years ago i introduced a bill called the dream act. the dream act was designed to give children brought to the united states by their parents who were undocumented a chance, a path toward legalization, a path towards citizenship. these were people now in their teens and early 20's who were brought to the united states as infants and children. it was not their conscious decision to come to this country. it was a decision by their parents. they've grown up in the united states. it is estimated 2.5 million young people came to this country under these circumstances. so many of them have done everything they have been asked to do. completed their education, stood up in the classroom every morning and pledged allegiance to that flag, the only flag they've ever known, become part of america, excelled academically, started dreaming about what they might do as americans to make their lives

better and this country better. but the law in this country is very harsh when it comes to these young people. the law says in its bleakest terms they have to leave the united states for ten years and petition to come back in. here they are 18, 19 years of age being told now that you've graduated high school, whatever your status, leave. go back somewhere where you cannot ever railroad living and -- ever remember living, and wait ten years. so i introduced the dream act and said if these young people completed their education, if they have no serious criminal issues, if they are prepared to come forward, serve their country in the military, finish their college education, we will give them a path to citizenship. 15 years we've waited. i can remember when these galleries were filled with young people, dreamers, undocumented young people who sat one saturday morning in their caps and gowns in the gallery, praying that we would pass the

dream act and give them a chance to become part of the only country they have ever known. the measure failed on the floor of the senate. it was a brokenhearted moment for me, facing these young people, many of them in tears, sobbing not knowing what their lives would lead to. and i said to them if you won't give up on me, i'm not going to give up on you. let's keep working at this. and so i sent a letter in april of 2010 to my friend, the president of the united states, who had been a cosponsor of the dream act. and i said to president obama, can you do something? can you do something to allow these young people a chance? give them a chance. and he did. he came through with a program called daca, and this deferred action program was really designed to give these young people a temporary stay from deportation. it's only temporary, for several years. but in order to get that stay, they had to come forward. they had to register with the

government, pay a filing fee, make sure all their vital information had been disclosed, go through a thorough criminal background check, and then if they got a job, they would pay their taxes as required of every person living in this country, and they would have a temporary stay of deportation, to stay here, go to school or work. several years later they would have to do it all over again and go through the same background check and pay the same fees. the president signed that executive order and said it was within his authority as the chief executive to decide what are the highest priorities that should be deported from the united states? the president rightly said let's go after felons and dangerous criminals. they shouldn't be part of our country. why should we only go after young people who only want to complete their education and be a positive part of our future.

so the president signed the executive order for daca. some time later came an opportunity to consider families in similar circumstances. most people have the mistaken notion that if you're undocumented, everybody in your home is undocumented. i haven't found that to be the case. more often than not, only one parent will be undocumented. the father may be an american citizen. all the kids may be american citizens, but mom may be undocumented. so the president put in another proposal and said in those circumstances where you have someone undocumented in the country with a child who is an american citizen, you can apply for what's known as dapa, which gave them the same temporary stay of deportation. you had to pay your filing fee, go through a criminal background check again, pay taxes on any money that you earned and for a temporary period of time you would not be deported. when the president signed that second executive order, a number of governors, all republicans,

from across the states filed an action to stop the implement ation of the president's executive order. now, that's a big deal. it literally affects millions of people in this country who are undocumented. and these governors argued that if they were forced, for example, in the state of texas to give driver's licenses to undocumented people, they would have administrative expenses so that the president's order would create a hardship on their state. what they failed to acknowledge, of course, was that these new people under the executive order would be paying taxes, legally paying their taxes to the federal and state government, and they would pay any fee necessary to get a driver's license imposed by the state of texas. the case went before the supreme court, and the decision was handed down just a few minutes ago. the decision of the supreme the decision of the supreme

testing.ng >> it happened several months ago when justice scalia was on s hunting trip, he sadly passed away to the shock of everyone. then there is a vacancy on the supreme court, the president of the united states did what he was supposed to do. article two of the constitution there is a requirement that the. president fill the vacancy on the supreme court.presiden why would the founding fathers put a requirement on thehe president, they understood that some president to play games with vacancies on the court. they said no. you have to send your nominees name to the united states senate where we will have the opportunity to advising consent to that nominee.

