Thought during this two hour meeting. Has considered the negative influence of looks. I ask to start the video. If you want to know the cause, here it is. It is these rotten comic books. It is my opinion without any reasonable doubt or reservation comic books are an important can should beating factor in many cases of juvenile delinquency. A Tennessee School board has been the critically acclaimed graphic novel mouse. It is a true story about the horrors of the holocaust by art spiegelman. The school board claimed it banned the graphic novel because of profanity and nudity. [indiscernible] was over here has a bad word. This over here has a bad word. We dont want our kids to be exposed to these things. We are professionals in our classroom and we know what is best for our students. The kids want to read books. The kids are asking me can i go get a book and read and they are so excited and i have to say no because i have not had a chance to go through all of them and catalog them to write them all down to somebody that is going to tell me, them if they can or cannot read the books in the classroom library. In the 1850s, uncle toms cabin, a classic antislavery novel was banned throughout the southern United States. Two decades later in 1873 Congress Passed the comstock act, a law that made it up to five years in prison for any person who sold or distribute it a book that was obscene or lascivious. The law did not define the terms and hundreds of americans were convicted for distribute in books with topics such as atheism and reproductive health. As the video showed, this Committee Held a series of things in 1954 to examine a threat comic books like superman posed to children. The panic culminated in the comics code that censored comic books for decades. That may seem absurd today that extremists continue to fight popular graphic novels like maus and other books. In 2022 they were over a thousand requests to ban books at Public Schools and libraries. The most in over 20 years. Here are a few of the books that have been banned or restricted in schools and libraries over the past few years. I know why the caged bird sings. The handmaids tale. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass. A raisin in the sun. Brave new world. And beloved. These are books written by some of the greatest american authors including trailblazing black women like Toni Morrison and my angela. Even works maya angelou. All in the name of prohibiting materials supposedly related to critical race theory. Lets be clear, efforts to ban books are wrong whether they come from the right or the left. When we ban books like maus or to kill a mockingbird in the name of protecting students we are denying students the opportunity to learn about people and difficult subjects. Limiting access to a book like antisemitism does not protect students from the actual history or the reality that hate still exists. In the name of protecting students, politicians have targeted books that include lgbtq subject matter. One out of every four banned books features lgbtq characters and themes according to penn america. No one is advocating for sexually explicit content to be available in an Elementary School library or children section of the library. That is a distraction from the real challenge. I understand and respect parents may choose to limit what their children read especially at younger ages per my wife and i did. Others do too it no parent should have the right to tell another parents child what they can and cannot read in school or at home. Every student deserves access to books that reflect their experiences and help them better understand who they are. I want to commend senator cornyn who said last year and i quote as a general rule i dont favor banning ageappropriate and subject appropriate books for children. They need to hear diversity of views. That is exactly right. Unfortunately librarians and teachers across the country who are just doing their jobs have been threatened with physical violence and criminal prosecution by a small group of zealots. These efforts to ban books violate our most cherished principles as americans and betray our values as americans. We must protect our students and their freedom to read and learn. I had this off to Ranking Member graham for his opening statement. Sen. Graham . If you are a parent out there listening to this hearing, i would encourage you to advocate for your child. I would encourage you to go to the School District, the library, where ever you believe is appropriate on behalf of your child. You have an obligation as a parent to lend your voice to a because you think helps your child develops in the right way. About this hearing, what is our role here . What am i supposed to do . Am i supposed to take over every school board in the country and veto their decisions about what books go into Public Schools . In the library i dont spend a lot of time in the library. That speaks poorly to me. And my supposed to take over the libraries of this country and be the final say of what goes in a library . I hope not. I think not. This is an important hearing in this regard. It shows the difference of the two parties on this issue. School boards whether elected or appointed in our system should be the people we go to to talk about what is in a school. A Library Board should be the group of people that decides what goes in a library. If you dont like the outcome, at least you can complain. And to all the parents out there who believe there is a bunch of stuff in our schools being pushed on your children that go over the line, you are absolutely right. To governors and local officials who want to make sure agendas are not being pushed upon your children, you are right to speak up. In burbank, california, some School District band Huckleberry Finn district banned very thin, to kill a mockingbird. I dont agree with that but that was your right to make that decision. What i want to leave with you, mr. Chairman is we on this side i think to a person i understand what senator cornyn is saying but he will speak for himself in a minute. And of think there is one person on our side of the aisle that believes we the federal government should be deciding these issues. If you dont like the outcome, pick a school board you do like. It is wrong for conservatives to try to pick school board members. It is absolutely ok for every liberal organization to destroy conservatives who make decisions they dont like. We are not buying this. We are not going to be intimidated. To governors out there, i look to you for leadership on such issues. Some are providing it and congratulations to you. To parents, dont give an inch on this. Speak up. Violence is never the answer but show up. Speak up. A lot of times the books that are being complained about by parents, you cannot even read in the public hearing. I will not read it today. Somebody needs to understand that this is a big issue for many parents in this country and mr. Chairman, this committee has done a lot of good work on social media reform. We worked on immigration. We can have our differences. But to me, here is what we should be talking about right now. And i will be brief. As we talk about the federal governments role in deciding what goes in library or school, there has been a three to 47 increase in illegal crossings in 2020, 183,000 people came over illegally in july. Have had 146 people on the terrorist watch list. In fy 22 which is about 2. 