Political Quotes

“I am familiar with the issue the Senator from Texas refers to, and I kept a provision included in the bill that we will be voting on at some point, on that issue. It seems to me, if you are a convicted sex offender, why do we want you in this country? The irony is that just this week the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on sex trafficking, and we heard heartbreaking stories of very young girls who had been abused by men, who had been taken from State to State, coerced into prostitution. I do not want those individuals, if they come from another country, to be allowed to stay here. All 20 of the women of the Senate requested this hearing from the Judiciary Committee, and the Senator from Texas and the Senator from Minnesota have bills that deal with this kind of human trafficking. We are trying to send a message that these individuals should be a high priority for deportation, but I want to make it clear that contrary to allegations that have been made about my bill--and, frankly, it is a completely specious argument--there is nothing in my bill that deprives the Department of Homeland Security of the authority it needs to pursue those who would seek to harm our country--those, for example, who are terrorists or belong to gangs or pose some sort of public safety or national security threat. Indeed, the public safety threat is big enough to cover the people we are talking about, but we think they merit special mention in our bill.…”