Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, it is an interesting conversation we
can finally have about immigration. This has been that topic which has
been discussed for a while but not settled. For 20 years, this body has talked about solving some of our
immigration issues. National security immigration hasn't been a
partisan issue until of late. Suddenly, when President Trump brings it
up, we have a bunch of folks who used to be for border security but are
now against border security because President Trump wants border
security--with some of the exact same ideas that have been in the Gang
of 8 bill or were in previous versions or were even talked about with a
secure wall or fence before. Almost every Democrat in this body voted
for the Secure Fence Act of 2006. It is interesting to me the number of people who contact us saying:
We do not want to build a wall. I have said: What about the 650 miles
of wall that already exists and was put in place after 2006, which, by
the way, President Obama, when he was Senator Obama, wholeheartedly
supported and voted for? This is suddenly a partisan issue. I am trying to help our entire
body take a step back and say: Immigration should be a humanity issue
and a legal issue, not a political issue. I had a conversation with a friend of mine this weekend. We have
known each other for years. He is a pastor. We started talking about
the immigration issue. In that dialogue, he said to me: In the church,
we look at every individual as an individual created in the image of
God, and the church has a ministry to be able to reach out, regardless
of legal status. Then he said, right behind it: But, in government, we understand
there is a different responsibility.
Keywords matched
immigration border security Immigration border
security