so let's get to work. future dreamers and the fate of the american dream itself lies in our hands. when i left that funeral yesterday in vermont, i thought of my wife's uncle and her parents coming here from canada to make a better life. my grandparents coming from italy. my great-grandparents coming from ireland, all who made such a mark on our little state of vermont, all for the better. and as a member of that family, how proud i am to stand here on the floor of the united states senate. i want to do more than just stand here. i want to vote for a bill to help more people like that to come to our country, to make our country better. mr. president, i would suggest

the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we, we are. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i'd ask unanimous consent that the

quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i have 11 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they've been approved by both the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. cornyn: mr. president, today a group led by chairman of the senate judiciary committee, chairman grassley, formally introduced a bill to address the daca issue, the deferred action on childhood arrivals issue that we've heard so much about as well as border security. i think it's a good starting point. i'm proud to be a cosponsor of the legislation which is called the secure and succeed act. perhaps the most important thing about this bill is that it actually has a good chance of becoming law. that's because the president supports it. it encompasses the four pillars that the president's laid out for us in any solution to the daca challenge.

the secure and succeed act provides legal status and a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 1.8 million people who meet the specific criteria of daca. this is far -- this is a far larger number than the number of individuals covered by president obama's executive order. i think the fact that this president would say to the 690,000 daca recipients not only are you going to have a better, brighter future and a pathway to american citizenship, this president has offered all of the young people eligible but who might not have previously signed up that same opportunity. what an extraordinary -- extraordinarily generous offer. this bill also provides for a real plan to strengthen border security utilizing the three things that border patrol has always told me are essential.

more boots on the ground, better technology, and, yes, some infrastructure in hard-to-control locations along with enhanced ports of entry. i know there's been some confusion about that. the president likes to talk about the wall and it is true that back in -- i think it was roughly 2006, 2007, congress voted for something called the secure fence act. that got the support of then-senator obama, then-senator hillary clinton and current senator chuck schumer. they supported the secure fence act as did an overwhelming majority of senators from both parties. when the president talks about the wall, he's made pretty clear that what he's really talking about is a barrier similar to what was supported on a bipartisan basis. he said you're going to have to see through it, the border patrol is, and indeed, in many places he's conceded, it doesn't

make any sense at all to have a physical barrier. that's why technology and the boots on the ground are so important. this legislation also reallocates visas from the diversity lottery system in a way that's fair and continues the existing family-based categories until the current backlog is cleared, which would take probably about ten years. i'm proud to cosponsor this commonsense solution, but i know that other colleagues have been working hard on their ideas which i look forward to reviewing as the debate continues. one group i haven't heard from much, though, is our democratic colleagues who literally shut down the government to force this debate occur on their terms and at a time they chose. we're still trying to figure out, okay, you won in a sense. i think the american people lost when you shut down the government, but you made your point. you wanted a time certain and you wanted a fair process by

which to present your ideas. and we've been waiting. here it is wednesday with the clock ticking, still waiting for that democratic proposal. what is their plan? what is their proposal? do they even have one? and if they do, why are they leaving the rest of us as well as the nation in the dark? as the majority leader said yesterday, we need to stop trying to score political points and start making law. that's the way to get this done. take the proposal like the president's, let's get started. people can offer amendments to that. whatever gets 60 votes in the senate passes the senate and then it's up to the house to passion it and -- pass it and up to the president to sign it or not. but he's pretty much given us an outline of what he would find acceptable which again, in so far as it grants a path of citizenship for 1.8 million people, that is extraordinary in and of itself.

but the majority leader made a commitment to hold this debate and to hold it this week. he has lived up to his promise. and now we can't let it all go to waste, which as each minute and each hour that clicks off the top -- the clock, it looks like that is more and more likely to happen, that all of this will go to waste. the country is watching. the daca recipients in my home state, all 124,000 of them, are watching and worryin worrying, understandably anxious about what their status is going to be when this program ends on march 5. one of those daca recipients is julio ramos, a biology teacher who is getting his master degree in biomedical inframatics. he is a daca recipient.

