Political Quotes

“I say to my colleague from Alabama--and, again, I thank him for his leadership on this issue, both past and present--what we are talking about here is something that is a part of the solution. This is not the totality. This is not the entirety. People come down here and say: Well, you cannot just build a fence. People will tunnel under it. They will climb over it. Of course they will. But coupled with additional Border Patrol agents, coupled with surveillance, coupled with modern technologies, it is a composite solution, if you will, but it still very clearly is a deterrent. It is a visible, tangible message and deterrent that we want people to come to this country legally, we want to discourage illegal immigration. I think the fence is part of the infrastructure component of that border security solution, and it is something we have all made commitments on in the past. I think it is very hard to ask people to vote for an immigration reform bill that includes the legalization component to it if we are not going to follow through on the promises we have made because the American people have heard this before. Promises, promises is something they have heard plenty of in the past when it comes to this issue. We have yet to follow through on this with the exception of the 36 miles that I mentioned that have been built. But commitments were made in 1996, requirements to do this in 2006. As the Senator said, in 2008 the money was added. That was a 76-to-17 vote here in the Senate.…”