Political Quotes

“I know there is another unanimous consent request to be made, so I will be very brief. I have always taken Senator Graham's concerns about parole at face value. In fact, the last 30 days of the negotiations over the bipartisan border bill were dedicated to this question of reforming parole. In fact, the bill we are going to vote on in a matter of minutes involves the most significant, most serious reform of parole likely in the history of the country. We entered that conversation at the urging of Senator Graham. He was intimately involved in the negotiations over the reform of parole. The reforms are significant: an elimination of 236(a) parole, the parole that is used between the borders; a substitution for that process with a new rigorous examination of every individual who is arriving credentialed for asylum; major reforms to the humanitarian parole program to make sure that it is truly used only for humanitarian purposes. So the irony of the complaints that are being made about the overuse of parole is that the bipartisan border bill--negotiated with Senator Graham--involves the most significant reforms to parole, the most significant restrictions to the President's parole authority, that anyone here in this Senate has likely ever negotiated. That is why it is regrettable that we are debating unanimous consent agreements instead of coming together to vote on a proposal that addresses many of the concerns raised by my colleagues.”