after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, he decided he wanted to be a doctor. he's even been accepted into texas medical schools, but he wasn't sure whether he would be allowed to attend. he's waiting and watchin watchi, worried about liz future. -- worried about his future. then there's miriam santamarie from houston, texas. she graduated from houston high school with honors. she paid her way through community college and she works as a manager at a construction company and owns her own photography business. sounds like quite an entrepreneur to me. miriam said, i'm not looking for any kind of recognition or sympathy. i just want to make a difference and inspire others. she's also looking to live in peace in the only country that she's ever known, that she calls home. she came to the united states when she was 4 years old. finally, there is a man who i'll

just call by the first name of daniel. he, too, lives in texas. he graduated from the university of north texas with a degree in advertising and contributes productively to society. daniel came from mexico at the age of 2. and he said, all the choices i make i made as an american because that's what i am. we need to listen to these stories as we consider this legislation and as people are perhaps tempted into the political grandstanding and gamesmanship that unfortunately sometimes overwhelms our best intentions. these are real human lives hanging in the balance. they're important. they teach us about the real people behind the policy. but their stories are not the only ones we need to listen to. we need to listen to the stories of the men and women who have been waiting patiently for years

to come here in a legal way through visas and green cards, waiting patiently to join their families here in the united states doing it the old fashion legal way. but they've had to wait, some for years, some for decades. and we should listen to the stories of the border communities that i'm proud to represent in texas. for men and women, many of whom are of hispanic origin, who suffered property damage from illegal immigration -- illegal immigration is a pretty ugly business when you consider that it's in the hands of drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations. recently one of the military leaders whose responsible for southern command, which is central america south, he said that these transnational criminal organizations or cartels are commodity agnostic is the phrase he used.

he said they don't care whether it's people, it's drugs, or other contra band. what they're in it for is the money. and they're willing to do anything for the money. and unfortunately the victims of human trafficking know exactly what i'm talking about. despite these hardships, business in many of the communities like those along the border are thriving, but we need to do everything we can to make sure that that continues to be the case. sympathy for daca recipients is right and good because in america, we do not punish children for the mistakes of their parents. and we're not going to punish these young people who are now adults and have become part of our communities. but those americans who live along the border in my state realize that illegal immigration has caused real tangible harm in

terms of public safety, in terms of property damage, and their way of life. when i talk to people like manny padia, the border patrol sector chief in the rio grande valley, it's hard not to realize just how much is required, how many more resources we need to maintain situational awareness and operational control along the border. and i'll say this, madam president. the federal government has failed over the years to live up to its responsibility to maintain the security of our border. and so taxpayers in my state have to step up and fill the gap left by the failure of leadership at the federal government. but we have an opportunity to fix that in this legislation. following the parameters that the president has laid out for us. that's why during this week's

debate, ensuring additional resources for border security is an essential piece of the puzzle. that includes not only in the areas between the ports of entry, but we have -- well, mexico is one of our largest trading partners. we have legitimate trade and whichers that flows back -- commerce that flows back and forth the border with mexico that supports five million american jobs. but unfortunately the cartels have figured out how to exploit that as well. so because of antiquated infrastructure and technology at our ports of entry, many of them are vulnerable to the importation of poison, literally drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and the like that's taken the lives of so many americans. and we need to do more and better when it comes to maintaining those ports of entry, upgrading the infrastructure, improving the technology so we can interdict more of that.

again, the border is as varied as any place in the world with areas that are flat and open and areas that have mountains and rolling hills, rivers obviously, and technology as we've come to see as transformed our way of life. and technology can increasingly be the answer to supplement those boots on the ground and the infrastructure that the border patrol thinks are necessary. there's a big difference between detecting illegal immigration in rural areas and urban ones. in urban areas you might just have a few seconds, the boarder patrol tells us, before somebody can cross the border and enter into the united states. in large, open areas, there's more of a lag time. and so, perhaps, a fence or some infrastructure is not as important. technology might be more important along with the border patrol agents themselves. my basic point is that boarder security is complex.

