Durbin Slams Republicans On Their Inability To Support Meaningful Immigration Reform, Address Urgent National Security Needs

“Four months ago, the President put together a supplemental appropriations bill… It addressed the situation in the Middle East, the Far East, and the looming humanitarian crisis around the world, including Gaza, that needed to be addressed. We wanted to move on this in a timely basis, but there was an objection. The objection came from the other side of the aisle—Republican Senators—who said you need to include border security. What is happening on our Southern border cannot be ignored. We discussed it for a period of time and then agreed with them. We were going to work together on a bipartisan basis—Republicans and Democrats—to change what was happening on America's Southern border, to make us safe and to bring order to the situation.

We were prepared to see this pass and hoped for the best in the House of Representatives.And then the bottom dropped out. One thing happened that we didn't anticipate. One person in America came out against the proposal. One person said to the Republican senators, ‘sorry, no matter what you agreed to, it’s unacceptable. Blame it on me,’ he said, ‘but we’re not going to have a bipartisan agreement on the border.’ This is unacceptable. That one person is Donald Trump.”
It’s hard to imagine that the party of Ronald Reagan and John McCain, the party that claimed to stand strong against Communism—just played right into the former KGB apparatchik Vladimir Putin’s hand.Putin and his Iranian and North Korean enablers are trying to roll back Western democracy and restore Soviet glory.

Many Congressional Republicans have spoken loudly about defending Ukraine and the NATO alliance. They’ve traveled to NATO summits and Munich Security conferences to support this mission. They’ve also visited Ukraine, followed by press conferences with belligerent claims that President Biden isn’t doing enough. But today the fate of Ukraine hangs in the balance on the floor of the United States Senate. It seems too many of my colleagues have collectively cowered to Donald Trump, who wants to tank the supplemental funding agreement for his own cynical reasons.
It’s time we show some of [the late-John McCain’s] courage here in Congress and make sure we pass the emergency national security funding. Last I checked, protecting democracy and safeguarding American security was a bipartisan cause, and it should be still.

DACA allowed her to come out of the shadows and give back to a country she grew up [in] and loves—the United States. She hopes to be an agent of change in her community, where she mentors medical students and first-generation low-income students. Ask yourself this: would America be better off if Dr. Jaquelin Solis and Dreamers like her were unable to work in the United States? Still 20 years later, we are trying our best to make sure these young people have a fighting chance to be part of America’s future.

On the subject of immigration—the border is critical, it's important, [and] I want to be part of that consideration. But please, don't forget the Dreamers and so many people who have proven over and over again they will be our future and strength if we give them the chance."

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