- 2 years ago
During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) debated Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) over a bill that would change the parole system for migrants.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Very much. I'll be making a unanimous consent request here
00:04 in a second. Senator Britt will be joining me in that endeavor.
00:08 So we're going to have a vote at two o'clock about a bipartisan
00:13 bill which I applaud the effort to change our immigration laws
00:17 and get control of an out of control situation. Unfortunately,
00:23 it doesn't matter what laws on the books, if the administration
00:29 is not going to enforce the ones that already exist.
00:32 We had a vote in February on this bill and one of the problems I've had the entire time
00:39 is that a parole is being abused by this administration.
00:43 Since February until now, April, 77,800 people have been paroled in the United States
00:52 and I believe that's an abuse of the statute that's on the books.
00:57 1.3 million in FY23. Over 1.2 million were paroled by CBP alone.
01:07 Now let's talk about the parole statute if we have that.
01:11 If we don't, well, let me tell you what the law says.
01:17 It basically says you can be paroled for two reasons.
01:22 Unique humanitarian need or a special benefit to the country.
01:27 The statute that they're using to parole all these people
01:31 has limitations as to how it can be used and on average,
01:37 the statute in question during the Obama-Trump years
01:42 was used about 6,000 people on average were paroled in the United States
01:50 using the statute that Biden's administration's been abusing.
01:55 In FY19, 7,525.
01:59 FY18, 6,466.
02:04 FY15 during the Obama years, 4,598.
02:09 FY19 again, 7,500.
02:14 In FY22, the Biden administration paroled 795,561.
02:20 In FY23, 1.2 million plus.
02:24 Why are they doing parole differently than Obama and Trump?
02:31 They're abusing the statute.
02:33 Why are they just waiving so many people in the country?
02:37 That's for the voters to decide.
02:40 I think they're just basically abusing the statute
02:44 because they don't want to turn anybody around and send them back.
02:47 They just let people come into the country in violation of the law.
02:52 Again, the parole statute in question is limited to two circumstances.
03:00 Unique benefit to the country, special benefit to the country,
03:04 unique humanitarian situation.
03:07 Your mother's dying, special need to the country.
03:09 You're a witness in a trial and we need to get you in on a limited situation.
03:16 Parole is not a permanent status.
03:17 Lakin Riley, which we will ask unanimous consent to vote on the bill
03:25 authored by Senator Britt.
03:27 The man accused of murdering her, indicted in Georgia, Mr. Ibarra,
03:35 in September 2022, he was apprehended by the Border Patrol.
03:40 He was released through parole.
03:44 It took me forever to find this out.
03:46 The reason for parole, subject was parole due to detention capacity
03:53 at the Central Processing Center in El Paso, Texas.
03:59 Reason for parole, subject was parole due to detention capacity
04:03 at the Central Processing Center in El Paso, Texas.
04:06 They had no room for the guy.
04:08 He's now being charged with murdering this young woman in Georgia.
04:14 He was arrested in 2024.
04:17 Senator Britt will tell us what her bill does here in a moment.
04:22 She's trying to find a way to make sure this never happens again.
04:26 The two crimes he was charged with should result in immediate expulsion from the country.
04:32 That's what her bill does.
04:33 But I want the country to know that the man accused of killing this young lady in Georgia
04:39 was released into our country by DHS illegally, in my view.
04:44 They violated the statute.
04:46 They gave him parole for a reason that doesn't exist in the statute.
04:50 And you wonder why we don't want to pass another bill.
04:53 The reason we don't want to pass another bill is we don't trust you, the Biden administration.
04:58 Why create a new law that's not going to be any more effective than the current law?
05:02 From the time we had this debate until the end of April, did things get better?
05:09 No.
05:10 77,800 people paroled from the original debate to now.
05:15 So clearly they haven't changed their idea or policies regarding abuse of parole.
05:20 The average for Obama-Trump was around 6,000 for the entire year,
05:25 using the parole statute in question.
05:28 77,800 since February.
05:31 So why are we skeptical?
05:34 Skeptical because the way they do business at the Biden administration.
05:38 Mayorcas, Secretary Mayorcas has all the power he needs to stop this.
05:45 You'll never convince me that 77,800 people were individually screened.
05:51 They have a program waving people through based on country, not individual status.
05:58 They promised me that an individual analysis was done on each parolee.
06:03 I asked him that and he said yes.
06:07 Well, we found one parolee accused of murdering a young lady in Georgia
06:11 that was not individually analyzed and released based on the criteria of the statute.