for those who think it's as easy as one, two, three, i would encourage you to do, as some of my colleagues have done, and that is travel to the border. we'll host you. see it firsthand to see why it's crucial that we strengthen our personnel, technology, and infrastructure. and that's got to be one of our priorities. and i'm grateful to the president for making this one of his requirements as well. so we have an opportunity, madam president, to address not only the anxiety and plight of these daca recipients but also to make our country safer and more secure. and also to reform our legal immigration system in a way that will help us accelerate the reunification of families out of the backlog of people waiting patiently and legally outside of the country to come into the country through legal immigration. and also to address the president's concern about just the roll of the dice in the diversity lottery that makes

little sense given our need for people with job-based skills and graduate degrees and other merit-based criteria that would make them valuable to the united states in addition to winning the lottery. so, madam president, i hope we'll take advantage of this opportunity this week. time is wasting. it's wednesday. we don't have any time to waste at all. madam president, i yield the floor. i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. a senator: madam president, i apologize. i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. perdue: madam president, i rise today to talk about the topic of the week, although some of us have been working on this soar some time, many of us in this body have actually been addressing this over the last 20 years or so. i'm new to this body, only been here a few years or so, but last year i got involved with this. we're dealing with the immigration today, not just the daca issue. our current immigra -- immigration system is outdated and does not meet the needs of our economy. the issue before the united

states senate this week is not just about daca which is but one manifestation of our broken immigration policy. rather, president trump, while offering a generous solution for daca recipients has proposed a broader solution to our legal immigration system that will ensure we're not back here in just a few short years dealing with the same problem again. over the past 11 years, congress has failed to fix our broken immigration system, primarily three times, primarily because it's attempted to solve the entire situation, the comprehensive problem, and that would be the legal situation, the temporary work visa problems, and then the illegal situation. the secure and succeed act only deals with our illegal immigration policy. from the onset of these negotiations, president trump has been consistent with what he wants as part of any immigration deal, dealing with the illegal immigration system. he gave us a clean framework

months ago and said any plan that did not fit that framework would not become law. the secure and succeed act we're dealing with this week is the only plan that fits that frame warning. it's the only plan the president has said he will sign into law. the framework laid out by president trump has four parts. first, it provides a solution for the daca situation and ends the program. it does so in a compassionate, responsible way that every member of the other side of the aisle should support and has supported at various times. president trump went out of his way to reach across the aisle to democrats when he expanded the population that was being discussed in the daca situation and actually talked about providing long-term certainty for this population group. second, this bill secures our borders with additional border security and a wall where required. it puts $25 billion in a trust fund toward border security and a wall system that would be spent over the next few years to

provide better national security on our country's borders. it ends policies like catch and release that encourage more illegal immigration. it makes critical changes to the immigration court system to clear our backlogs, expedite court hearings and give law enforcement the resources they need to properly do their jobs. third, this bill fixes the flaws in the current immigration system that spurred this daca problem in the first place and incentivized illegal immigration. it protects the immediate family of the primary worker. 72% of americans, madam president, believe immigration should include the primary worker, their spouse, and their immediate children which is exactly what this bill does. in addition, two-thirds of americans actually believe that the solution here for illegal immigration includes the daca fix and end of chain migration, border security, and an end to the diversity lottery.

two-thirds, madam president. that was a harvard poll put out a few weeks ago and there are others that actually corroborate that. this bill also addresses the backlog, something that wasn't being discussed before we brought this bill. this bill ensures that primary families of immediate citizens, and some of these are recent green card recipients and new citizens, are trying to get their families in. there's a backlog. and we brought that in this bill and assured that the backlog would be taken care of and these families would be reunited, which is what most americans want. fourth, the secure and succeed act ends the archaic visa lottery program. this failed program is dangerous, filled with fraud, and has proven to be an avenue for terrorists to enter our country. we simply must fix these national security flaws and close the loopholes in our current immigration system that incentivizes illegal immigration. if we don't deal with these problems that got us here in the first place, we'll be right back here in just a few short years

and this is the president's objective. if we're going to deal with it, let's deal with it once and for all on the immigration side and move on to the temporary work visas and solve that as well. i don't think anybody in this body wants to be back here in a few short years. many on the other side and on our side have been trying to find a common solution to this for decades. i believe we have a historic opportunity right now, madam president, to do something that people in this body have wanted to do for a long time, and that is to solve our legal immigration system in a very compassionate, fair way that will benefit every american. that's why we have to deal with these issues in a responsible and fair way. politicians have talked about this for far too long. i've discovered, madam president, by being in this body, it's easy for some to just kick this down the road. it's a great pandering opportunity for one side on the other to blame this on them. unfortunately, the american people deserve better than that. and we have a clean opportunity

