty-six percent of Americans disapprove.
Meanwhile--let's be honest about this--these abuses are continuing,
though maybe without all of the public attention--not all of the public
attention. Raids are happening in California, in Oklahoma, in Ohio, and
elsewhere. We have seen what has been happening in Newark this past
week. ICE pepper-sprayed a U.S. Senator outside a detention center in
New Jersey just this past week--my colleague Senator Andy Kim.
Mr. President, 100,000 children are separated from their parents
right now, today. Three-quarters of them are estimated to be U.S.
citizens--100,000 kids. At least 33 people died in ICE custody in 2025.
Already in 2026, over 18 people have died. This is the best data we
have, though it is very difficult to get this information. That is one
person who has lost their life every 6 days, and many of these losses
of life were under deeply concerning circumstances. We are denying
lifesaving care, lifesaving medical treatment for transplant and for
cancer patients--people that are detained by this Federal Government.
Just today, I was working to try to get a humanitarian release for a
woman who is suffering from an extreme health condition, who could lose
her life if she does not get the care she needs.
The Federal Government is taking people hundreds of miles away from
home and then turning them out on the street with nothing--no ID, no
money, no papers, no way to get home.
The truth is, this administration is still doing what it did in
Minneapolis; they are just doing a better job of keeping it out of the
news.
So here we are today at a partisan impasse that Americans just don't
understand because, for them, this isn't about politics; this is about
common decency. Democrats stand strong, and we are demanding strong but
basic commonsense guardrails and accountability. We want our
communities to be safe. We want our children to be able to walk to
school without fear of being scooped up by a Federal agent. We want
people to be able to go to their jobs without fear that an agent is
going to break their car window and drag them out of their car and onto
the street. But my Republican colleagues are saying no to this. In the
face of a crushing cost-of-living crisis in this country, where
millions of Americans are struggling to afford their lives,
Republicans' answer to this is to send $70 billion to ICE and Customs
and Border Protection for massive, privately owned, for-profit
detention centers and a Federal immigration police force with a budget
that is several times larger than the FBI's.
You know, I don't know about your home State, but in Minnesota, $70
billion is a lot of money, and people are just not getting this. This
is the priority we have in this body today? This is what we are
choosing to do?
We could take this money and lower health insurance premiums by
extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits for 2 whole years. But
no, we can't do that. We are told by our Republican colleagues that
that is too expensive. But we can send $70 billion, on top of
everything we have already sent, to ICE and Customs and Border
Protection.
We could pay for Head Start preschool for 5 years. But no, we don't
have money for that; we just have money for this.
Why not update and repair or replace every drinking water or
wastewater system in Minnesota, and then we would still have more than
$7 billion left over. That is a choice we could make, but today and
tomorrow, this body is making a different choice.
No. Republicans are choosing to send billions of your tax dollars to
ICE for a Federal police force and for-profit detention centers with no
reforms or guardrails.
Not only that, but rather than address any of the challenges facing
ordinary, middle-class Americans, Republicans want to load up this bill
with extra giveaways for billionaires and convicted felons, sometimes
the same category.
They want an extra billion of taxpayer dollars to pay for a ballroom.
They wanted almost $2 billion in a slush fund. That has, thankfully,
fallen out of this bill so far, but I want to know for sure that that
is not going happen.
If you are watching this and you are feeling confused about what is
going on in this body, colleagues, I mean you should feel--Americans,
my constituents in Minnesota--you should feel confused because this is
outrageous. This is not how our democracy is supposed to work.
I mean, here is the thing, I actually believe that a lot of my
colleagues on the Republican side are actually kind of embarrassed by
this. They know it. They know that this isn't right, and they for sure
know that it is bad politics.
But that is not enough. We also need everybody in this body to not
just say what they say behind closed doors but to say it out loud in
public. That is what our country needs right now.
But here we are. And while Democrats may not be in power in the
Senate, we are not powerless. So we will keep fighting, and we will
keep preserving the Minnesota way just as we did fighting Operation
Metro Surge.
