DACA and Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night, Leader Pelosi and I had a constructive meeting with President Trump and several members of his Cabinet.

One of our most productive discussions was about the DACA Program, to which we all agreed on a framework: to pass DACA protections and additional border security measures, excluding the wall. We agreed that the President would support enshrining the DACA protections into law.

In fact, it is something, he stated, that for a while has needed to be done. The President also encouraged the House and Senate to act.

What remains to be negotiated are the details of border security with the mutual goal of finalizing all of the details as soon as possible.

While both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this agreement, the President made clear that he intends to pursue it at a later time, and we made clear that we would continue to oppose it.

If you listened to the President's comments this morning and to Director Mulvaney's comments this morning, it is clear that what Leader Pelosi and I put out last night was exactly accurate and was confirmed again this morning by our statement, by the President's statement before he got on the helicopter to go to Florida, and by Director Mulvaney's comments. We have reached an understanding on this issue, but we have to work out details, and we can work together on a border security package with the White House to get DACA on the floor quickly.

Let me talk for a minute about border security. We Democrats are for border security. We passed a robust border security package as part of immigration reform in 2013, as the Acting President pro tempore knows better than anybody else. We are not for the wall, and we will never be for the wall. It is expensive, it is ineffective, and it involves a lot of difficult eminent domain--taking people's property--and, apparently, it is not being paid for by Mexico. In fact, I listened to FOX News this morning--I am starting to do that to see what is going on over there--and they keep saying that in the campaign the President promised a wall. Yes. He

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also promised that Mexico would pay for it. Where is Mexico? It has said 12 times that it is not paying for it. That is not the promise he made.

Finally, on the wall, it sends a terrible symbol to the world about the United States--about who we are, what kind of country we are. Since the 1880s, a beautiful statue in the harbor of the city in which I live has been the symbol of America to the world--that great torch that symbolizes what a noble land we are. Can you imagine, if in future decades, that symbol were to be replaced with a big, foreboding wall? That is not who America is, was, or, hopefully, will be.

As I mentioned, we are for sensible border security, and there are many more effective ways of securing the border than by building a wall. A wall can be scaled over. I am sure that those who love the wall have heard of ladders. A wall can be tunneled under. I am sure that those who support the wall have heard of shovels. It is a medieval solution for a modern problem--a ``Game of Thrones'' idea for a world that is a lot closer to ``Star Wars.'' The thing is that we have new, modern solutions that use our best technology. We discussed some of them at the White House last night.

Drones. These drones can spot the difference between a deer and a human being crossing the border. We have great sensory equipment, and our military has specialized in this kind of stuff. A lot of it is made in Syracuse, NY, I am proud to say. We can rebuild roads along the border. Talk to the people in the Border Patrol, and they will say that a lot of places do not have roads so that, if they see someone crossing the border, they cannot get to them. Of course, there is the bipartisan McCaul-Thompson bill in the House--McCaul, a Republican, and Thompson, a Democrat--that has broad, bipartisan support and that sets certain standards. Every one of these ideas would provide better, more effective border security than would a medieval wall.
There is still much to be done. We have to put meat on the bones of the agreement, and the details will matter, but it was a very, very positive step for the President to commit to DACA protections without insisting on the inclusion of or even a debate about the border wall.

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