Frank Lautenberg: “In all due respect, I say this to my friend from Florida for whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration.…”

“In all due respect, I say this to my friend from Florida for whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration. Reunification of families is something we wrestle with here all the time--people pleading to allow a relative to join a family that has been here for years. And we say: No, the law doesn't permit it, the rules don't permit it. So we say: Sorry, we can't do that. I get lots of pleas in my office--I am sure every Senator does-- saying: Let my mother come from country X, Y, or Z, or otherwise, and let us join together. I say once again, if we forget we are a nation of laws, then all of us--the people in this room and the people throughout the country-- ought to be bound by the same rules and the same laws. We cannot make the kind of exception that looks as if it is responding to particular pressure in a particular moment.”