Bob Menendez: “my amendment creates a deficit reserve fund to support increased border security and enforcement of immigration laws.…”

“my amendment creates a deficit reserve fund to support increased border security and enforcement of immigration laws. But instead of going down the same old tired way that has not created results, as you will be asked to do in the amendment from Senator Sessions, what we do is actually go after the magnet that brings people to this country; that is, jobs and those who employ them illegally. So we have the ability, under this amendment, to pursue civil penalties against bad-actor employers, to render them ineligible to receive Federal contracts; to also go after criminal aliens in Federal, State, and local prisons to make sure we deport them; and finally, to implement the exit data portion of the US-VISIT entry and exit data system so we know who is coming into this country and how to track them. These are the ways we will begin to address some of our immigration challenges. Finally, we make sure we allow the National Guard to go to the border but not until we have it declared that it will not impede or render unsafe our troops abroad, which the National Guard are supporting. For all those reasons, I urge my colleagues to support our amendment and oppose the amendment from Senator Sessions.”