Bill Lee: “reserving the right to object, this is an issue on which Congress needs to act. Congress does, in fact, have authority…”

“reserving the right to object, this is an issue on which Congress needs to act. Congress does, in fact, have authority to pass laws governing immigration and naturalization within our system, but this particular unanimous consent request represents an attempt to pass a major piece of legislation without any opportunity for debate, any opportunity for input from the American people, or any opportunity for amendments by individual Members. If we pass it this way, we will be cutting the American people out of the debate. Moreover, we also need to address the draws for illegal immigration. If we are going to address the needs of those who have been brought here unlawfully by no fault of their own while they were infants or minors, we need to make sure that we are not going to continue to draw people in unlawfully and that we are not going to continue to have people in various parts of the world sending their children here unlawfully, unaccompanied on many occasions and being subjected to sexual assault and all other kinds of abuse in the process. We do need to fix the underlying problem. For that reason, I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The Senator from Illinois.”