Political Quotes

“Madam President, I come to the floor today for a number of reasons, but first and most pressing is to call on and ask the administration to extend deferred enforced departure status for a group of Liberians. This is a unique situation. Senator Jack Reed was on the floor in the last hour talking about it as well. Both the State of Rhode Island and the State of Minnesota have a number of Liberians who didn't just come to this country--they didn't come to this country illegally--they came to this country decades ago. They came because of a civil war in their country of Liberia, and then after that war was basically resolved, they were allowed to stay. So they are all registered in this country, they are working legally in this country, and they are in a special status called deferred enforced departure. Ever since George H.W. Bush, Presidents--Democrats and Republicans; George Bush, of course, President Clinton, and President Obama--every one has allowed them to stay. As my colleagues can imagine, since this happened back in 1991, these are people who have been working in our country for decades now. I met one who is 65 years old. Some of them are now 70 years old. They have obeyed the law. They have paid their taxes. They tend to be working in a lot of--of course, consistently--working in our assisted living facilities in Minnesota. They are working in our hospitals. Some of them had healthcare experience in Liberia before they came to Minnesota.…”