Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator for his comments. As Senator Cornyn lives down at the border and as his State is on the border, he is well familiar with that part of the world. As it turns out, as the former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I have had a chance to visit the borders in the Senator's State and in other States along the Mexican border. Not that long ago, there were a whole lot of Mexicans coming into the United States, as he knows, and not so many Mexicans going back to Mexico. In the year 2000, when illegal immigration peaked, huge numbers of Mexicans came in--not so much today. As the Senator knows, they are coming from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. I am a huge advocate of border security. I think fencing makes sense in a lot of places. We have hundreds of miles of fencing, and in a lot of places, fences alongside roads make sense. We have very sophisticated surveillance equipment that can look from different platforms. We have drones, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, stationary towers, and mobile towers that can look down 20, 25 miles into Mexico and pick up people who are coming up from the south. Motion detectors make sense, and tunnel detectors make sense. There is a lot of stuff that makes sense. I am all for investing there. I think Democrats and Republicans can find common ground, and I think we have. The appropriations bills that we have passed will actually fund that kind of stuff.…”