Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, this morning we have the opportunity to
accomplish two important goals.

First, we can pass legislation which will fully fund the Department
of Homeland Security so it can perform its vital mission.

Second, we have the opportunity to stand up for our constitutional
system of separation of powers.

I support and voted for comprehensive immigration reform. But the
President's overreach usurps the role of Congress and undermines our
constitutional system of checks and balances.

The failure of Congress to pass a law to the President's liking
cannot become an excuse for the President to usurp the powers of the
legislative branch.

The President knows he lacks the authority to write the law. He has
said so 22 times, on 22 different occasions.

Allow me to describe my bill very briefly. Specifically, it does four
things.

First, it bars the administration from using funds to implement the
immigration orders issued by the President in November of last year.

Second, it has absolutely no effect on the much more constrained and
limited Executive orders the President issued in 2012, the so-called
DACA Program that protects the DREAMers, to whom I am very sympathetic.

Third, it directs the Department to give the highest enforcement
priority to the deportation of foreign nationals in our country
illegally who have been convicted of domestic violence, child abuse,
exploitation, or a sex crime. Why would we want to keep in this country
someone who is deportable who is a sex offender, who has been convicted
of child molestation or domestic violence? It makes no sense.

Ironically, just this week the Senate Judiciary Committee held an
excellent hearing on sex trafficking. We heard heartbreaking stories of
very young girls who had been abused by men. If there are foreign
nationals in this country who have been convicted of these crimes, they
should be deported.

And, fourth, it includes a sense-of-the-Senate resolution that the
executive branch should not act to give foreign nationals who are here
illegally an edge in competing for jobs against American citizens or
legal residents with green cards.

The Founders gave us a system of separation of powers and checks and
balances not to tear us apart but to pull us together. They gave us no
shortcuts on purpose.

The President's November 2014 Executive actions are ill-advised
precisely because they attempt to shortcut the process by usurping
Congress's authority to pass legislation.

My legislation would block that effort without in any way altering or
diminishing the more constrained and important 2012 DACA Program.

I want to see the Department of Homeland Security fully funded. It
has an absolutely vital mission at a time when our country faces
numerous threats.

I urge my colleagues this morning both to vote for the clean DHS bill
and for my legislation to stand up for the role of Congress in our
constitutional system.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source