Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Lankford through the Chair. Madam President, I want to spend a few minutes on this subject as well. We are reaching a milestone that I think is critically important. Since President Biden has entered office, the number of encounters at the border, 8 million--8 million--since President Biden entered office--that population exceeds the population of 30 U.S. States--the population of 30 individual U.S. States. That is the number we are talking about here. And, ladies and gentlemen, a lot of them are the people who we just described. Of course, the United States wants to be a haven for people who are fearing for their lives, suffering from oppression. But the goal of asylum is to get them immediately out of that dangerous situation--not to suddenly decide that I want to go through two or three or four other jurisdictions because what, ultimately, I want to do is get to the United States. They are demeaning and devaluing the concept of asylum. And the problem is, they are getting those who want to come here--and we should take it as a compliment that they want to come to the United States-- but they are elbowing out and sapping the capacity for the United States to make absolutely certain that people who have a legitimate case for asylum are even being heard. I wonder about how many thousands of people who desperately need to get to the United States--it is their only option--are not getting there because we are focused on this population.…”