06:18 He was released because they had no place to put him.
06:22 So what we want to do today is try to find a way to deal with the situation
06:30 that led to this murder of this young lady.
06:35 The law has a loophole in it, I guess, for lack of a better word.
06:41 I'm going to recognize Senator Britt now to tell us what her bill does.
06:46 Because what do we know about the Georgia case?
06:50 We know the man charged with the murder of Miss Riley was released in the United States
06:57 under parole, not based on statutory requirements, but just because we were full.
07:02 If I were the Riley family, I'd be pretty upset and they might want to think about suing.
07:09 But right now, I'd like to yield to Senator Britt from Alabama,
07:13 who's tried to find a solution to this problem.
07:15 Mr. President, first.
07:19 Senator from Alabama.
07:20 First, I'd like to say thank you to my colleague from South Carolina
07:24 for his leadership on this critical issue.
07:25 The Lake and Riley Act is the bipartisan border bill that should be on the Senate floor today.
07:32 I am proud to be the lead Senate sponsor of this critical legislation,
07:37 along with my colleague from North Carolina.
07:39 The Lake and Riley Act passed the House of Representatives in an
07:43 overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion.
07:47 The gentleman from Georgia, Congressional District 10,
07:50 secured 37 Democratic votes for this bill on the House floor.
07:54 And here in the Senate, this bill is bipartisan and has a co-sponsored list of 47 senators.
08:02 I am confident that a bipartisan majority of senators support
08:07 the Lake and Riley Act and would vote for it today.
08:10 The House already did its work in a bipartisan fashion on this legislation,
08:15 and now it's our turn here in the Senate.
08:17 And frankly, it's well past time.
08:20 We should send this bipartisan bill to the president's desk immediately.
08:24 If this bill had been the law of the land, Lake and Riley would still be alive today.
08:31 Now this body has an opportunity and a responsibility, in my opinion,
08:37 to prevent this kind of unimaginable tragedy
08:39 to happening to more families across America.
08:44 The Lake and Riley Act is straightforward.
08:46 It says that ICE would be required to detain and deport illegal aliens who commit theft offenses.
08:55 It would also allow states to seek an injunction against any action taken by the Secretary of
09:01 Homeland Security or the Attorney General that violate immigration law to the detriment of the
09:08 state or its citizens.
09:11 My colleague from South Carolina has been at the forefront of exposing the Biden administration's
09:16 unprecedented abuse of immigration parole, which is directly relevant to the Lake and Riley case.
09:22 Under the Trump administration and the Obama administration,
09:27 parole was granted at our southern border on average less than to 6,000 people a year.
09:34 However, under President Biden, grants of parole have skyrocketed,
09:38 and now we know over 1.3 million people have been paroled in the past year.
09:44 One of those grants of parole went to Lake and Riley's alleged killer
09:50 after he crossed the southern border illegally in 2022.
09:54 This abuse of parole continues to have devastating consequences for families and communities in
10:00 every corner of our nation.
10:02 President Biden could stop this abuse of parole today if he wanted to.
10:08 But he doesn't, and he won't.
10:11 The president refuses to reverse course.
10:15 It is past time to force his hand on that and pass the Lake and Riley Act.
10:21 It will secure our homeland.
10:24 It will help to safeguard our streets.
10:26 It will help defend our families.
10:29 I yield the floor.
10:31 Senator from South Carolina.
10:35 UC request just a minute, Senator Durbin.
10:37 Senator Blackburn, would you like to speak?
10:38 Okay.
10:39 I'm just about to wrap up.
10:41 So I sent a letter yesterday to Secretary Maricus wanting to know about the two people
10:49 who tried to get into the Marine base, Quantico.
10:52 Apparently both of them are illegal, claiming to be Amazon contractors who were not.
10:58 And there's a lot of mystery around this.
11:01 I want a response to my letter.
11:03 Who are these people?
11:05 What do we know about them?
11:06 Were there any affiliation with terrorist groups?
11:10 What were they up to?
11:11 I think we need to know as a nation what went on because I find it very odd that two fighting age
11:19 illegal immigrants joined together to try to falsely get into a Marine base.
11:25 That sends shivers up my spine.
11:28 So I want to introduce this letter into the record, if I may.
11:31 Thank you.
11:33 And now, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the committee on the
11:39 judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S3933 and the Senate proceed to its immediate
11:47 consideration.
11:48 Further, that the bill be considered and read a third time and passed and the motion to
11:53 reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
11:57 Is there objection?
11:59 Reserving the right to object.
