Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I see my colleagues from Kansas and Michigan on the floor, and I know they are here to speak on the GMO issue. I will make a brief statement and cut short what I planned on saying so they can take the floor on this important and pending issue.

The Senate Republican leader came to the floor this morning and congratulated the Senate on the fact we passed, on a bipartisan basis, the Puerto Rico legislation necessary to deal with the financial disaster they face. We did that last week, truly in a bipartisan way. The Republican leader said this morning we need to keep our focus on serious issues, but then he comes to us with four bills that he requests we take up during the abbreviated session we have this week and next week, and among those four bills are two he acknowledges are clearly only introduced for the political impact, for the message, they might deliver.

One bill that is being promoted by the junior Senator from Pennsylvania is a bill relating to sanctuary cities. This measure was largely considered and voted on only 8 months ago and defeated in the Senate. Why are we bringing it back today? Well, there has been some candor on the Republican side. The Senator who is offering this measure is up for reelection. He believes this is an important ``message amendment'' that he needs to take back to his home State of Pennsylvania, and he wants to make sure the Senate takes up this measure before the Republican convention, which starts up in a couple weeks. This is a political tactic that is sadly going to eat up the time of the Senate with the same ultimate result. Senator Toomey's sanctuary bill will not pass, but it gives him something to talk about when he goes home and perhaps something to give a speech about at the Republican convention.

Going back to the Senate Republican leader's suggestion that we ought to be focusing in a bipartisan way on serious issues, the first suggestion out of the box on a message amendment is clearly being done for political purposes only. The second measure is one that is brought to the floor at the request of Senator Ted Cruz, the junior Senator from Texas. This will bring us back to some debate over immigration, again, on what is known as Kate's Law and the suggestion by Senator Cruz that we create a new mandatory minimum criminal sentence.

On its face, this measure is unacceptable and unaffordable. It would criminalize, with mandatory minimum sentencing, conduct that would affect thousands of people who have crossed over the border into the United States undocumented. Of course, the Senator from Texas wants this message amendment during this abbreviated short session before the Republican convention, which I assume he will be speaking to, in order to make his political point.

So here we are with the Republican leader first congratulating us on being bipartisan on serious issues and then turning around and two of the four things he suggests we do these 2 weeks have no chance to pass. One at least has been voted on within the last 8 months on the floor of the Senate, and they have acknowledged they are only offering these amendments to give the Senators who are making the requests a chance to make some political hay in the weeks and days before the Republican convention in Cleveland.

Why? Because the ``presumptive,'' as they call him, Republican nominee for President wants to focus on immigration. As a consequence, those who are lining up behind him, like the junior Senator from Pennsylvania, want to have some arguing points to make to support Donald Trump's candidacy and his position on immigration.

It is a sad reality that 3 years ago, on the floor of the Senate, we actually did something constructive on the issue of immigration. With the votes of 14 Republicans joining the Democrats, we passed bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform. Sadly, that measure died in the House when they wouldn't even consider that bill or any bill on the issue. We had a constructive alternative, and it passed here in a bipartisan fashion on a serious issue. Yet, since then, the Republicans have stonewalled and stopped every effort to constructively deal with immigration.

The two measures before us, by Senators from Pennsylvania and Texas, should be taken for what they are. They are political posturing before the Republican National Convention. They are efforts so these two Senators will have something to talk about or brag about at the Cleveland convention, but they do not take us to the serious issues we still face; issues such as the GMO compromise, an important issue because of measures taken by some States; issues such as funding for Zika, a measure which passed the Senate 89 to 1 in a strong bipartisan vote and then went over to the House and languished in a conference committee and finally was reported out with no Democratic signatories to the conference report. That measure has been defeated once, and the Senate Republican leader said we will just go call the same measure again, with obviously the same outcome.

We still have questions on funding on Zika, questions about funding on opioid abuse. These are serious measures that should be taken up rather than these so-called message amendments being offered by the other side.
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, Monday, the Fourth of July, was the 240th anniversary of the creation of the United States of America. It was a day on which we celebrated this great Nation. We celebrated our great leaders, but in Illinois we lost one of our best in the passing of Abner Mikva on the Fourth of July.

Abner Mikva was a friend. In addition to that, he was an extraordinary individual. His record of public service is unmatched. I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who did so many distinguished things in the legislative branch of our Federal Government, serving in the House of Representatives; serving on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia in the judicial branch; and serving as general counsel to President William Clinton in the White House in the executive branch. Abner Mikva combined them all.

The highlights of his life are an amazing story of a young man going through law school who decided in 1948 that he wanted to get involved in politics. Judge Mikva got his start when he walked into the 8th Ward headquarters in the city of Chicago in 1948--back in the day when the Democratic organization of Chicago was a powerful operation. Here he was, a young man, a young law student who was inspired by the candidacies of Adlai Stevenson for Governor of Illinois and Paul Douglas for the U.S. Senate, and he wanted to do his part.

What transpired when he made that effort has become legend in Chicago.

Abner Mikva showed up. A ward committeeman saw him at the door and said: What can I do for you?

He said: Well, I am looking to volunteer.

The ward committeeman said to Ab Mikva: Who sent you?

Abner Mikva said: Nobody sent me.

The ward committeeman said: We don't want nobody nobody sent.

He then said to him: Are you looking for a job?

Abner Mikva said: No, I am not really looking for a job.

The ward committeeman said: We don't want nobody who ain't looking for a job.

The ward committeeman then said: Where are you from, kid?

He said: I go to the University of Chicago.

The ward committeeman made it clear: We don't want nobody from the University of Chicago.