the president met his responsibility. to judge merrick garland works for the d.c. circuit court of appeals, in fact to the chief justice of the d.c. circuit. the presence and his name to fill the scalia vacancy. as merrick garland qualify? the? the american bar association, just this week said what we already knew. merrick merrick garland is unanimouslyat point well-qualified for the position. so the president's nominee at that point with come for the senate. in the history of the united states, we have never, ever denied a nominee for the supreme court vacancy. a hearing and a vote in the united states and. never. until this very moment. when the republican leadership in the united states senate saie no. we are not quite to fill the vacancy because we are hopingacy that our presidential candidate, in this case mr. donald trump will be able to fill that vacancy. so we'll keep the vacancy open

for our dream candidate, president donald trump. it's the first time in the history of the united states the senate has turned its back on a presidential request to fill a vacancy on the supreme court. the and had we want, the republicans they could create problems. today we see exactly the, problems that can be created. the human cost of the senate republicans, the reckless refusal to fill the vacancy in the supreme court is going to be felt by literally millions of re people. today, the the supreme court failed to resolve the legal pres challenge to doppler and expanded dock, the expanded orders of the president. the result of that tie vote, four-four tie vote, the result of that leaves millions of families in legal limbo.

i urge the justice department to consider all the legal options, to swiftly overturn the injunction that is blocking president obama from using his legal authority to set immigration enforcementdw-abidin priorities. it will leaks make our country safer and allow law-abiding individuals with the prisoner communities to step out of the shadows and contribute more fully to a country they love. tie vote on the united states appearing vote, cannot remember. the last time that happened. it happens very rarely, it did not have to happen, if the senate republican majority had done its job, had faced its constitutional responsibility,en held a hearing then i have confidence that he would've been approved and been a member of this u.s. supreme court. we could have avoided what we now face, a split split totr court, four-four which cannott resolve critical and controversial issues. the net result of republican refusal to

fill that vacancy is to create an injustice across america for millions living in this country, and uncertainty about their future. that is a type of constitutionat irresponsibility.r if it played out across the street it was announced minutes ago, this is what happens when the senate republicans refuse to do their job. when they say we are going to play politics with filling a vacancy on the supreme court. we are going to hope and prayer that battle trump will fill the vacancy with some away like a little bit better than the nominee of president obama. it is a sad day now we know what this constitutional irresponsibility by the senate republicans has done. it has created a fractured court, it has split our nation in terms of the law, it has denigrated one of the most important institutions of our government. i hope if you republicans will will step up and realize that whatever w

president trump to fill the vacancy is at the wrong answer. we need to accept the constitution's mandate to move quickly to fill the vacancy as quickly as possible. in the meantime, with a split court decision we need to call on our justice department to do everything possible to try to find a path toward a just resolution which the supreme court was unable to find today. mr. president, you'll the floor. >> today the supreme court in the case of united states versus procedure i think for the law and the lawfulness in america. a victory for for the constitutional process by which congress passes laws and the president obliged to faithfully execute those laws. he takes takes an oath to do that.rica. he is the chief law-enforcement officer in america. congress is the body that passes laws. and they make laws.ears. we have a series of immigration

laws, most of which have been on the book for many years. they reflected decided view of the government and people of the united states of america. those laws are obliged to be enforced in an effective and consistent ways. this decision today held that on an interim basis a stay should be issued. in in other words, an order issued by the lower court to block the president of theie united states from carrying out a series of legal actions that he wants to carry out must be stopped. he he lacks the authority to do that. it is a huge, significant, constitutional matter. if you remember colleagues, it was not too long ago that we had a national debate and vote about reforming immigration laws in the united states.re

i believe that was not good reform and we debated it and it failed in the congress. it did not get the support although ticket support in the senate. that proposal failed. the american people spoke clearly on it, they contacted uw in large numbers, people began to understand that the bill was not effective to do what he was going to do and that was two and. it would be effective inay, granting amnesty to virtually everybody i'm awfully in the country today but it did not, it would not have been able to th carry out an effective and lawful system for the future. that is what i believe intensely. i was a federal prosecutor for 15 years, we try to read the line picture it was effective and it was not effective. president j well, so the president justpen m decided that i'm going to use ma

pen and i'm going to issue orders to all the executive agencies that are implied to enforce the laws of the united states and i'm going to tell them to do with the congress by the rejected. i'm going to execute amnesty by the signing of my pen that legalizes everyone in the country here today. this is an unbelievable overreach. a matter of tremendous import. it is a front to the legislative process. immigrati it's a front of the majority of the american people who want to lawful system of immigration. one that serves their interest, serves the interest of america, the national interest, not just some special interest who want cheaper labor. not just some political interest but was the policy that best serves the american people. that's what this issue is allbue about. 4-4

