On the recordJuly 31, 2014
The problem we have at the border today is a direct result of the actions of the President of the United States. In 2011 we had 6,000 young people coming to America unlawfully. They were apprehended. Now we have 60,000. It was because of his DACA program and his open statement that was heard throughout the world as: If you come to America as a young person, you will be able to stay. That was exactly and I think to some degree remains the situation. If you come to America as a young person from Central America, not Mexico, and you turn yourself in, you will be released on a permiso or bond or promise to reappear. People come and pick up the children and they stay. This is no way to run a lawful system of immigration. You know, it was said: Well, we offered a comprehensive bill to fix it. That bill was flawed. I opposed that bill. It was rejected by the House of Representatives. I would say with great confidence that because the House of Representatives rejected the bill that Members of this Senate supported and that the President of the United States supported does not thereby mean the President of the United States can do what the bill says when it was rejected and did not become law. It takes both Houses to pass a piece of legislation. The bill would not have worked. It would not have been effective. The people of the United States, through their elected representatives, did not allow it to become law.…
