Tag Archives: senator cornyn

WASHINGTON – On Thursday on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the migrant crisis at our Southern border. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s floor remarks are below, and video can be found above.

“Coming from Texas, with a 1,200 mile common border with Mexico, caravans are not unheard of. In fact, we have many caravans showing up on a daily basis at border patrol stations: unaccompanied children, families. What has happened is that the cartels – these transnational criminal organizations that have figured out as part of their business model that they can make money by shipping migrants up through Mexico into the United States, or ship drugs up from Mexico into the United States, or traffic in children and women for sex slavery – they figured out they can make money because of the gaps in our border security, because of the characteristics of our law that make it impossible for us to deter many of the immigrants coming from Central America.”

“This is a phenomenon that has been occurring on a daily basis for the foreseeable past, and it’s because of a glitch in our laws that our Democratic colleagues are well aware of, that we’ve tried to fix. But they simply will not cooperate with us in order to fix them.”

“About 40 percent of my constituents in Texas are of a Hispanic origin, many of whom live along that international border, who understand that the cartels that traffic in people, and drugs, and contraband are criminal organizations that threaten their security and safety. So I feel very strongly about this issue.”

“We can’t forget that our border communities are critically important, and any solution we find must somehow balance our normal compassion for people who are vulnerable and people who are seeking a better life, balancing that compassion with the rule of law and our ability to protect our own sovereignty by securing our borders and controlling illegal immigration into the United States.”

“In the coming weeks, I hope we can work with the Administration to determine a course of action that addresses the real needs of legitimate asylum seekers without rewarding illegal activity.”

“We need to send a message that the United States alone cannot bear the burden of this mass migration, and we need to ensure that those who seek to enter the United States do so legally.”

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Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, is a member of the Senate Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary Committees.

WASHINGTON – Monday on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed his recent trip to the Texas-Mexico border and the Keep Families Together and Enforce the Law Act, legislation to ensure immigrant families can stay together while they await their court proceedings.

Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s floor remarks are below, and video can be found above.

“I traveled there to tour two facilities in Brownsville, along with Senator Cruz, that housed young children, some very young, some up to 18, just under 18 years of age, that are being sheltered after their parents crossed illegally into the United States.”

“After touring these facilities in Brownsville and meeting with various federal agency officials and nongovernmental organizations and local elected officials at the Weslaco border patrol station, what we learned is the situation is far more complex than meets the eye and that many of the narratives that have been spun about what’s happening at the border are just simply false.”

“The federal officials at the Weslaco border patrol station went through the step-by-step process of what happens to immigrant families when they are apprehended at the border, what happens when they’re detained, and what happens when their cases are heard in a court.”

“Treating families with compassion by allowing them to remain together and enforcing our immigration laws don’t have to be mutually exclusive. And our bill will ensure that they aren’t. It will allow children to stay with their parents in a safe facility while they await their court proceedings to see if they perhaps are eligible for some sort of immigration benefit like asylum.”

“Our bill would also set mandatory standards for care in family residential centers where immigrant families are placed and keep children safe by requiring they are removed from the care of any individual that presents a danger to them.”

“What happens now that kids have been placed apart from their parents? Our bill requires the administration to take steps to reunify as many families as possible.”

“Some have falsely claimed that our bill promotes indefinite detention of families. But that’s certainly not the intention. Our bill does not mandate the Department of Homeland Security detain parents and their kids indefinitely.”

“On this issue, I think her bill has a number of problems. In fact, there’s a huge question of what sort of enforcement, if any, would be permitted under her bill. In effect, this bill would make it impossible to criminally prosecute parents for crossing the border illegally unless their child is able to go into Department of Justice custody with the parents. This bill doesn’t even specify where the families should be held.”

“That’s a big problem, Mr. President, because children shouldn’t go to jails and prisons run by the Department of Justice with hardened, potentially violent criminals… That’s why essentially the bill advocates for catch and release.”

“Both our bills allow for families to be kept together while they are waiting for court proceedings, but only one of them, the Tillis bill, also permits enforcement of our laws.  That seems to be the choice that our Democratic colleagues have made.”

“If we come together, we can resolve the situation swiftly and ensure these children are kept with their families.”

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Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, is a member of the Senate Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary Committees.

On Wednesday U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) appeared on Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto to discuss the Senate Finance Committee’s markup of tax reform legislation.

Excerpts from his appearance are below, and video can be found above.

“Repealing the regressive individual mandate tax, which is primarily paid by low-income Americans, does provide additional revenue for us to use to bring down middle class tax rates.”

“We can make the individual tax cuts permanent if our Democratic colleagues would join us in trying to pass a bipartisan bill, but they made it pretty clear that they have no interest in that, so we’re stuck with just doing it for the ten-year budget window using this process.”

“We do provide a tax rate cut. And you’re right, we do repeal the deductibility of state and local taxes… If we can, by eliminating the state and local tax deduction, we can get rates lower and the economy going again, then everybody benefits.”

“What we’re told is that because of lower tax rates in countries like Ireland, that this is causing those companies to move their headquarters offshore and make investments there… We want to provide every incentive to bring that money here to make those investments here and to create jobs here.”