12:01 Senator from Illinois.
12:02 Mr. President, we all agree that noncitizens who are convicted of violent crime should
12:06 be detained and removed from the United States, period.
12:10 Sadly, the Lake and Riley Act does nothing to address violent crime.
12:14 Under current law, current existing law, noncitizens who enter the country illegally,
12:21 violate the terms of their status or have their visas revoked can be detained now under the law
12:29 by officials of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE.
12:33 Current law also requires the detention of individuals with serious criminal convictions.
12:40 Those who have committed murder, rape, or any crime of violence or theft offense with
12:46 a term of imprisonment of at least one year.
12:48 The law also gives ICE discretion beyond that to detain a noncitizen in any case in which
12:55 a noncitizen has been charged with a crime.
12:58 To make this decision, ICE assesses the individual circumstances of the case,
13:03 ensuring the agency's limited resources are used effectively to protect national security
13:11 and public safety.
13:12 The reality is that Congress has never appropriated nearly enough money for ICE
13:18 to detain every undocumented immigrant who's charged with a crime.
13:23 And remember, the vast majority of our senators on the other side of the aisle
13:28 including the sponsors of this measure, blocked a bipartisan national security
13:33 supplemental in February that would have given ICE more funding to detain more undocumented
13:39 immigrants who might pose a threat to our country.
13:41 They voted against it.
13:42 They'll have another chance to vote to provide that additional funding in just a short time today.
13:48 I hope they'll finally take this opportunity.
13:51 Vote for more ICE agents if you want more ICE enforcement of existing laws that are
13:57 serious under books.
13:58 Here's the reality.
14:00 The sweeping approach in this bill would actually harm national security.
14:04 Why?
14:05 Because it would eliminate ICE's discretion to prioritize dangerous individuals.
14:10 Certainly people who are being convicted of a violent crime or charged with a violent crime
14:16 are more serious offenders than perhaps those who are guilty of theft.
14:20 We don't know the circumstances in each case.
14:23 We would instead require ICE to treat those arrested for non-violent crimes,
14:28 this proposal would, to treat those for non-violent crimes the same as individuals
14:33 who actually convicted violent crimes.
14:35 And with limited ICE agents, you have to make a choice.
14:38 What's the priority?
14:39 What's the most dangerous individual?
14:41 This proposal before us would overwhelm ICE facilities and make us less, not more safe.
14:48 For example, this law would require ICE to detain every immigrant who is simply arrested
14:55 for shoplifting.
14:56 Arrested.
14:57 Even if it quickly becomes clear the person is innocent.
15:00 Because this bill does not require a charge or conviction.
15:03 Tell me, does it make sense to treat a non-citizen arrested for shoplifting the same as someone
15:10 convicted of murder?
15:10 I think we all know the answer.
15:13 This bill would also grant state attorneys general the standing to sue federal immigration
15:19 authorities if a state disagrees with immigration enforcement decisions made by the federal
15:24 government.
15:24 For example, this bill would give a state attorney general the standing to challenge
15:29 the use of the parole authority, like Uniting for Ukraine, which allows Ukrainians fleeing
15:34 Putin's war to temporarily come to the United States, if the state can show harm of $100.
15:41 Let me tell you, they talk a lot about parole and how many, 70,000 or so in the last six
15:46 months or so.
15:46 Among those were the Ukrainian refugees.
15:50 They were brought to the United States from the war-torn zone because of Vladimir Putin's
15:55 invasion.
15:56 36,000 of them came to Chicago.
15:59 The conditions of their coming to Chicago, a background check.
16:02 Secondly, they have a sponsoring family so that they have someone who will help them
16:07 assimilate into the United States.
16:08 And third, they were given the right to work.
16:11 We've had little or no publicity, negative publicity about these Ukrainians.
16:16 We have a very proud Ukrainian-American community and they're absorbing these individuals
16:20 who are the victims of the war in Ukraine.
16:23 These are part of the parole numbers that have just been alluded to.
16:26 In contrast, we've received 46,000 migrants sent by the governor of Texas on over 880
16:36 buses to Chicago without any warning, without any preparation.
16:41 That's been a difficult situation and it's really put a taxing strain on the governments
16:46 of the area.
16:46 But to argue that parole for Ukrainian refugees is wrong, I disagree with that.
16:52 That was a humanitarian gesture on the part of the United States and it's worked well,
16:57 at least in our community.
16:58 The situation with the governor of Texas is a sharp contrast in the circumstance.
