Political Quotes

“We are now entering the vote that is referred to as cloture--or close debate--but we can still consider amendments by unanimous consent. I came to the floor yesterday to point out that there is a deep flaw related to children in this bill, and both the majority leader and the floor leader have expressed support for an amendment process. So I am asking to work with me and with my leadership that we might examine this challenge. The challenge is specifically that children, without being charged, without being convicted, are required to be arrested and imprisoned--or not arrested but imprisoned after an arrest with no chance for appeal. My colleagues expressed the belief that the Flores agreement somehow provides protection, but the experts on Flores have said that is incorrect because a bill trumps an agreement, it trumps a rule, and Flores was about children coming to the border, not children living in our community. Furthermore, a family with a parent who is required mandatory imprisonment without appeal is suddenly swept away from their children. Realize we should care about all those children left without a parent at their house, but that is both citizen and noncitizen children. So let's not pretend this flaw only affects folks who are undocumented; it affects our citizen children as well. But, again, we should care about both sets of children thriving. So I ask help from the majority leader and the floor leader.…”