7 million people have come across the border illegally,
a lot of people on the terrorist watch list.
So it has been a nightmare.
And we tried to sit down in a bipartisan way.
Senator Murphy's Sinema
Lankford and others sat down to come up with a
bipartisan proposal
that I thought did a pretty good job in many
ways.
However, having said that, I didn't think it was
enough. I was hoping to be able to build on
what they did.
But here's where we're at.
The House declared it insufficient.
The Republican. Would the senator yield to a question?
Yes. Oh, thank you. Thank you,
Senator. I was just listening carefully to your speech.
And you mentioned that you thought the bill that we
had drafted and introduced yesterday was a good start,
but not enough. I'm. I'm wondering if,
if you would remind us how you voted yesterday on
the motion to proceed to the bill that had the
border package that we worked on together.
I'd be glad to. I voted no because I didn't
see a process
in place or willingness by my Democratic colleagues to allow
me to express.
I think it could be better seeing the Gang of
Eight.
You weren't here, but Senator McCain was.
We worked really hard. Senator Bennett's been involved in all
this stuff and
2013 and we let the bill come to the floor.
People amend it and we spent days and weeks.
So that's why I voted no,
because no, no, I reclaim my colleagues.
Would you address? I'm reclaiming my time.
So here's what I'm saying.
This has been 1/2 assed effort to deal with border
security
to the people in the House.
No, I'm speaking and speak later
to the people in the house.
We have not really tried hard
to secure the border. We took a well meaning product.
People worked really hard. I applaud you and others for
coming out with a
product that I thought had a lot of good things
in it,
but not enough for me.
So now I can't even vote.
We're going to. We've closed out the border debate and
you may give me a few amendments on Ukraine about
the border.
That's not the way it works around here.
So to go to my question,
no to my House colleagues,
you can do better than this.
Don't send us back HR Two,
it's not going anywhere. You know you couldn't get all
Republicans for HR2.
We lost one Republican and no Democrat.
So this idea we've done enough on the border is
BS.
I am not done. I'm not going to help Ukraine
until we first do a better job helping ourselves.
I've given people involved credit for working hard to get
a product,
but the system in place now take it or leave
it.
The reason I voted no is I didn't see any
willingness by anybody to allow an amendment process where we
could deal with the border issue.
I'm getting an amendment on the Ukraine bill
about border. That's that. No that's that's ass backwards.
We don't do it that way.
During the gang of eight and other attempts we had
a robust amendment process and let me tell you,
I think there's things we can do to make it
better.
They want the 5000 day encounter that kicks in an
emergency
authority to shut down the border.
Here's what the border council said.
5000 encounters a day is a catastrophe.
1000 encounters a day would be a substantial improvement.
It is truly an emergency.
I was hoping we could talk about that now.
We may get a vote on that.
On the Ukraine bill. We have closed out a debate
on the border.
Go to a question. Yes,
thank you. Now, Senator Graham,
I know you've been here quite a bit longer than
me,
but it is my understanding that in order to get
to the portion of a bill where we offer amendments
on the floor,
we first have to pass the motion to proceed.
And it is also my understanding that it was offered
by leadership and the three sponsors of the border bill,
which your team gratefully helped us create,
that we would have an open amendment process.
So could you help me understand
why you voted against the motion to proceed?
I'll be glad to, or we were able to offer
any amendments,
including your amendments. I think the fix is in.
I think people on our side and your side wanted
to do the border thing as quick as they could
so we could get to Ukraine.
And I don't trust the system here to be able
to allow us to have the
debate that we had for the Gang of
Eight bill. That's why I voted no,
because I didn't see any willingness And my it proved
to be correct.
Because now the Republican leadership has joined with the Democratic
leadership to shut down debate on the border bill,
throwing a few amendments on the Ukraine bill and saying
aren't you happy now?
No, I am not happy.
I am not happy. I meant it that I wanted
to secure the border before I helped Ukraine.
Everything you say about Ukraine is right.
I was not kidding. To our colleagues in the House.
We've done 1/2 assed job here trying to secure the
border.
We shut this thing down.
Unlike any other time I've been involved in immigration.
I've taken a lot of hard votes.
You've taken a lot hard.
You know, you've been kicked around.
I understand it. Senator Lankford,
I admire the hell out of him.
I thought y'all produce a pretty good product.
A really good product in some areas.
But it wasn't enough. I want a cap on parole.
Let me tell you why I want a cap on
parole.
During the Trump Obama years,
the average people paroled in the country was
5600. In the last two years,
President Biden's paroled over 800,000 people,
so the parole was better.
But we need a cap to stop the abuse.
I'd like to have an amendment on whether or not
we should cap parole at 10,000 per year,
but I'm getting that on the Ukraine bill.
So to my colleague from Arizona,
no, no, no. This has not been a real effort
to find border security and a bipartisan way.
We took your product. Take it or leave it.
The reason I voted no to proceed is exactly been
reaffirmed here.
We stopped the process. We're jumping to Ukraine.
We're going to do it this weekend and it's going
nowhere in the House.
Those of you who want to help Ukraine,
you've made it harder. We're going to lose a handful
of Republican votes over here because they felt they were
shut out in the debate about how to secure the
border. We're going to lose votes.
No, please, we're going to lose votes over here.
You don't have a snowballs chance in hell of getting
it through the House because we took the border issue
and we didn't address it the way it should have
been. We closed it out.
I could see the game being fixed.
I am here as a proud supporter of Ukraine,
telling you that you've hurt the cause of Ukraine by
trying to shortchange a debate on the border.
Your product was good, but I want to make it
better.
I've got a National Border Patrol Council
letter about three things that would make it better.
I'd like to introduce it in the record if I
could,
without objection. Thank you very.