Speech #1140009984

Mr. President. I rise today to talk about the funding for the Department of Homeland Security and the continuing need for immigration reform. We need to fund the Department of Homeland Security and we should pass a clean DHS funding bill. That is the only bill that can pass the Senate. and that is the only bill that should pass the Senate. Once that bill has passed the Senate and the House and becomes law. then we can and should move on to consider immigration legislation. Republican leadership in the Senate has wasted a lot of time over the past month politicizing immigration and mixing it up with the issue of funding this Federal agency that helps to protect the United States from terrorists and other threats. and those threats are real. Just this past weekend. the terrorist organization alShabaab issued a threatening video suggesting that the Mall of America in my State of Minnesota could be a target for a terrorist attack. Look. this issue is not something we should be politicizing. We should enact into law a clean funding bill for DHS. and we should fund the Department for the whole year and not make the Department run for a short time on a continuing resolution and just revisit the issue in the near future. That is not what we want. And then we should and can debate immigration. I have always believed the best way to accomplish meaningful and sustainable immigration reform is through congressional action. In the last Congress. the Senate took such action. As a member of the Judiciary Committee. I was very proud to play an active role in the comprehensive immigration bill the Senate passed with broad bipartisan support. For me. this was a model of how the Senate was supposed to work. Four Senators from each side of the aisle. known as the Gang of 8. came together and crafted a bill which we then marked up in the Judiciary Committee. and I was very pleased that a number of my amendments were included in the bill. which then went to the Senate floor and passed with 68 votes. That bill would have provided a real and comprehensive overhaul of our broken immigration system. It would have significantly strengthened our border security. and it would have helped a lot of peoplefrom small businesses to families in our legal immigration system to the many undocumented immigrants who would have an opportunity. through a tough but fair path. to get right with the law. There are millions of people in our country who want the same things that all of us wanta steady job. excellent education for our children. and a brighter future for their families. But they are living in limbo and often in fear.