Elite democrat senator patty murray spoke about a4 recipients arguing they should be given legal status in the path to citizenship. She is followed by john cornyn and jack reed. This people around the nation listen to this floor debater and sure they can hear the divisions about immigration. I know i can. Immigration policies heart, its emotional and it has fax this congress for decades. While the current debate were having can be trying and we have to keep our i am the ball. Has tough as it seems the stakes are higher for millions of people who live in this country trapped in a broken immigration system who face the constant fear of deportation and suffer the threat of being ripped apart by their families, friends and communities they love. Just like the deep divisions weve seen finding a path forward is not going to be easy tackling the tough issues is will you why we are here, finding a bipartisan path forward to secure borders and secure and protect our future of hardworking families is why were here. We need to agree to some basic truths. Dreamers, are teachers, firefighters, they are not criminals. They are not ms 13 gang members nor the shadowy figures depicted in discussing campaign ads in the president s speeches. They are contributing in countless ways for community and enriching the lives of others. Who are they . They are determined, passionate, american in every way except on paper. Theyre fighting for the only life ive ever known. The fighting for their loved ones there trying to do it the right way. A few years ago when congress had fallen down trimmer stepped up to work in good faith with the federal government. Dreamers like jose he did not know he was not a natural born citizen until he went to get a drivers license. Thanks to the daca program he was able to graduate and started a business volunteers and local nonprofits. Another describes being four years old when he was taken to the airport to fly to the United States. He did not understand what was going on, confused about why he can put all this twice with him. Heres later after he enrolled in daca he was able to quit working a manual labor and start working as a personal banker at wells fargo. The hundreds of thousands of dreamers with similar stories. They pay their taxes and cap promises, then went background checks and did the hard work even if for only a temporary shot many others in this country have taken for granted. Dreamers are the embodiment so much of what this country was founded on. Choose number two, we all want to keep america safe for anyone to claim otherwise is an attempt to moderate the debate so critic it can retreat to their corners and try to stop a bipartisan bill from moving forward. No matter what Political Party you are, protecting and defending the safety of fellow citizens in preventing those who could do us harm is something we all believe in something where all that working for. Finally despite failed attempts, todays a new day in any chance to fix our broken immigration system for the dreamers who call a country home. A chance to welcome people from around the world to add to the rich tapestry of our nation and who will write the next chapter of our nations history. A new chance for my republican colleagues to stand by their word into it they said, put democrats in good faith to. I Hope Congress finally has the what will to see this through, to be a nation of laws in the land of opportunity to write legislation we can. A real quorum call . Youre not a unicorn call. The senate is a lukewarm call. Mr. President , yesterday we began for debate on something weve been talking about for years, i remember after the election of 2012 meeting at the white house with president barack obama and the speaker of the house, leader mccarthy and others in the president was prepared to do something he threatened to do but we asked him not to do. Thats to take executive action to deal with the action of these in adults who came with their parents and their children into the United States in violation of our immigration laws. We said please give us a chance to work with you to come up with a solution. Send and said no. Im going to sign an executive order and a medical this alone. Unfortunately for the young people who are the beneficiaries the court struck it down. So they were left in doubt and some in jeopardy of whether now they had been granted a different action for deportation what the future would look like. So President Trump upon the advice of general kelly was in secretary the General Assembly said give them time to deal with this. Here we are with a deadline of march the fifth and all this time since january 20 of last years live in about time as far as the Docket Program is involved. President trump said this is the legislative responsibility in Congress Needs to deal with this. Who you are, the debate having started this is the date that senator mcconnell agreed to initiate the motion to proceed on the debate the Government Shutdown because the democratic alex refused to proceed to deal with the funding of the government until there is a resolution of the daca issue. So beginning february 8 it was gonna be a fair and impartial process. Everybodys idea will be aired here we are, and we started yesterday on the cloture on the bill one under senate rules 30 hours waiting for colleagues across the aisle that im only shut down the government. The majority leaders came to the floor and said will start with the vote on one of your choosing and the will go backandforth and have an orderly process so i can follow through my commitment to keep fair, equal, and orderly process. Even though were going to shut down the government now they seem to be incredibly reluctant to have a vote on any of their proposal. It really is bizarre. We all want a solution. In america we dont punish restricts their parents way. Were not going to punish these young people who are adults been able to go to college and become productive people, we want to provide them an opportunity to flourish. Notwithstanding 680,000 daca already exist. I be willing to up that number. 1. 8 million young people. Were not only can you give them deferred action to give them an opportunity to become american. I colleagues across the aisle seem to be tripped out by their own plan. Unable to respond to this generous offer. The president has said in addition in return for the 1. 