Dick Durbin: “my colleague from Texas has just stepped off the floor. He has spoken at some length about his position on this…”

“my colleague from Texas has just stepped off the floor. He has spoken at some length about his position on this nomination. With the utmost respect for my colleague from Texas, I wish to address the same issue. We disagree on many political issues, but we are truly friends, and we work together on the Senate Judiciary Committee. I respect him very much, even though we disagree on this issue. I just wanted to express my respect for the senior Senator from Texas before I speak about the nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security. I am at a loss to explain the position of the Senator from Texas and the Republican Party of America when it comes to the issue of immigration. What are we to make of what they tell us when we talk about immigration? Without fail, they say to us: First and foremost, we must have enforcement at our borders. Once we have secured our borders from the inflow of illegal immigrants, then--and only then--can we discuss fixing our broken immigration system. How often have we heard that? I have heard it every time the Republicans address the issue of immigration: First, fix the border, and then we will talk. It was about 540 days ago--on the floor of the Senate--when we called up an immigration reform bill for consideration. That immigration reform bill was put together--a comprehensive bill--by Democrats and Republicans. I was one of eight who helped to put that bill together. We sat down for months and negotiated that bill.…”