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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, it has been more than 100 days since Republicans killed a border deal that they specifically demanded and they actively helped to write. From start to finish, this bill is not some partisan Democratic wish list. In fact, the previous speaker, the senior Senator from California, is correctly upset at our lack of attention to legal immigration, to the plight of DACA individuals, and to try to anchor our policy and our core values of understanding that we are a Nation of immigrants and maybe even, separate and apart from that, immigration is one of the most effective anti-inflation policies out there.

But the vote we are about to take is not about immigration. It is about border security, and it is fair to say that the Democratic conference has come a long way on border security. We negotiated with one of the most conservative Members of the U.S. Senate, James Lankford. And when I heard that Chris Murphy and James Lankford were negotiating, I was not hopeful--not because I don't think they are serious legislators, but I just figured they were too far apart. And so when they came to a conclusion, I didn't love everything in that bill; but I still support it, and here is why: because it makes real reforms and meaningful investments to address a real crisis at the border that needs to be fixed.

There is no contradiction between believing in legal immigration and believing in the core values of the United States and believing in the need for order and security on our northern and southern borders.

And so this bill will expedite the asylum process; it would provide immediate work authorizations; it would expand legal immigration pathways; it would provide billions of dollars to law enforcement to stop the flow of fentanyl.

Those are all necessary measures, but the reason the bill failed back in February, the reason the border continues to be the way it is today, is Donald Trump. Donald Trump woke up one day and decided that doing nothing on the border would help him politically. He literally said: Blame me. Blame me.

And so the funny thing about this situation is if you describe what happened exactly accurately, which is that we--with Chris Murphy and Kyrsten Sinema and James Lankford--negotiated the toughest border package in many generations that has a chance to pass, a bipartisan bill where Democrats were understandably uncomfortable, that when this thing came out, I was in conversations with Republican Members of the Senate, and they were saying they expected a vote in the high 70s, close to 80 votes. They were very comfortable that this was going to win going away. And then Donald Trump said: Kill it. And that is what happened; it got killed.

And so the thing about describing things factually in this instance is it sounds like I am trying to, you know, lob rhetorical bombs or make a partisan statement, but that is just literally what happened: We negotiated this thing. They told us: Work with James Lankford. They told us: Reform the asylum process. They told us: CBP needs more resources. They are overwhelmed. They told us: We need technology.

We did all those things. Chris Murphy negotiated all those things. It is not easy for--I am not sure if he would like to be called this--an unreconstructed progressive to negotiate such a bill.

He is looking at me right now. I think he doesn't love that term.

But they voted to kill it anyway. Republicans chose to preserve chaos at the border, and now this crisis is on them. So spare me the crocodile tears. Spare me the press conferences. Spare me the unanimous consent requests. Spare me the cable news hits. Spare me the memes. Spare me the TV ads. You had your chance.

And now the beauty of this is you have your chance again. An hour and 45 minutes from now, you can decide: Am I going to vote for the strongest border package in a generation? Or am I going to vote no because my boss is Donald Trump and he doesn't want this to pass? The choice is theirs.

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