“[It is] one of the most complex and emotional issues of out time.”

It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.

In other times, I could stand here and give this kind of exposition on the beliefs of the Democratic Party and that would be enough. But today that is not enough. People want more.

We call ourselves public servants but I’ll tell you this: we as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation. It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good.

We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed. We believe that.

If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.

Today, I am an inquisitor. I shall not sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

Throughout out history, when people have looked for new ways to solve their problems, and to uphold the principles of this nation, many times they have turned to political parties. They have often turned to the Democratic Party.

I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He’s just incapable of it.

If you are dissatisfied with they way things are, then you have got to resolve to change them.

More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.

I think it no accident that most of those emigrating to America in the 19th century identified with the Democratic Party. We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.

Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.

The earth is bread we take and eat.

We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.

If youre going to play the game properly, youd better know every rule.

The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms.

Trump’s immigration positions do not deserve a response because they are so outlandish. If you force me to give you three words to describe them they would be: ludicrous, impractical and racist.

Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.

We can certainly defuse the intensity of the anti-immigrant feeling if we can bring some reality to the discussion by showing that they are not using that many resources.

…for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process.

For our immigration policy to make sense, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it.

One thing is very clear: Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits.

It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.

I appreciate the good work that senators in both parties have put into trying to fix our broken immigration system. There are some good elements in this proposal, especially increasing the resources and manpower to secure our border and also improving and streamlining legal immigration. However, I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, if not decades, to come to America legally.