We will double down on our love for our neighbors and unity in the
face of this injustice. We will keep fighting for a better country. We
will not forget our neighbors Alex and Renee and Liam and all of the
others that were so hurt by what happened in my home State, and we will
keep up the fight. And we will vote no on this bill.
Colleagues, today is your chance. This is the chance that we have to
speak out with the eyes of history upon us. So I urge you to say no to
this bill and to stand on the side of justice, justice for Minnesota,
justice for this whole country.
[[Page S2517]]
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, like the reconciliation bill before us,
the past few weeks have been really eye-opening for the American public
to see in plain view the clear priorities of President Trump and his
allies here in Congress.
It is increasingly clear that their top priority is not addressing
the affordability crisis that is hurting so many families across the
country, families who are struggling just to get by.
The proposals, the actions of the Republican majority and the White
House isn't trying to tackle the cost of healthcare; it is not trying
to tackle the cost of housing; it is not reducing the price of gas--
that is for sure--or addressing the increasing costs of groceries.
The end result of the proposals before us continue to be personal
gain for the President and those around him, plain and simple.
But I don't think we should really be surprised by that. Don't take
my word for it. We are talking about a political party whose
President--the leader of that party, who has said publicly, his own
words: I do not care about Americans' financial situation.
Let me repeat that. A President, leader of the Republican Party who
says: I do not care about Americans' financial situation.
It doesn't get any clearer than that, folks, because whether it is a
late-night social media post or what he says in front of the cameras
for everybody to hear, this President has no problem telling us exactly
what his priorities are.
And his priorities are clearly not Americans' financial situations.
His priorities include an abomination of a ballroom that he wanted the
American people to pay for to the tune of $1 billion after repeatedly
saying that it wouldn't cost a single taxpayer dollar, that it would be
privately funded.
Another one of his priorities is ensuring immunity for himself and
for his family, and shoring up support from his MAGA loyalists,
including the January 6 insurrectionists who were prosecuted for
violently attacking the Capitol, violently attacking Capitol Police.
He was trying to advance a self-serving corrupt slush fund to pay off
his supporters. That is his priority.
Here is another one just from yesterday: selecting an unqualified
person Bill Pulte into an extremely sensitive position within our
government as head of the Director of National Intelligence whose track
record leads us to see plainly their goal of interfering in our
elections or politically pursuing anyone the President perceives as
being an enemy.
These are the President's priorities, colleagues, not helping working
families. And as clear as day, as he has outlined these priorities,
there is no pushback by the Republican majority. They continue to
enable every single one of these efforts.
The ballroom, which is nothing other than a vanity project, that
never should have happened in the first place. It is a tragedy that the
East Wing was torn down without a discussion, without the consultation
with Congress that is clearly required.
Yet for weeks, we heard Republican Members of Congress parroting the
lame excuse of: For security reasons, this was a necessary project. But
they have nothing to say about a UFC ring being built on the lawn of
the White House. Really?
And by the way, what happened to the private donations that were
supposed to be paying for the ballroom project? The President bragged
about the $400 million--probably more--that he secured. So where is it?
Where is that money?
We have to remain vigilant that the ballroom project funding does not
appear in this new reconciliation bill or doesn't work its way back in.
Now while Acting Attorney General Blanche publicly stated yesterday
that the so-called weaponization fund was not moving forward, it is
really hard to take this administration at its word when they are
constantly saying one thing and doing another--lies over and over to
the American people.
When we first learned about their plans to create this fund, I
actually came to the floor and asked that this floor pass by unanimous
consent my No Rewards for January 6 Rioters Act which I introduced back
in January to stop this proposal in its tracks. Trump already gave
pardons to January 6 insurrectionists. Let's not give them payouts as
well.
So we must act to ensure that no one who attacked the Capitol and
especially those who assaulted law enforcement officers that day can
ever qualify for any kind of payout like this.
And again, a few words on Bill Pulte, Donald Trump's pick to serve as
Acting Director of National Intelligence. It is clear that his only
qualification--only qualification that matters to President Trump--is
blind loyalty to President Trump, a willingness to do whatever Trump
asks.
