I do not intend to play hide and seek with the American people this morning. I think unabashedly. I believe in comprehensive immigration reform. and. frankly. so does most of America. My disappointment with my good friends is. one. that they are politicizing this very important debate. And. of course. my friend from Indiana wanted to make sure that he cast his hand to our side of the aisle and suggested that the Democrats do not want a fence or the Democrats do not believe in getting the job done. The question that really should be asked is why the Republican majority passed a legislative initiative dealing with the immigration concerns of America and yet cannot get a compromise between the House and the Senate. both controlled by Republicans. and the presidency controlled by Republicans. But I am not prepared to play with the lives of the American people. This legislation. 730 miles of fence. does not deal with the lives of our Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection. And the reality is that time and time again we have seen that Republicans have spoken the word but have done nothing about it. For example. this particular amendment that we had way back in 2001. Each and every time we offered amendments to provide for border security. 2001. after 9/11. Republicans voted "no." In 2003 Republicans voted "no." In 2001 we asked for $78 million for detention beds. The Republicans voted "no." In 2003 again we asked for border security funding. Democrats. Republicans voted "no." We asked for numbers of items for our Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection. We asked for power boats. We asked for night goggles.
Keywords matched
Border Protection border security Border Patrol immigration