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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, we have a crisis in this country. We have a crisis at our southern border that is producing some 90,000 unaccompanied children coming into this country. These kids are being victimized. These kids are being physically and sexually abused by violent coyotes and drug cartels.
The American people understand we have a crisis, and the American people want action. The House of Representatives understands we have a crisis. The House of Representatives has acted. Yet I am sorry to say the majority leader and the Democrats in this body refuse to allow any action to address this crisis.
The crisis at the border is the direct consequence of President Obama's lawlessness. Just 3 years ago, in 2011, there were roughly 6,000 unaccompanied kids coming into this country, and then in 2012, a few months before the election, President Obama unilaterally granted amnesty to some 800,000 people who entered the country illegally as children. The predicted consequence is that if you grant amnesty to those who enter illegally as children, it creates an enormous incentive for more and more children to enter illegally. As a result, we have seen the numbers go from 6,000 unaccompanied kids 3 years ago to approximately 90,000 this year, and next year, the Department of Homeland Security predicts, there will be 145,000 little boys and little girls illegally smuggled, victimized, and brutalized.
This needs to stop. We need leadership in Washington. We need leadership in both Houses of Congress. We need leadership from both Republicans and Democrats. Yet not only do President Obama and the Senate Democrats refuse to do anything to solve this problem, but, I am sorry to say, it is even worse.
In recent weeks President Obama told the American people he intends to grant even more amnesty. The first illegal amnesty of some 800,000 people was not enough, so in his view we need more. He intends to illegally grant amnesty to 5 or 6 million more people. Mark my words: The President of the United States intends to illegally grant amnesty. Amnesty is coming. Yet we heard in recent days that the President has decided to delay that action until just after the election.
There are a lot of cynical policies in Washington, DC. Yet this has to rank very near the top. For the President of the United States to say he understands the American people don't want amnesty, but since there is an election coming up, he intends to pass the policy which they don't want, don't believe in, and which subverts the rule of law just after the election so that the Senate Democrats can campaign and say they had nothing to do with it--what does that say about what the President thinks about the American people? That he thinks they are not paying close enough attention to understand that this election is a referendum on amnesty? That he thinks they won't remember by the time the next election happens?
Well, here is the bottom line: Amnesty is the wrong approach that created the crisis. The only way to solve this crisis and protect and prevent those little boys and little girls from being physically and sexually abused is to end President Obama's amnesty and prospectively stop the promise of amnesty that is causing these kids to come here illegally.
I introduced legislation in the Senate to do exactly that, and the House of Representatives, to their credit, stood up and led. They stayed in session an extra day before the August recess to come together and pass the legislation I had introduced in the Senate. They passed it by a vote of 216 to 192, with 4 Democrats joining the Republicans to stop President Obama's amnesty in order to actually solve the crisis at the border. Yet what happened in the Senate? In the Senate the majority leader refused to allow a vote on the provision and sent the Senators home for August while doing nothing to address the problem.
The reason is simple: Although President Obama and Senate Democrats are afraid of the voters holding them accountable for amnesty, it should be lost on nobody watching that what is happening in the Senate is that the 55 Senate Democrats serving in this body affirmatively want amnesty.
If only this body would just do its job. If we would simply pass the legislation the House has already passed, prospectively taking amnesty off the table--and by the way, this bill does nothing, zero, to the so-called DREAMers who are already here. It doesn't address that issue. This issue addresses the promise of amnesty in the future. As long as these children believe they will get amnesty, they will keep coming here illegally. They will keep being victimized and abused.
Unfortunately, the majority leader has employed a procedural trick called filling the tree. It is a trick this body is now quite familiar with because it is what the majority leader has done over and over to shut down every single amendment from every Member of this body.
To be fair, majority leaders in both parties have used this trick in the past. The previous six majority leaders used the procedural trick of filling the tree a total of 40 times. The current Democratic majority leader has used it almost 90 times since 2006. The current majority leader has used it more than double what his six previous predecessors did. Roughly two-thirds of the time this procedural trick has been employed, it has been by the majority leader of this body.
What does that do? What that does is it says legislation in this body will shut down the right of amendments for every Senator. What it says to the 26 million Texans is that their views don't matter because neither Senator Cornyn nor I will be allowed to offer any amendments. It says to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State of Maryland, the States of New York and California: Your views don't matter. Why? Because the majority leader has stripped your Senators of the right to offer any amendment on any topic whatsoever.
The majority leader has done that nearly 90 times--including on this continuing resolution, including on the basic bill that funds the government because the Senate has failed to appropriate the funds that we should be doing otherwise.
This is wrong. It is fundamentally wrong. The American people deserve a vote. If Senate Democrats want to embrace amnesty, let them do so openly and in daylight.
Stop hiding. People are frustrated with Washington because they recognize politicians say one thing here and one thing at home. How many Senate Democrats, particularly in red States, go home to their States and say amnesty is a terrible thing and then come back here and facilitate the President illegally granting amnesty. How about we have some honesty. How about we have elected Members of this body say and do the same in Washington that they say and do back home. Don't hide. How about we all tell the truth. And the truth is the 55 Senate Democrats want amnesty, but they don't want the voters to know. They are celebrating that President Obama has said: Fear not, the amnesty is coming, but we will wait until after the election. That cynicism is fundamentally inconsistent with the obligation every Member of this body owes to our constituents.
So I am pleased we will get a vote--despite the majority leader's best efforts--on amnesty, because momentarily this body is going to have the opportunity to vote, and I predict most, if not all, Senate Democrats will vote in favor of President Obama's amnesty.
I have a lot higher opinion of the American people, of the voters, than it seems the President does. I think the American people understand what is going on and I don't think they are going to be fooled by the President delaying his illegal amnesty until after the election. So we are going to get a vote on this matter.
AMENDMENT NO. 3852
For that reason, I move to table Reid amendment No. 3852 for the purposes of offering the Cruz-Sessions amendment No. 3859, and I ask for the yeas and nays.
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