the supreme court by a four-four vote concluded that the stay should remain. that that is to block the president at least of that portion of thet executive order he is issue. that is before the court. he. he has done some other things not before the court. and i think that would be at risk to improperly challenge but they have not made it to the court yet. i think this is an important vote. if you remember the judge heardg the case, he issued a stay, block the president from going f forward with his own, lawful, his own law plan for immigration. the one that congress hadhe rejected. there court of appeals in texas, the fifth circuit which encodes more than texas, they ruled that the judge was corrected now by a four-four vote, the ruling by

the fifth circuit is upheld. on november of 2014, thet administration as i have said before went on strike. it just announced we are not going to follow the requirements on the laws of the united states with regard to immigration. i am going to direct my offices to carry out a policy that i think should be the national policy. sorry that congress did not pase it. do the historic lie remains in place but i'm going to direct my officers not to do it. that is what he did. in effect, it was it was acc and of the enforcement of immigration law. so many key ways under the guise

of what he called exercising prosecutorial discretion, it explicitly, his orders did directed the law-enforcement officers not to enforce plain law. for cement to violate their oath of office to support and defend the constitution of the united states. and his own oath which is to see that the laws are faithfully sen executed. and effectively eliminated entire sections of the united states code. not only did the obama administration direct's officers and agents, all of which are in the executive branch under his supervision as a president of the united states, the chief executive.pa l he ordered those agencies, the department of homeland security not to follow the law, he said those who came here illegally and had children and the united states would be allowed to stay in the united states and be granted work permits.s t work permits. and and access to certain benefits. people who enter the country unlawfully. so. so no wonder the immigration and

customs enforcement officials have had so much difficulty with this. an objective federal study that is done every year, every periodically evaluates the morale of the federal officers in the united states. they have found, think again this year that the morale of the homeland security agency is the lowest of any federal agency. why is it, because they haveut been ordered not to do their duty. they put their lives on the lines, border patrol agents doing dangerous circumstances and they arrest people and bring them in and what happens? they are not supported, they are released on bail or some sort of promise to appear and they go into the country as they plan to do all along. this is extremely discouraging for our officers and agents. it is wrong, it should not happen. it is a cause of the increasing

number of illegal immigrants we have in the nation today. >> in fact, colleagues, a few years ago the immigration and customs enforcement officers association, a part of homeland security filed a lawsuit against secretary janet and john martin, one of the supervisors and said0 that you are ordering us to violate our oath to force the law. i have never never seen a lawsuit like this. 18000 or so agents and officers suing their supervisors for ordering them not to do their duty. this is wrong. it demoralizes our morale. when you have that kind of

situation, what message does it send to the world. it sends a message to the world that if you can get into the united states you can be successful and you can stay here. you don't have to come according to the law. we have seen an increase in lawlessness in recent years. in fact, it looks like this year among a number of categories we have already reached the same level of arrest that we did in all of last fiscal year. so we are having a rather significant increase again this year. well, what happened? over half of the state attorney generals in the united states filed a lawsuit in the federal court, judge andrew hainan in the district court for the southern district of texas heard the case. he went on for a considerable amount of time. the. the department of justicesi defended president obama's actions. so the top lawyers in the u.s.f

department of justice can go to taxes and defend this case andha they oppose by more than half the the attorney general's ofu the united states. judge hannon heard the case and he issued an injunction. he said mr. president, your change in the regulations of the and issued pursuant to the immigration and nationality act. your change in those. before you you are changing t regulations you have to be able to go through a process. you have to have notice and opportunity for people to be heard and objections to be made. and before the regulations can be, and that was basically the decision that he rendered. the united states court of appeals for the fifth circuit next to the supreme court upheld the injunction and today decision confirmed that the obama administration while this

plan may not proceed. sent but the fight is far from over. the case will not be sent back to judge hannon for additional litigation on the merits and the ultimate outcome remains uncertain. i would say that for it to issue a stay and to block a federal agency for going forward with a rule or regulation, the federal judge in the federal court must find that the opposition on the litigants have a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits. i think this decision indicates that on judge hannon, the fifth circuit, and even the supreme court believes that it is likely that judge hannon would be upheld in his decision.