That was Abner Mikva's introduction into politics. You would think he would have been discouraged by that, but he was not. He went on to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School, to clerk for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and then to practice law in the city.

In the 1950s, he decided to run for the Illinois House of Representatives. He ran against the same political organization that turned away his efforts to be a volunteer, and he won. He came to Springfield, IL--my hometown and the capital of our State--to the Illinois House, and found some kindred spirits. One of them, Paul Simon, who eventually served here in the U.S. Senate, was Abner Mikva's closest friend in the Illinois House of Representatives. State representative Tony Scariano was another independent who had come to the Illinois House to try to make a difference. The three of them roomed together--Mikva, Jewish religion; Paul Simon, Lutheran; and Tony Scariano, Catholic. They called their gang the Kosher Nostra, and they set out to try to change the government of Illinois. But even more than their contributions legislatively, politically they created a force in Illinois--both downstate and in Chicago, which made a big difference in the history of our State.

Abner Mikva went on to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served with distinction until he was appointed to the district court for the District of Columbia. He had a tough congressional district. He started off on the South Side of Chicago, around Hyde Park. Eventually, when he saw the demographics changing, he picked up and literally moved north to the Evanston area, which was the base for his political operations in the new congressional district. He moved his entire operation up north and inspired the kind of followership and devotion that politicians dream of. If you were part of the Mikva organization in his district, you took it personally. I can recall people saying with a straight face that they were part of the Mikva operation but decided to move out of his district. When they broke the news to the coordinator, of course, the coordinator insisted that before they could move, they had to find someone to replace them as precinct volunteers to help Ab Mikva get reelected to the U.S. House of Representatives, which he did sporadically. He lost a couple of times, but he won as well. The time came when he was appointed to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the second highest court in the land, where he wrote many important decisions relative to the basic rights of people under the Constitution.

He was my friend. I was introduced to him by Paul Simon, my predecessor here in the Senate. I think of the two of them as my North Star, when it comes to issues of integrity, independence, and progressive values. I was lucky to know Ab Mikva throughout my congressional career in the House and Senate and to have Loretta join me when we had dinner with Ab and his wife Zoe in Chicago several times over the last several years after his retirement.

Ab Mikva received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, and one of the reasons was that they were close personal friends. It was Ab Mikva to whom Barack Obama went when he was interested in a career in politics, and Mikva counseled him in terms of what he needed to do. He suggested that he should listen more carefully to African-American ministers so he could put a little more life and emotion into his speaking style. Obviously, President Obama took that lesson to heart. It was Abner Mikva who stood by Obama in his early days, running for the U.S. Senate and then running for the Presidency. He was always his right-hand man, willing to offer advice and connect him with the right people on the political scene. Their friendship endured until Ab's passing just a couple of days ago. I know the President feels, as I do, that we have lost a great friend and a great supporter in what he was able to achieve.

He also had a friendly and happy way about him. He enjoyed life. He used to engage in poker games that included Supreme Court Justices and Federal judges, some of whom will surprise you. William Rehnquist would play poker with Ab Mikva. Those were two men from opposite ends of the political spectrum, and they still had a chance to get together and to get to know one another.

He left an enduring mark on America's legal system. There were so many people who started off as clerks for Abner Mikva and turned out to be amazing contributors to the American political scene. One of his former clerks sits on the U.S. Supreme Court. Elena Kagan was a clerk for Judge Mikva and then went on to the highest Court in the land. That gives you an indication of the quality of the people who worked with and for him. His law clerks went on to serve Justices William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, and Lewis Powell.

The New York Times once branded Abner Mikva as ``the Zelig of the American legal scene.'' One brilliant young lawyer actually turned down a Mikva clerkship, and that was Barack Obama, who did find another way to contribute to this Nation.

In 1997, Judge Mikva and his wife Zoe founded the Mikva Challenge, a program I have become acquainted with and worked with over the years. Abner Mikva and Zoe tried to engage young people in politics, and they did it on a bipartisan basis. If a young person wanted to volunteer for the Republican Party, they would find a way for that person to become a part of the campaign and work in an office so they could see firsthand what politics and government was all about, and, of course, they would provide similar volunteers for the Democratic candidates. These young people would see their lives transformed and changed by this Mikva Challenge. I have met them, and many times I wondered what their future might hold, but knowing full well that some of them would be in public service, much as Abner Mikva was during his life.

Just a couple of months ago, there was a special luncheon to celebrate Abner's contributions to public service and the Mikva Challenge. At the time they made the decision--and I hope they carried it through--to make this a permanently funded foundation-supported effort that will survive Abner and Zoe and will live on for many decades to come.

Some years ago, Judge Mikva told a reporter that it was important for a society to have heroes. He said:

You have to have live heroes. . . . It is not enough to be exposed to George Washington in grade school or Abraham Lincoln in high school. You have to have somebody who you can identify with in the here and now, who makes the institutions we are trying to preserve worthwhile.

I am very proud to join the Alliance for Justice and many other groups that have stood up and acknowledged the amazing contributions that have been made by Abner Mikva and Zoe during the course of Abner's life. I am particularly honored to have counted him as a friend. He would call and give me words of encouragement so many times when we were going through some tough decisionmaking. I can't tell you how much it meant to hear from him personally and to know he approved of what I was doing. He was always, as I said, my North Star and hero in political life. With his old buddy, Paul Simon, his old roommate in the Illinois House, they probably inspired this Senator as much as any two people who have been living during my tenure in public service.

I stand today in tribute to a great man and a great American. Abner Mikva of Illinois made this a better country and Illinois a better State.

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