María Elvira Salazar: “Mr. President, I hope as we move forward as a Senate we can find the courage in this body tonight to turn down this…”

“Mr. President, I hope as we move forward as a Senate we can find the courage in this body tonight to turn down this political gimmick; that in this body there are statesmen and people of principle who believe we ought to put our national security interests ahead of politics; that there are people in this body who believe we ought to address the economic realities of America's farmers and ranchers and construction workers, construction companies, and others; that there are people in this body who can look at the future of the Western Hemisphere, including our relationship with Latin America, and recognize that at the end of the day the fence that is being proposed today is going to be inimical to the long-term interests of the United States of America as we unite as a global community to deal with the issues of terrorism around the world; that this fence is going to be something that is going to hurt us in building those alliances. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote against this fence bill. And I urge we do it in a bipartisan way.”