Now time and again, we have seen Pulte use sensitive information in
his role at the Federal Housing Finance Agency to target Trump's
political opponents. Don't just imagine what he might do, imagine what
he will do with the sensitive information at his fingertips in the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whether it is
attacking opponents or finding new dangerous ways to advance Donald
Trump's election corruption and efforts to take over--the President's
words again--to take over elections.
Each of these is a misplaced and dangerous priority that Donald Trump
puts over the needs of the American people. All these priorities do
nothing to advance our national interest or improve the lives of
working families across the country.
So let's not allow ourselves to be distracted from the biggest of the
misplaced priorities at the heart of this reconciliation bill. When I
hear some of our Republican colleagues say: OK. No ballroom here, no
slush fund here--they don't commit to not coming back to it in other
efforts.
They say: Let's come back to the intent and core of what this
reconciliation bill was at the outset--billions and billions and
billions of dollars more for ICE and CBP for immigration enforcement,
the same Agencies that are still sitting on more than a $100 billion of
previously approved and appropriated funds that they can't even spend.
What happened to fiscal responsibility? Instead of ensuring that
money flows as Agencies can spend it, they are trying to ram more money
to these Agencies while shielding them from oversight and
accountability.
Let me remind us all of the deaths of Americans like Renee Good, Alex
Pretti, and Ruben Ray Martinez. Let me remind us of how this
administration is using children like 5-year-old Liam Ramos as bait.
Let me remind our colleagues about the price gouging that is happening,
mothers and children at Dilley detention center having to pay so much
just to access clean water and letting thousands of children languish
in detention, jailing more than 6,200 children since the beginning of
this administration.
That is a shame.
And now they want to shield them from more than 425 judges appointed
by both Democrat and Republican Presidents, including some appointed by
Donald Trump himself who have issued more than 10,000 rulings finding
that ICE has violated the Constitution of the United States.
That is not an exaggeration: more than 10,000 findings of ICE
violating the Constitution of the United States, violating due process,
and violating Federal laws since the start of this Trump
administration--10,000 rulings.
That is more than a 90-percent loss rate in court by this
administration. This administration's immigration enforcement efforts
have clearly not just been extreme and cruel, they have been unlawful
and indefensible.
What we should be doing, colleagues, is discussing and debating ideas
on how to help American families better afford their groceries, how to
better afford the gas they put in their car because they have to get to
work, help American families afford their mortgage or the rent, how to
pay for childcare, how to pay for healthcare.
So many Americans are reeling from the ``Anything But Beautiful
Bill,'' from the expiration of the ACA tax credits, and so many
Americans are suffering from the experience of witnessing or having
their children ripped from their arms, with loved ones, family members,
friends, neighbors, coworkers disappearing into detention,
[[Page S2518]]
many in the United States, many now in a foreign country.
They are suffering through all of that while still wondering how they
are going to make ends meet at the end of the month. Those are the
priorities for countless families across the country who are hurting
and struggling right now that we should be focusing on. But instead,
no, we are focusing on what this reconciliation bill offers in front of
us.
I have said it before. I think most folks, at some point in this
Chamber, have used the reference that budgets are a reflection of our
values. A reconciliation bill is a budget bill. It, too, is a
reflection of values and priorities. They reveal what we prioritize.
They reveal what we stand for, what we fight for, and it serves as a
guide to see if it truly reflects the needs and priorities of the
American people or not.
If you look at this language, if you look at the concept of the
reconciliation bill in front of us, it is clear that Donald Trump and
our Republican colleagues have no interest in addressing the urgent
needs of the American people.
So I ask, colleagues, let's reject this bill full of misplaced
priorities. Let's actually regroup and put a bill together that will
lower costs for American families, expand their opportunities, and help
Americans get ahead.
And I guarantee you, if we were to do that in good faith, you
wouldn't have to resort to this party-line, strictly partisan process
of budget reconciliation. That would be something that would garner
bipartisan support and be in the best interest of our country, our
economy, and the needs of the American people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Justice). The Senator from Alaska.
____________________