8 million young people will have a pathway to citizenship after secure the border have to this morning the director of National Intelligence at the Transnational Criminal Organizations or cartel which i commodity agnostic, they make money trafficking in people, drugs or other contraband and are exploding the neighbor to the south, mexico and Central American companies are sending you children up exploding eight paul in our law. The president has also said in addition to dealing with Border Security he wants to change immigration to focus on the nuclear family. Mom and dad and the kids. If other people want to come to the United States they can qualify for various employment dates i may can come in qualify as an h1b visa sm and highly skilled. Were going to limit the number of visas based strictly on your family relationships. Then he said he wanted to deal with the visa lottery. This is the most difficult understand visa our government issue. Basically those 50000 visas and for those countries that are represented were going to spend those like brett on the water. Welcome 50000 people without regard to the background, education, and their qualifications. Some have said, like the president had a look at how not only immigrants can benefit but what qualities that have that they can bring us. We have to compete for the best and brightest. The 600,000 or so foreign students who come, what about focusing on those who came on stem fields, science, technology, engineering, and math. We want to continue to attract those are some great ideas. Reporter to be able to have both on both the lesser friends across the aisle would agree to get on the preferably the bill that senator grassley and others have cosponsored which will be five this afternoon based on those four pillars. Coming from the border states i spent time on the very day rio grande valley. Ive learned a lot from the experts at the border which would be the Border Patrol themselves. I talked where there is hardly any water at all to separate mexico and the United States. Butheth there are others that he 3200foot cliffs along the riverbank out of west texas. And i had the opportunity to say big bend to welcome me and my colleagues who dont come from border states to my state to become better informed about the challenge. When you speak to the local officials and people who live and work along the border you understand the scale and challenge we face as well as combating the cartels and people who are importing poison into the United States unfortunately taking far too many lives as a result of drugs. The onesizefitsall approach does not work with generations of texans knowing that. The border communities are the invaluable resource talking to them about what would work best to provide security that would be helpful to your local communities. I mentioned before in head all go texas the Border Patrol said we need physical barriers to control the flow across across the border and the community said we need to improve the flood levee system so we can buy affordable insurance to develop property at a reasonable cost. Out of that came a bond election for the levee wall that was an winwin. Flood protection needed by the community with a physical barrier that the Border Patrol said they needed for illegal immigration control. There is the opportunity of a winwin if we just listen to the experts and talk to the local state s court will holders those who work and play along the border with mexico. I have had many conversations with hispanic leaders including the president of the league of united american citizens to be o courageous to find Common Ground and give Daca Recipients an opportunity not just to stay and work but eventually american citizens. Yesterday i said there will be a process for everybody and that is what the majority leader guaranteed all have a chance to have proposals considered amendments will have a 64 threshold but what im interested in is to solve the problem not only finding a proposal with 60 votes in the senate but that can pass the house and be signed into law by the president. I read this morning when i was making my coffee and looking through the newspaper, my colleague across the aisle, the democratic with with said his goal is to get democrats and 11 republicans to get to the 60volt long vote threshold. That was his goal in the legislation but what is missing is how he would propose to get this past through a majority in the house and signed by the president if it doesnt comply with the president s requirements he laid out. I am interested not just in and asked that making the law to pass the senate and house in getting signed into law by the president. Yesterday the Judiciary Committee put forth a proposal that iwa believe can pass the senate and house and be signed into law by President Trump it is called the secure and succeed act. The name itself is fitting with security border to provide for the future success of the Daca Recipients. It isnt one or the other it is both this proposal gives a pathway to citizenship like the president proposed like those eligible recipients more than obama ever offered that proves pretty incredible what obama offered was daca 690,000 young people that this president has offered a pathway in ship for 1. 8 million some people think that is far too generous by the president made that offer expecting to get Border Security and other provisions at the same time. This gives a real plan to strengthen the borders with Better Technology and infrastructure it reallocate pieces from the diversity lottery system in way that is fair and continues those categories until the current backlog is cleared. I am proud to cosponsor this commonsense solution not because its perfect, no peace ever is but it advances the issue in a way to pass the senate so the house can take it up and the president canly sign it. That is the only way i know to get something accomplished but Everybody Needs to get to work. Theve democratic colleagues have threatened to shut down the government now not prepared to meet the deadline they insisted even after majority leader gave a fair and open process for everybody to participate. Everybody needs to get to work. They asked for this debate but have not thought filed any proposed legislation. Im wondering what the holdup is. Here is the bottom line. Im not interested in gamesmanship or political theater. But as the president said two weeks ago the ultimate proposal must be one nobody gets everything they want but the country gets critical reform that it needs. 124,000 young people hope we can rise. 124,000 Daca Recipients hope we can rise to the occasion to take advantage of the tremendous offer President Trumpp has made in a bill he said he would sign into law if we could pass that in the senate and the house mr. President i healed the floor and i note the absence of a quorum. Last september President Trump took it upon himself to wage an economic humanitarian and political crisis by rescinding daca program and without proposing a serious solution for those 800,000 recipients who face deportation. These people and their families have had to endurenc uncertainty