but what is clear, as highlighted by the egregious, unethical conduct conduct of the lawyers of the united states department of justice, where i served for almost 15 years and we worked our hearts out to always be faithful and operate with integrity before the federal judges and always, since we were representatives of the united states of america to make sure that every representation that we made to the court wasig accurate, of a hive standard and most united states attorneys and justice lawyer should know that and adhere to that at the highest level. the p other lawyers frequently don't, private attorneys don't, but, but the federal attorneys, representing the people of the united states of america have that high duty. well what happens, judge hannon found billy that they were determined to go forward with

the unlawful actions even though he had ordered them to stop. and it appears to cause someof e substantial violation of ther integrity of the immigration law in their department and they are going to have a further hearing soon i believe on whether there will be additional penalties. he has already impose penalties on the department of justicech lawyers for their improper conduct which he severely condemned them for. so, the message this administration sending to the world is that if you can get here, you can stay here. according to official statistics from the u.s. customs and bordee protection, the number of so-called family units that are apprehended at the southern border has already exceeded the

number that were apprehended in all of fiscal year 15. already this year. fa approximately 12% more so-called family units were apprehended through may then were apprehended through all of lastp year. p in total apprehension of all aliens appears to be on the rise which is in intricacy of increased illegality into this country. last month, month, the head of the border patrol council testified before the subcommittee on immigration thap i chair that for every alien apprehended at the border by the united states border patrol, we could assume at least one evadee detection. so he represents the border patrol officers. he said that catching half of the people that enter and the apprehended more than 300,000 in the country last year.mporta he further testified, get this

colleagues, this is important, this critically important, it shows the extreme nature of the obama administration's policies with regard to immigration. this officer testified that of the half that are apprehended, at least 80% of those are released into the country andor not deported. they are told, okay, come back to court. f sometimes they have a bail, sometimes they don't. don't. on one hearing a federal agency official testified that theyat take young people to their destination city when they are apprehended. what does that mean? it means that if someone enters the country and they are 17 years of age and they do not know what to do with them, instead of deporting them and sending them back at that time they say where did you intend to go. while my destination was chicago. a so the federal government takes

him to chicago. effor turns him over to a cousin, uncle, aunt, whatever. aunt, whatever. there is no effort to ascertain whether or not the person they are turned over to is legally in the country or not either.nt so this is the kind of thing that is causing such disturbance within the law-enforcement field. it is so discouraging to them. the extent to which the administration has directed its officers not to enforce plan on is one of the most brazene aspects and acts of legal disobedience in the history of america, i think. can an ex-president in refuse to enforce tax law? in the next ex-president say, i do not like this tax, i believe this tax is too high, or i don't believe we should text these entities so he tells his subordinate unit, the head of the irs, just like he tells the

head of the homeland security, do not force this law, i know congress passed a come i come i don't think it's a fair tax, don't collect it, tell everybody in the country. if you don't pay that tax you can be certain that the irs is not going to spend its time and effort to collect it. so you are home free. that is the the kind of logic we are dealing with. the these lawless actions fly in the face of what the american people ask for.tion's yet, despite having the radical immigration policies in our clinto nations history, former secretary of state hillary clinton has promised to go event further. some of the things that she has declared. it president, she promises to deport only those who commit violent felonies or happen to be terrorists. anybody else i guess can come in illegally into the country, sell drugs, get call for fraud, kick

cough or fraudulent ids, kickoff or credit card fraud, and those kind of things as long as it's not a violent crime they will never get sent home. they get to stay here. how is this in harmony with thep will of the american people to have a lawful system of immigration? one that protects their public safety, protects them from criminal activities, protects them from terrorism and those kind of things. moreover, if secretary clinton t is provided with the ability as president to appoint a new justice to the supreme court the who who knows, but it is certainly clear that she has been vigorously critical of the decision and says it is correct

essentially. she said this in a statement today, quote today's decision by the supreme court is purely procedural, cast no doubt has no doubt that trend five and daca are entirely within the president's authority. entirely within the president's authority. again let me remind you view of what the president did. be adults in the issue before the supreme court that he will not be deported, he declared that you are able to work. he has given them work't authorization. when the laws of the united states do not allow people illegally here to take jobs. not only that, he give them a right to to social security.

he gave them social security numbers. then they will pay into social security. they will be able to get social security and medicare, and other programs. programs. basically, he gave illegal persons, established by the laws of the united states legal status to participate as american citizens in virtually every matter of importance. it is pretty exceptional. former secretary clinton says i will induce comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship to those within my first 100 days. in other words, she would give legal status, citizenship to everybody that came to the country illegally. it is just a very damaging thinm and