17:03 Lake and Riley's murder by any standard was a tragedy.
17:08 Every description I've read about this young woman suggests she was an amazing person.
17:13 And the fact that she lost her life is terrible.
17:15 There are no excuses.
17:17 We must do everything possible to prevent crimes like this from happening.
17:21 But this legislation before us makes our system less orderly and less safe.
17:25 It does nothing to help the situation and circumstances that affected her.
17:30 The reality is that most immigrants in the United States are law-abiding individuals
17:34 who are seeking a better life in our nation.
17:37 Many studies have shown immigrants are less likely to commit crime than natural born of
17:42 U.S. citizens.
17:43 But Donald Trump recently said that undocumented immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our
17:49 country."
17:49 A phrase that closely mirrors one used several times in Hitler's Mein Kampf.
17:54 He has also promised to round up and deport every single undocumented immigrant in our
18:00 country, including DREAMers who grew up here.
18:03 When the bipartisan border supplemental comes to a vote, the vast majority of Republicans
18:08 opposed it at the request of Donald Trump.
18:10 And you know what he said publicly and clearly?
18:12 Blame it on me if the bill fails.
18:15 I am blaming it on him.
18:17 The former president has made it clear he does not want a solution to our challenges
18:20 at the border.
18:21 He wants a campaign issue for November.
18:24 I urge my colleagues to reject Donald Trump's advice, support the actual solutions, which
18:29 will be before us in the next hour and a half.
18:31 And I object.
18:33 The objection is heard.
18:34 Mr. President?
18:36 Sir?
18:37 Thank you.
18:38 To my colleague from Illinois, Senator Durbin, we do a lot of things together.
18:43 I enjoy working with you.
18:45 But here we have a fundamental disagreement.
18:47 Number one, you're entitled to your opinion, but not your facts.
18:50 Seventy-seven thousand eight hundred people paroled in the U.S. since February came from
18:58 Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
19:02 That doesn't count the people from Ukraine.
19:04 They all showed up at the border.
19:05 They were paroled in.
19:06 There's no way the two statutory requirements were applied to 77,800 people.
19:13 Now, why did they just wave them through?
19:16 All I can tell you is that parole has been abused.
19:20 The average was 6,000 a year for Trump and Biden during their presidency.
19:27 From April to now, 77,800, nothing to do with Ukraine.
19:32 As to the people from Ukraine, I want to help them.
19:35 But we have a refugee law where you can apply for refugee status if you're in a war zone
19:41 or things are bad where you live.
19:43 They're taking the parole statute and just granting anybody and everybody they choose
19:49 to grant.
19:50 The bottom line is we're either a rule of law nation or we're not.
19:54 So this has nothing to do with ICE funding.
19:56 We're not talking about funding ICE here.
19:59 This is a decision by the executive branch to abuse the law on the books.
20:04 The tools available apparently are not being used by anybody.
20:10 Why does Senator Britt offer legislation?
20:13 Because we have a real-world example where the system failed.
20:18 Let's make it stronger.
20:19 Why did this bill pass overwhelmingly in the House?
20:22 Because it makes sense.
20:24 If you learned nothing from the Lincoln-Rowley case, learn the following.
20:30 She is a victim.
20:31 Her family is a victim of a broken immigration system.
20:35 Her family is a victim of willful disregard of the law by the Biden administration.
20:41 The man accused of murdering this young lady was allowed to come into the country on parole
20:47 based on, no place to put you, not the statutory requirements to get paroled.
20:54 So this is a big issue.
20:55 We should learn from the death of this young lady.
20:59 We should change our parole system.
21:02 We're not.
21:02 That's why we're not going to add a new law that won't be enforced.
21:06 Until you prove to me you're serious about following the law as written,
21:10 you're going to have a problem with us on this side of the aisle and hopefully a few Democrats.
21:16 We should learn from the Lincoln-Rowley case and do what Senator Britt encourages us to do,
21:22 which is to change the law to address the situation so we have no other Lincoln-Rowley cases.
21:28 Apparently, the death of this young lady has taught us nothing as a body.
21:34 We've learned nothing from this case.
21:36 We're doing nothing different.
21:38 And it breaks my heart.
21:42 It looks like the murder of this young lady should be a wake-up call to a parole system broken
21:50 and to fix this never-ending catch and release.
21:54 You're caught for crimes and you're released before the sun goes down to commit more crimes.
22:00 It needs to come to an end.
22:02 We will have a chance as a Democratic people to vote in November.
