Political Quotes

“Madam President, this amendment is fully offset. It is $200 million. It simply provides the funding for the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to extend a program that has worked very well in two sections of the border to a third section. It is called Operation Streamline. It permits the Department of Justice to try cases, put people in jail, rather than catch and release where they are simply put on a bus and returned to the border. Everybody wants to secure the border. This is a program that has had a 94-percent success rate, a 94-percent reduction in apprehensions in the Yuma border sector and almost that much in the Del Rio sector. So if we can extend that to the sector where half of the illegal immigration in the country comes across, I think we can substantially reduce illegal immigration. Then, for everyone who wants to pursue other legislation, I think there will be a better state of mind in which to do that. So I urge my colleagues to support this $200 million fully offset amendment. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time in opposition? The Senator from New York.”