Political Quotes

“I say to the senior Senator from Arizona and the senior Senator from Illinois--and I will turn the floor over to Senator Durbin in a moment--that there are two big problems: This wave of children is coming and not allowed to legally stay in the United States and thus subject to being returned to their country of origin. Both Vice President Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that is the law of the land. If the President doesn't step up and use his bully pulpit to send this message in a way that none of us can because people pay attention to him and not as much to us--I think that is a fair statement--then this wave is going to continue, and it is going to get worse and worse. I ask through the Chair to the senior Senator from Arizona and the senior Senator from Illinois--both of whom I know care passionately and are committed to fixing our broken immigration laws, although we have had our differences--how will the American people let us do this if they have lost confidence in the executive branch's willingness to enforce the current law? I think it makes it much, much harder. In fact, as I alluded to a moment ago, the majority leader and the senior Senator from New York said: Let's pass immigration reform but delay its implementation until after President Obama leaves office. That sounds like an embarrassing proposal.”