[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1001-1002]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CONFIRMATION OF JOHN KELLY

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I voted in favor of the nomination of Gen. 
John Kelly to be U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, and I am 
submitting this statement to explain my vote.
  This nomination is not a referendum on President Donald Trump's 
immigration policy. If it were, I would have voted against the 
nomination.
  In considering this nomination, the questions are whether General 
Kelly is unqualified to serve as Homeland Security Secretary and 
whether his views are too extreme to lead our homeland security and 
immigration enforcement efforts. In my view, General Kelly easily 
passes both tests.
  Gen. John Kelly is clearly qualified to head up the Homeland Security 
Department. He served honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps for more than 
four decades, first as an enlistee and later as an officer, culminating 
in his role as commander of U.S. Southern Command. As SOUTHCOM 
commander, Kelly oversaw a variety of operations in the Caribbean, 
Central America, and South America from headquarters in Miami.
  General Kelly knows better than most what is at stake in our efforts 
to protect our Nation from harm. He served three tours in Iraq, and in 
2010, his son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, 29, was killed in 
southern Afghanistan while leading his platoon on

[[Page 1002]]

a combat patrol when he stepped on a concealed bomb. He is the highest 
ranking military officer to lose a child in combat in Afghanistan or 
Iraq.
  I am sure that I will disagree with General Kelly on some occasions, 
but he does not have a track record of extreme statements on 
immigration or the other issues that will be under his jurisdiction as 
Homeland Security Secretary.
  I know that some of my Democratic colleagues voted against General 
Kelly's nomination because he refused to publicly commit to keeping the 
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals--DACA--program in place and to 
protecting DACA recipients from deportations. Reasonable people can 
disagree, and I respect my colleagues who are voting against General 
Kelly's nomination, but I don't believe this justifies opposing this 
nomination.
  There is no one in the Senate who is more committed than I to 
protecting the DACA program and no one who has worked harder to protect 
the young immigrants who are eligible for this program. Seven years 
ago, I was the first Member of Congress to ask President Obama to 
establish the DACA program. DACA is based on the DREAM Act, legislation 
I first introduced 16 years ago that would give undocumented students 
who grew up in this country a chance to earn their citizenship.
  The young people who are eligible for DACA and the DREAM Act are 
known as DREAMers. Over the years, I have met hundreds of DREAMers and 
I have come to the floor more than 100 times to tell these DREAMers' 
stories, which make the case for DACA and the DREAM Act better than I 
ever could.
  Last week, General Kelly came to my office to meet with me. We spent 
most of our time discussing DACA and the DREAMers. General Kelly 
promised me that, if he was confirmed, he would be a part of the 
discussions about the future of DACA. He said that he felt strongly 
that DREAMers should be protected from deportation and that he would 
fight for that view. General Kelly also committed that he would come to 
Chicago with me to meet with a group of DREAMers and to visit an 
immigration detention center, so that he would understand the human 
impact of the laws he will be enforcing.
  Based on these assurances, I am pleased to be able to support General 
Kelly's nomination. But let me be clear. If General Kelly supports an 
effort by the new administration to rescind DACA or deport DREAMers, I 
will fight him tooth and nail.
  I congratulate General Kelly on his confirmation, and I look forward 
to working with him on the critical issues under his jurisdiction, 
especially the future of DACA and the DREAMers.
  Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, today I voted against the confirmation of 
General John Kelly to be Secretary of Homeland Security. I have deep 
concerns about the homeland security policies that President Trump 
advocated during the campaign, and I worry that as Secretary of 
Homeland Security, General Kelly will feel it necessary to work to 
advance those reckless policies. For instance, General Kelly was unable 
to promise the Senate that the administration will refrain from 
deporting our nation's DREAMers, and I am troubled by his stated plans 
to reverse the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, DACA, program. 
Furthermore, General Kelly did not provide sufficient assurance that he 
fully opposes the President's wasteful and misguided plan for a border 
wall.
  However, now that he has been confirmed, it is my hope that Secretary 
Kelly will be the voice of reason in the deliberations to shape the 
Trump administration's homeland security policy and that many of the 
reckless ideas candidate Trump espoused during the election will never 
become reality.
  While I voted against General Kelly, I recognize and appreciate his 
long and distinguished career in the marines. I believe this 
experience, particularly his final assignment as head of the U.S. 
Southern Command, will serve him well. In addition, I am encouraged by 
several statements General Kelly made during his confirmation hearing--
statements that are at odds with the dangerous comments President Trump 
made during the campaign.
  At the hearing, General Kelly spoke out against the use of torture 
and said the U.S. should always abide by the Geneva Conventions. He did 
state that building a wall along the southern border was not an 
effective way to secure the border, though he has not promised to 
oppose such a plan. He agreed with the intelligence community's 
assessment that Russia was responsible for hacking into our elections. 
He said that surveilling mosques and targeting Muslims as security 
threats was unacceptable. Finally, he said the sweeping collection of 
data on Americans violated the right to privacy and a much more focused 
effort is needed.
  General Kelly has a reputation for speaking truth to power--I 
sincerely hope he does so as a member of the Cabinet, and I hope the 
President will listen. New Mexico is a majority-minority border State 
with thousands of hard-working families now living in fear of President 
Trump's immigration plans. Unfortunately, I am deeply concerned that 
General Kelly will be the instrument of the President's harmful and 
backwards homeland security agenda.

                          ____________________