Dick Durbin: “this is what we are facing: The President has come to us facing a crisis at the border. He has asked us for the…”

“this is what we are facing: The President has come to us facing a crisis at the border. He has asked us for the resources for the Border Patrol that has to process these children coming in and for Health and Human Services so that once these children--some of whom are toddlers and infants--are in our country, they can be treated humanely. He has asked us for the resources for that purpose. He has also asked us initially for some resources to get to the heart of the problem, which Senator Cornyn of Texas has acknowledged. The heart of the problem is not in the United States; the problem is in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. There is clearly a crisis situation there. What Senator Mikulski, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has done is reduced the President's budget request by $1 billion, if I am not mistaken, and said: We will respond to this emergency request with these resources and realize that more is going to be done. On the other side of the aisle, the senior Senator from Texas has come in and talked about changing immigration law. He was kind enough to acknowledge that we made an effort to change the immigration law right here on the floor of the Senate over a year ago with 68 votes. Fourteen Republicans joined the Democrats in a comprehensive immigration bill. The Senator from Texas acknowledged he did not vote for it.…”