Speech #1140009953

But to argue that Executive orders that have been used by President after President are inherently unconstitutional defies any accurate. honest reading of history. Here are some realities. The immigration system in the United States of America today is brokenbroken terriblyto the point where we may have 12 to 13 million undocumented people in this country. where our borders are stronger now than they have ever been. but still have to be fortified to make sure we dont have the unnecessary migration of people into the United States in an illegal status. There are so many things we need to do to fix this broken immigration system. and we addressed them. Two years ago eight Senators came togetherfour Democrats and four Republicans. I was honored to be part of it. We sat down for months and wrote a comprehensive immigration reform bill. We brought it to the floor of the Senate after considering 100 amendments in the Senate Judiciary Committee. and it passed on the floor with 68 positive votes. Fourteen Republicans joined the Democrats for the bipartisan bill which was supported by the Chamber of Commerce. the AFLCIO. and conservatives and liberals across America. Pretty good work for a Congress that is blamed many times for just being obstructionists. We passed it with 68 votes. sent it to the House of Representatives. where it languished for almost 2 years. never being called for a votenever. At that point the President stepped forward and said: I have to do something to deal with the problems of illegal immigration in America. Here is what he proposedtwo things. basically. He said: If you are here in America and are the parent of a child who is a U.S. citizen or the parent of a child who is a legal resident alien. you can come forward. pay about $500 as a fee. subject yourself to a criminal background check. If you clear it or you committed no serious crimes and are no threat to America. then we will give you a temporary work permit to be in the United States and work. We want to know who you are. where you live. the members of your family. and where you work. That is what the President proposed. and that is what they want to stop. We would continue the current situation with millions of undocumented people working without background checks. working without any registration to this government. so we know their whereabouts and what they do. That is what they want to end. They think the President went way too far in setting up this process. I think they are wrong. The Republicans had a chance to pass a comprehensive immigration bill and they refused. In refusing. they left the President no alternative. He is trying to make sense out of a broken immigration system. It would be better if the Republicans joined us in the House and the Senate in a bipartisan effort to achieve that. The last point I want to make is this: I think one of the most heartless things I have seen in my time in the House and Senate is the effort by the Republicans to end DACA. DACA was the protection the President gave to DREAMers. DREAMers are children brought to Americachildren. infants. toddlers. and young kidsby their parents. who grew up in America and went to school. have no serious criminal issues in their background. and who simply want the chance to be part of Americas future. That is all they are asking for.