Orrin Hatch: “I ask the Record reflect that if I would have been present for yesterday's vote on the Development, Relief, and…”

“I ask the Record reflect that if I would have been present for yesterday's vote on the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors--DREAM--Act of 2010, H.R. 5281, that I would have voted against cloture. My wife and I had a long standing family commitment to attend my grandson's graduation. The American people sent us a clear message on November 2, 2010, to focus on getting our economy moving again. It bears repeating: our country's unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent. Yet instead of listening to the true needs of this Nation, the majority in the Senate is moving full speed ahead with legislation in order to curry favor with political constituencies. Pushing this bill through during a lameduck session of Congress is not how Utahns or Americans want Congress to operate. The bill before us is one of many versions of the DREAM Act introduced in the last 2 months. Though H.R. 5281 would result in a significant change to U.S. immigration law, the bill never received 1 day of a committee markup. An issue as important as this one needs to follow the regular order of the legislative process. Now more than ever, our Nation's porous border is flowing over with increasingly violent crimes--fueled by drugs, gangs and even human trafficking. Unfortunately, this chaos is spilling into our communities. That is why, when it comes to immigration, my primary focus is on how we can finally secure our borders and how best to fix our broken immigration system.”