22:09 If you think the system is working the way it's intended to work, then you need—and
22:15 you're okay with what's going on, vote for Biden.
22:18 You're going to get more of the same.
22:19 If you think this is broken and needs to change, you ought to think about voting for somebody
22:23 else.
22:24 I yield.
22:25 From Connecticut.
22:29 Mr. President, I know there's another unanimous consent request to be made, so I'll be very
22:32 brief.
22:32 I've always taken Senator Graham's concerns about parole at face value.
22:37 In fact, the last 30 days of the negotiations over the bipartisan border bill were dedicated
22:43 to this question of reforming parole.
22:46 In fact, the bill we are going to vote on in a matter of minutes involves the most significant,
22:52 most serious reform of parole likely in the history of the country.
22:57 We entered that conversation at the urging of Senator Graham.
23:02 He was intimately involved in the negotiations over the reform of parole, and the reforms
23:10 are significant.
23:12 An elimination of 236(a) parole, the parole that's used between the borders, a substitution
23:19 for that process with a new rigorous examination of every individual who's arriving's
23:27 credentials for asylum.
23:29 Major reforms to the humanitarian parole program to make sure that it is truly used only for
23:35 humanitarian purposes.
23:38 And so the irony of the complaints that are being made about the overuse of parole is
23:43 that the bipartisan border bill negotiated with Senator Graham involves the most significant
23:49 reforms to parole, the most significant restrictions to the President's parole authority that
23:56 anyone here in this Senate has likely ever negotiated.
24:01 That's why it's regrettable that we are debating unanimous consent agreements instead
24:08 of coming together to vote on a proposal that addresses many of the concerns raised by my
24:13 colleague.
24:14 Question.
24:16 Illinois.
24:18 Senator, can I yield for a question?
24:21 I would.
24:21 And what intervening event prohibited or stopped this bipartisan measure from passing on the
24:27 floor of the Senate?
24:29 As I mentioned, thank you for the question, Senator Durbin.
24:32 As I mentioned, we negotiated this bill in good faith.
24:35 We negotiated it with the appointed representatives by the Republican conference.
24:39 Senator Graham was amongst those in those conversations.
24:42 We thought we had achieved a product that could get the broad support of the Republican
24:47 conference because they ticked off to us their priorities.
24:50 And they were legitimate priorities.
24:52 We heard them loud and clear.
24:53 They said we want a reform of the asylum system.
24:54 We want to raise the standard for credible fear.
24:58 We want more detention beds.
25:00 We want to reform parole.
25:04 We want to give the president a new authority to shut down the border at times of emergency.
25:08 Obviously, Democrats came to that conversation with priorities as well.
25:11 We wanted to expand the number of family visas and work visas.
25:16 We wanted to make sure that immigrants can exercise their legal rights.
25:20 We achieved a compromise, an old-fashioned compromise.
25:22 The night we released that bill, Senator Durbin, I thought that we were on a passage to on
25:27 a path to passage, but it was President Trump who intervened and said, plain and clear,
25:34 as Senator McConnell has admitted, I want nothing to pass before the election.
25:38 I want nothing to pass before the election because President Trump's team decided that
25:43 it would be better off for the border to be a mess, to help his political prospects instead
25:49 of solving the problem.
25:50 I hear Senator Graham when he says, well, we don't trust the Biden administration.
25:55 Well, we didn't trust the Trump administration.
25:57 That's a road to nowhere.
25:58 If we don't pass reform legislation when the other party's president is in power,
26:05 we will never do the business of the people.
26:08 We had a chance to do that until the intervention of President Trump.
26:12 And I wish, I wish that instead of choosing his political prospects this November, we
26:19 were choosing to secure the border in a bipartisan way.
26:22 At two o'clock this afternoon, we're going to have a vote on that bipartisan measure.
26:27 It'll be an opportunity for those who have amendments to come forward with those amendments
26:31 after we pass it.
26:32 Is that not correct?
26:33 That is correct.
26:34 And of course, this is a motion to just proceed to debate.
26:37 So this isn't final passage.
26:39 If members think there are imperfections in this bill, if they want additional restrictions
26:43 on parole authority, they could vote to proceed.
26:45 And then we could get into a process by which we could try to solve any remaining differences
26:49 that have arisen since the announcement of the bipartisan bill with Republican leadership,
26:54 with their designated negotiator.
26:57 I wish we could just get onto this bill so we could try to sort this out instead of allowing
27:02 this issue to become a perpetual political football, as seems to be the interest of many
27:07 of my Republican colleagues.
27:08 I yield.
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