right here to do what most people in america want us to do. there's no reason other than politics for the secure and succeed act to not have widespread, bipartisan support in this body this week. each part of the secure and succeed act has been supported by many democrats at various points over the last 30 years. as a matter of fact, in the 1990's, in 1994, barbara jordan presented the result of their bipartisan commission report -- immigration commission report to then-president bill clinton. their recommendations at that time were to change our immigration system for our current country cap chain migration system to more of a skilled-based system like canada and australia. they knew the flaws then of what was included in our immigration law that was written in 1965 that actually incentivized illegal immigration. unfortunately, it seems because these ideas are now being put forward by president donald

trump, the democrats all of a sudden disagree with these principles. president trump has crafted a deal that is tough but more than generous. nobody asked him to expand the number or even talk about certainty in the long term. he brought that forward because he wants this done. he wants this solved. and he wants it ended right now. the secure and succeed act follows the framework president trump has crafted. it makes compromises on both sides of this issue. it deals with the daca issue, secures the border, and fixes critical flaws in our immigration system that incentivize illegal immigration today to ensure we're not back here in just a few short years dealing with the problem again for a new wave of young people brought here illegally. again, the president has said repeatedly that the secure and succeed act is the only bill he will sign into law. leadership in the united states house of representatives have also been clear. the only plan they will bring up to a vote in their body is one that will be signed into law.

the secure and succeed act is that plan. madam president, we don't have many opportunities in this body for common thought and common position. we have one here. i've seen what most people in this body have said about these issues, and it's so much -- it impresses me that there's commonality of thought. this body at the root wants to solve the daca issue, but they also want to solve the problems that cause this issue in the first place. this president called for a compassionate compromise when he met with democrats and republicans several weeks ago in the white house, and we all greed it was time to -- we all agreed it was time to do that for the american people. but the american people want to be assured that the border is secured. they want to be assured that the policies embedded in the immigration system don't create another wave of illegal citizens. they also want this archaic diversity lottery which has never worked in its original intent and is nothing but a

loophole for terrorists today to be ended. i want to say one other thing. i think there have been -- there's too much talk about this bill cutting immigration. that is not the intent here of the intent is long term we've got a bill in here called the raise act which would actually move us to a merit whennen based system like canada and australia. that is not included in the secure and succeed act. what is included here is a first step toward a long-term solution not only in our legal immigration side but it sets us up to then deal with the temporary work visas and then ultimately the illegal population. i believe, madam president, as i know you do, it's time for this body as we say so many times to put ourself interests, our partisan interests aside and do what we now have hard evidence that tells us what the american people want to do. thank you, madam president. i yield my time and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: thank you. madam president, let me begin by congratulating chloe kim, a first-generation american who won a gold medal for the united states in the women's half-pipe snowboarding event this week. her father immigrated from south korea to the united states in 1982, became a dishwasher at a fast food restaurant, studied

engineering at el ka meano -- camino college and became an engineer. he worked as an engineer so he could support her endeavor. congratulations to chloe and her entire family. you make the united states proud. madam president, the whole debate that we are now undertaking over immigration and the dreamers has become somewhat personal for me because it has reminded me in a very strong way that i and my brother are first generation americans. we are the sons of an immigrant who came to this country at the age of 17 without a nickel in

his pocket, a young man who was a high school dropout, who did not know one word of english and who had no particular training. a few years ago my brother and i and our families went to this small town that he came from and it struck me the kind of courage he showed and other people showed leaving their hopeland to come to a very -- homeland to come to a very different world without money in many cases and without knowledge of the language. now my father immigrated to this country because the town that he lived in this poland was incredibly poor, there was no economic opportunity for him,

people there struggled to put food on the table for their families. hunger was a real issue in that area. my father came to this country to avoid the violence and bloodshed of world war i which came to his part of the world in a ferocious manner, and he came to this country to escape the religious bigotry that existed then because he was jewish. my father lived in this country until his death in 1962. he never made a lot of money. he was a paint salesman. my father was not a political person but it turned out that without talking much about it,

he was the proudest american that you ever saw, and he was so proud of this country because he was deeply grateful that the united states had welcomed him in and allowed him opportunities that would have been absolutely unthinkable from where he came. but the truth is that immigration is not just my story, it's not just the story of one young man coming from poland who managed to see two of his kids go to college and one of his sons become a united states senator. it's not just my family's story, it is the story of my wife's family who came from ireland and it is the story of tens of millions of american families

who came from every single part of this world. madam president, in september of 2017, president trump precipitated the current crisis we are dealing with by revoking president obama's daca executive order. if president trump believed that executive order was unconstitutional and that it needed legislation, he could have come to congress for a legislative solution without holding 800,000 young people hostage by revoking their daca status. but president trump chose not to

do that. he chose to provoke the crisis that we are experiencing today and that is a crisis we have to deal with and here in the senate we have to deal with it now. and let us be very clear about the nature of this crisis because some people say, well, it's really not imminent. it's not something we have to worry about now. those people are wrong. as a result of trump's decision, 122 people every day are now losing their legal status, and within a couple of years, hundreds of thousands of these young people will have lost their legal protection and be subject to deportation.

