Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am going to take a couple minutes to describe the second-degree amendment I have. I appreciate the fact that there was an offer on the other side to simply accept my amendment. I appreciate that, but because it is attached to a first-degree amendment, I am not sure about the prospects for that. I thought it important that all of us have an opportunity to be recorded. This amendment is simple. It provides $200 million for extending the Operation Streamline Program to another border sector, in addition to the Yuma sector and the Del Rio, TX, sector, where it is already in operation--extend it to the Tucson sector. This could substantially reduce illegal immigration, because about half of all of illegal immigration goes through the Tucson sector. Operation Streamline is simple. It involves the Department of Justice accepting those who cross the border illegally into the court system and putting them in jail for about 2 weeks, and sometimes 30 days if there is an incident of repeated crossing or attempted crossing. What we have found is that there is a great deterrent effect. If people who are apprehended know they are going to jail for a couple weeks, they tend not to cross in that area anymore. In fact, in the Yuma sector where this has been in effect now for several years, illegal immigration has been cut by 94 percent, from 118,500 apprehensions 5 years ago to about 5,000 this year.…”