On the recordJune 4, 2024
when I hear the Republican leader come to the floor and talk about the fact that President Biden has waited until this point in his first term to issue an Executive order on border security, I can't help but think how long the Senate has waited to do anything on immigration. The Senator from Kentucky knows as well as I do that for more than 30 years, this Senate has failed to pass any meaningful immigration legislation. Part of the problem on our border today hearkens back to decades of neglect by the Senate and the House of Representatives to meet their constitutional responsibility to upgrade our laws. How many times have you heard it said that our immigration legal system is broken? They are right. I happen to know that. I have paid personal attention to this issue for a long time. For the Senator from Kentucky to berate President Biden because he waited until this moment in his first term to take action is to ignore the obvious. We passed comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S. Senate, and it was passed by more than 60 votes. It was sent to the Republican House of Representatives. They refused to act on it. To bring it closer to home, we were told last October not to pass any defense supplemental bill unless it included a provision related to border security. So we waited for a bipartisan group of three Senators--one Republican, one Independent, and one Democrat. Senator Lankford led the effort on behalf of Republicans.…