the situation we are in right now as a result of trump's action means that if we do not immediately protect the legal status of some 800,000 dreamers, young people who were brought to this country at the age of 1 or 3 or 6, young people who have known no other home but the united states of america, let us be clear that if we do not act, and act soon, these hundreds of thousands of young people could be subject to deportation. and that means they could be arrested outside of the home where they have lived for virtually their entire life and

suddenly be placed in a jail. they could be pulled out of a classroom where they are teaching, and there are some 20,000 daca recipients who are now teaching in schools all over this country. and if we do not act, and act now, there could be agents going into those schools and pulling those teachers right out and arresting them and subjecting them to deportation. insane as it may sound, i suppose that the 900 daca recipients who now serve in the united states military today could find themselves in the position of being arrested and deported from the country that

they are putting their lives on the line to defend, and some people say, well, that's far fetched. well, i'm not so sure. it could happen. how insane is that? but that's where we are today and that's what could happen if we do not do the right thing and this week pass legislation here in the senate to protect the dreamers. madam president, we have a moral responsibility to stand up for the dreamers and their families and to prevent what will be an indelible, moral stain on our country if we fail to act. i do not want to see what the history books will be saying about this congress if we allow

800,000 young people to be subjected to deportation, to live in incredible fear and anxiety. but here is the very, very good news regarding the dreamers, and it's actually news that i a couple of years ago would not have believed to be possible, and that is, madam president, that the overwhelming majority of the american people, democrats, republicans, independents, absolutely agree that we must provide legal protection for the dreamers and that we should provide them with a path toward citizenship. that is not bernie sanders talking, that is what the american people are saying in poll after poll after poll.

just recently, on january 20, a cbs news poll found that nearly nine out of ten americans found in favor of those who entered the united states illegal as children -- illegally as children should remain in america. in every state in this country there is strong support for the dreamers and a path towards citizenship. on january 11, a quinnipiac poll found 86% of american voters, including 76% of republicans, say they want the dreamers to remain in this country. on february 5, in a mammoth poll, when asked, nearly three

out of four americans support allowing these young people to automatically become u.s. citizens as long as they don't have a criminal record. in other words, madam president, the votes that are going to be cast hopefully today, maybe tomorrow, are not profiles encouraged, they are not members of the senate coming up and saying, against all of the odds i believe that i'm going to vote for what is right. this is what the overwhelming majority of the american people want. and maybe, just maybe, it might be appropriate to do what the american people want rather than what a handful of zeno phobic streermists -- extremists want. maybe we should listen to the

people who understand that it would be a morally atrocious thing to allow these young people to be deported. when i think from a political perspective that 80, 85% of the american people supporting anything in a nation where we are divided today is extraordinary. you can't get 80% of the american people people to agree on what their favorite ice cream is. but we've got 80% of the american people who are saying, do not turn your backs on these young people who have lived in this country for virtually their entire lives. madam president, we have got to act and act son here in the senate, and there is good legislation that would allow us to do that. and in the house the good news is that there is now bipartisan

legislation sponsored by congressman herd and congressman arilla which will provide protection for dreamers and a path toward citizenship. my understanding is that bipartisan legislation now has majority support. and i urge in the strongest terms possible that speaker ryan allow democracy to prevail in the house. allow the vote to take place. if you have a majority of members of the house in a bipartisan way who support legislation, allow that legislation to come to the floor, let the members vote their will, and if that occur i think -- occurs, i think the

dreamers legislation will prevail. madam president, we all understand that there is a need for serious debate and legislation regarding comprehensive immigration reform. this is a difficult issue, an issue where there are differences of opinion, a whole lot of aspects to it. how do we provide a path toward citizenship for the 11 million people in this country who are currently undocumented but who are working hard, who are raising their kids, who are obeying the law? what should the overall immigration policy of our country be? how many people should be allowed to enter this country every year? where should they come from? all of this is very, very

important and needs to be seriously debated. but, madam president, that debate and that legislation is not going to be taking place in a two-day period. it's going to need some serious time, some hearings, some committee work before the congress is prepared to vote on comprehensive immigration reform, and it will not and cannot happen today or tomorrow or this week. our focus now as a result of trump's decision in september must be on protecting the dreamers and their families and on the issue of border security.

