Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Thank you, Mr. President.

I would like to acknowledge that the Senator from Pennsylvania has made a number of good points on the subject of Russia and the way we need to go with Russia.

People have asked me about what I think about Mr. Putin and whether he is trustworthy, and I tell them no. The way that I know he is misleading the public on the issues of meddling is because his lips are moving. He is not just telling the truth. Any time he talks about it, it just flies in the face of Federal investigations, oversight hearings, and classified briefings we have been involved in. I think it is an example of where Members of Congress have really come together on an issue. Keeping Families Together and Enforce the Law Act

Mr. President, now I would like to talk about another issue that I would like Members of Congress to come together on, and it is called the Keeping Families Together and Enforce the Law Act.

You have heard a lot of reports recently about children being separated from their families at the border, and the administration has taken a position, in part prompted by lawsuits, and we can debate whether the administration should fix this problem through an Executive order, but how about this.

Why doesn't Congress act to provide long-term certainty through an act of Congress to make absolutely certain that children who cross the border with their families can be kept with their families while we are trying to determine in a court whether that family has a legitimate claim to asylum?

It sounds fairly simple. In fact, it is pretty simple. I met with Senators Feinstein, Senator Durbin, and Senator Cruz. We sat down, and we discussed a way to actually get this into law. We all agreed it needs to be very narrowly focused.

The problem with immigration around here and the immigration subject is it gets really big and really complex really quickly. What happens with big and complex on Capitol Hill is nothing gets done.

So the bill we propose is very simple. Fix the issues in the law, clarify the process so we can actually make absolutely certain that minor children can stay with their parents while their asylum claims are being considered.

We have had agreement on virtually everything. We have agreed that families should be kept together. We have agreed that we need more judges so we can reduce the background. We agreed we need more attorneys to participate in the process--basically a 2-to-1 ratio between a new judge and new attorneys to support the legal process. We agreed on minimum standards for housing so we make sure we are keeping these families in a place that we think are appropriate.

Some people may come to the floor and say we are going to stand up tent cities and subject people to harsh conditions. We don't want to do that. As a matter of fact, we feel so strongly about it that we are putting forth specific requirements for housing. So we are addressing the judge constraint, we are addressing the lawyer constraint, we are addressing specific standards for keeping families together.

We can actually pass this in a heartbeat. We can do it on the Senate floor, and we can do it through what is called unanimous consent. Allow somebody to come down here, put a bill forward, and get it passed. Give those children and parents certainty.

The fact is, some of them are going to apply for asylum and will not have a legitimate case. Others will, but we have proposed a bill that will prevent any sort of lengthy detention. As a matter of fact, if this bill gets passed, the average case with a family would be prioritized. If you have an asylum request and you are with children, we want to keep you together and get it at the front of the docket so you can get certainty fairly quickly--over 40 to 60 days, but we have a constraint we have to get past. It has to do with a court ruling called the Flores case, where if we don't narrowly tailor the language to say, if a child--if a minor comes across the border with their parents, then they will be allowed to be kept with their parents in appropriate housing until such time as their asylum request has been heard before a court of law. It is not getting rid of Flores. You have some people here saying we want to completely eliminate the case. That is not the case.

We don't want children coming across the border who don't have parents with them to be retained in perpetuity or indefinite detention, as it is referred to down there. That is what Flores does. So if a child comes across the border, and they don't have a parent with them, then after 20 days, they have to be placed somewhere other than detention. That is a good policy.

If you have a situation where Flores stands the way that it is, then the law specifically requires the child to be separated from the parents. This gives the parents the choice. If they want the children with them while they are going through the legal process, then they can have that. If they choose to have the child placed with a family member or a guardian, then they can have that too.

One of the things that I think we have to talk more about is the danger of just randomly placing children with a parent or guardian who comes across the border. We have several cases where in our system there is no way we would place the child with some of the people they are coming across the border with. They have been convicted for a variety of things: child neglect, child abuse, drug trafficking. All sorts of things that would have an American citizen's child removed from their family are the same sort of standards we want for a child coming across the border. Of course, we want to make sure the parent who says they are their parent or guardian really is.

So in this body, there are few opportunities where you can narrowly tailor a policy to a point to where only the most partisan or unreasonable person wouldn't support it. This is one of them. We can get this bill passed, sent to the President's desk, and provide certainty--a compassionate, appropriate method for dealing with what are now hundreds of thousands of people who have come across the border--to children with their parents. Treat them fairly, treat them justly, and have them processed in what I believe is the greatest judicial system that has ever existed.

It is on us to solve this problem. Anybody who comes down here and says, well, no, I have to talk about DACA, which is something I support, a path to citizenship or I want to talk about border security, which I also support--yes, let's talk about that, but let's not hold these children and these families hostage for other immigration matters. This body should have the backbone to deal with the political challenges that may come from their own party and do the right thing-- the next time.

This time, let's solve the separation of children from their parents. Let's stop playing the political games that make for great fodder, but they are not compassionate, they are not a part of the solution. I hope we have enough Members to become a part of the solution. Next week, we will be talking more about this and possibly through unanimous consent.

I want somebody to come down to this floor and explain to me why it is a bad idea. I want them to explain it to the American people, but, out of respect for the Senate, we will not offer a unanimous consent request today, but you can be pretty sure we will next week.

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