Political Quotes

“last year in a combination of procedural outrage and substantive outrage, we enacted into law, over the objection of myself and many others, provisions which made deportation automatic in a number of cases where deportation is inhumane, disruptive not just to individuals, but to other countries, and wholly unjustified. No society has an obligation to tolerate within its midst people who are a danger to others, people who disrupt the lives of others. We have had deportation laws on the books to protect us in those situations, although they have not always been enforced with the vigor which should have obtained. Last year, reacting to the terrorism and other things that happened, we passed legislation to try to improve our internal security. Much of that was sensible and I voted for it. Some of it was simply abusive, demagogic, and cruel. One example was what we did in deportation. What we said was, in effect, if one has ever been convicted of a felony, one will be automatically deported, despite the virulence of the offense, and in particular, regardless of whether or not in the interim one had become a good citizen.”