madam president, -- well, mr. president, there will be important legislation coming to the floor of the senate today or maybe tomorrow. and i would hope that we could do the right thing, do the moral thing, and do something that history will look back on in a very positive legislation. let us go forward. let us pass the dreamers bill. let us deal with border security. and then in the near future let us deal with comprehensive immigration reform. thank you, and i yield the floor.

mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. merkley: very good. thank you, mr. president. our constitution begins with

three very simple, very powerful words: we the people. it's the mission statement for our nation, for our constitution, a vision in which decisions are made of, by, and for the people, not for the privileged and not for the powerful. and who wrote those words? it happened to be a group of white, wealthy landowners. the powerful and the privileged. but they didn't choose to build a nation that would make laws for their benefit, but laws designed for the entire populace to thrive. they were descended from immigrants, and our country, unless you're 100% native american, unless you've just arrived as a new immigrant, you are descendants from immigrants yourself. it's part of the fabric of our

nation. it's what makes us a powerful combination of talents and abilities from around the world. now, george washington himself once said america is open to receive not only the opulent and the respected stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions. on another occasion, he wrote to a friend that i'd always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong. and true to washington's wishes and to his vision, that is the land we have been. we've been that land of opportunity, that land that welcomes others to our shores

and gives them the chance to pursue the vision of opportunity, to help participate in the making of our great nation, and to do so each generation, bring together those variety of languages and cultures and backgrounds. that's us. america. and that's why a century after our nation's founding, the french gave to the united states the statue of liberty. the statue of liberty that has stood as a beacon of hope, welcoming those from other lands. and inscribed at the foundation pedestal of that statue are these words: give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuge of your teamless shore, send these, the homeless,

the tempt effort toss to me. i lift my lamp beside the golden door. those were the welcoming words to hundreds of thousands arriving here in the united states. and as i speak at this moment, 800,000 young men and women right here in america are younger to breathe free as full participants in the nation they have grown up in. these are our dreamers. dreamers like this group of oregonians who visited my office in december, who came to this country as very young children, who went to elementary school here, who went to high school here, who were our neighbors, our community members, who have gone on to college, who have taken jobs and are contributing in every possible way to our community. studying in our schools,

practicing and working in our industry. they are now young adults striving to support their families and build the strength of this economy and build a future for themselves. they are paramedics saving lives. you stand on oregon on a street corner and look around and there's a pretty good chance you'll see a dreamer. you may not know it. they're full members of our community. and you'll see them contributing. and they've overcome a lot of obstacles which creates a grit of character that also helps build the future of our nation just as it did for those of our forefathers and foremothers who arrived a generation or two or three or ten generations ago. now we provided a program, the daca program, that struck a deal and said you give us all of your information, and we'll make sure

that you are legally protected. and president trump has broken that promise. he has broken that deal, that commitment made by our executive branch to these dreamers. they put them in a terrible spot of uncertainty and stress and limbo. and now it's time to set that right. it could be set right by the president in a moment. in court several of them weighed in and said the president is acting unconstitutionally in attacking our young immigrants, our dreamers. but let's not way wait for the courts to remedy this. let's take care of it ourselves in this chamber, the senate chamber. after months and months of inaction, after broken promises by president trump, let's

finally protect these men and women who do so much to embody the american spirit. as we move forward in this debate, we must look again to what our founding fathers intended for the nation they created and ensure that the golden door that poet emma lazarus wrote of in her poem remains an open door, open to all those who dream to become an american, to contribute to this nation. we must remain in president washington's words, open to receive not only the opulent and respected, but the opposed and persecuted of all nations. looking at the plan that president trump has put forward, similar plans offered in this chamber, there's a real interest in slamming the door shut by those who have already arrived as immigrants, who have fled

persecution, who have pursued freedom, who have pursued opportunity, who have escaped from famine to come in and slam the door on everyone else. it's not very american to do that, and it's not a strength to undermine the future success of our economy by draining away the extraordinary talents of our dreamer community. president johnson made the point, he said the land flourished because it was fed from so many sources -- because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples. president ronald reagan made the point, he said more than any other country, our strength

comes from our own immigrant heritage and our capacity to welcome those from other lands. the founding president of our country, a respected democratic president of our country, a respected republican president of our country saying the same thing, that the strength of our country are the contributions that have been made by our immigrants. so the founding fathers wrote those words, that mission statement that we'd be a nation of, by, and for the people. not one to make laws by and for the powerful and the privileged. and that is the vision we need to continue to hold on to and to understand that the strength of this nation comes from weaving together the many cultural threads of the people of the

united states of america. let's get this dream act to this floor. there is a bipartisan understanding around restoring legal status. there is a bipartisan foundation for border security. let's not give in to those far-right breitbart voices that are so out of sync with the traditions and the strength and the culture and the vision of our nation. and restore that legal status for our dreamers, enhance our border security, and do the work that this chamber should have done long ago. thank you, mr. president.

mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i'd like to ask unanimous consent that my intern, amanda power, have the privileges of the floor for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri.

mr. blunt: if we are in a quorum call, i move it be suspended. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. blunt: i am pleased to come and talk today. this is a week where we had all anticipated a return to the senate where ideas are widely debated. i was standing by the majority leader last week when he was talking about this and said we will let a thousand flowers bloom. it didn't sound like something that senator mcconnell would normally use as a reference, but he did. i'm thinking, well, that would be a good thing to see a thousand different ideas widely debated on the senate floor. so far, this week, there has not been any debate because we can't seem to agree on who votes on what first. i think that's a particular level of dysfunction that we should all be concerned about. for the senate to do its work, we have to be willing to vote and we have to be willing to take some hard votes.

my sense of politics today is whether you have taken the vote or not, someone's going to accuse you of taking that vote. you might as well not worry about your -- the votes you take. just worry about the work we get done and whatever votes are necessary to be taken to get that done. on this topic, it does seem to me that we have two issues here that should be solved, two issues where there is broad agreement. i have said for a long time that there are really three questions in the immigration debate that need to be answered, and one is how do we secure the border, and two is what are the legitimate workforce needs of the country, and three, what do we do with people who came or stayed illegally. as we think about securing the border, by the way, half the people who are in the country illegally came legally and just

stayed. it's not all a border issue but it is significantly and partly a border issue. one of the things that people expect a government to be able to do is secure its own borders. often when you hear the story of a country somewhere in the world where the government has disintegrated and is no longer in control of the country, one of the first -- one of the first things mentioned by people talking about that dysfunctional government is they don't control their own borders. it truly is a legitimate expectation of a functioning government that you control your own borders. it's also a legitimate expectation of government that you would look at your economy, you would look at what workforce needs you have that aren't being met, and figure out the best way to meet those workforce needs, and then in this debate, because we haven't controlled our borders and because we haven't kept track of people who legally crossed our borders, so we have got some number of people,

usually the estimate is about 11 million people in the country who are not here legally. what do we do with those people? now, my view, mr. president, has always been that if the government met its primary responsibility, which is an immigration system that works, that the american people would be very forward leaning about those other two issues, because nobody really argues that if we don't have people here to do the work that needs to be done, whether it's highly skilled or not highly skilled, that we ought to be thinking about what do we need to do to get people here who do that work, what do we need to do to keep people here who came here to get training to do highly skilled jobs and graduated from colleges and universities or other skill-enhancing things that happened while they were here. if they want to stay, mr. president, my view is if they didn't do anything that got them in trouble while they were

here, we should almost always want them to stay. why wouldn't we want that skill set in our economy? if we don't have it, why wouldn'taway come up with the -- why wouldn't we come up with the ways to reach out and get it? and then those who are not here legally, i think people generally, if they thought the problem was solved, if they thought the government truly had met its responsibility to operationally control the borders, the government had met its responsibility to keep track of who comes in legally and know if they have left or not. i mean, there is no retail store in america that doesn't have a better sense of its inventory than we do -- than we do of whether people who have legally come into the country and checked in with a customs officer, we don't know if they have left or not. couldn't tell you in weeks, perhaps, whether somebody is still here or not, even ify