4 million came across. Since President Biden has been president five and half Million People have come across illegally. That is bigger than the state of South Carolina. Last couple of weeks, smugglers with isis ties helped migrants enter the u. S. From mexico raising alarm bells. I would like to be talking about that. You can get the classified briefing. Finally, just not me saying these things. New york city, the mayor, is at capacity. We have no more room in the city. This is a National Crisis that begs for a National Response since day one. The migrant crisis will destroy new york city. New york city will experience a financial tsunami. The mayor is right. We should be trying to find a way to fix this problem. That to me is the biggest priority facing this committee and as to this panel, i will listen but i will end where i started. It is not our job to decide these things and if you are a parent, dont be intimidated. Sen. Durbin we join in bipartisan effort a few years ago. Four democrats, four republicans wrote a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill which i still think in whole can be used today as a template for where we need to go. But for 30 Years Congress has failed to pass Immigration Reform. As a consequence many of the things happening on the border and across our nation are the result. I stand ready and i mean it sincerely and personally. I say this to my friend from South Carolina together together for another gang of eight or 10 or four to put together a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. I think we both know what the likelihood of that passing in the other body is but that should not deter us from doing our duty. Im ready to do it again. As the publication of books in important part is the publication of books an important part of our jurisdiction . The constitution is our jurisdiction. The constitution raises questions i think will be addressed today in this hearing. Senator cornyn. Sen. Cornyn thank you, mr. Chairman but i just want to point out we have not had a markup on an immigration bill in this committee is a committee of jurisdiction since the current chairman has been chairman. And even when our democratic colleagues were in charge of both the house, the senate and the white house, we have not considered any immigration bills. I think senator tillis join me in a letter to you as chairman asking we make some attempt to try to craft something that might generate bipartisan support. About two years ago, senator sinema, the senator from arizona and i and also Tony Gonzales who represents the largest border district in the country and henry cuellar, a democrat, introduced a bipartisan, bicameral Border Solutions act i think we called it. My thought was at some point things would get so bad that President Biden or perhaps even our democratic colleagues might be prompted to actually do something instead of just talk about it. And i guess i was wrong. In the meantime as senator graham points out, there have been literally millions i think 7 Million People coming across the border since President Biden was president. There been 108,000 americans died in drug overdoses last year alone. We know the fentanyl which is taking many of our childrens lives in our schools, that 71,000 of those 800,000 108,000 were synthetic opioids. We know where the drugs were manufactured and pressed into pills that kids take and die. And then of course there is 300,000 children placed with sponsors. Unaccompanied children in the Biden Administration cant tell you where they are. They cannot tell you whether they are going to school, getting health care. They cannot tell you whether they are being trafficked for sex or forced in involuntary labor. And frankly they dont care. Because if they did, they would want to do something about it. So i will volunteer to work with you or anybody but it has got to be more than just talk. It has got to be action. Nobody else can do this job. We are the ones who have to do the job if it is going to get done. So far, i dont see much in the way of action. Sen. Durbin i would just say in response the bill we worked on with the gang of eight, senator mccain, Centre Graham and others was a good faith bipartisan effort which i still think has validity to this day. And it took more than just a Committee Hearing to achieve. It took people with goodwill trying to Work Together and compromise. Im sorry you did not support that bill. That i think it was a bill we ought to return to at this time. Im ready to do that any point at a think we need to do so. Sen. Graham mr. Chairman, i will take you up on that. Bring the bill forward. Let john tell us what he did not like about it. I can make it better and let us vote. America is really in a National Crisis of the mayor of new york city. Not lindsey graham. This is incredibly dangerous, incredibly irresponsible. Afghanistan is now in the hands of the taliban, the threat of terrorism against the United States is getting worse and not better. Isa smugglers and full of getting people into the United States. If you brought the gang of eight will any other bill as the base bill and have a debate on this committee would be well served. We could all vote. We could all amend it and i look forward to doing that. Sen. Durbin lets start by having our stuff take a look at the bill. Seven or eight years now . Lets update it which im sure well have to do in some respects and see if we can move it forward. As long as it is a bipartisan and has a chance of passing in the senate as well as the house i think it is a good effort to sen. Cornyn if i think i can respond briefly, i cannot even remember when the gang of eight bill was on the floor. Was that 2016 . 13. 10 years ago. And it did not pass the house. I know you are proud of that product but unfortunately it did not pass the house and as well know from schoolhouse rock, a bill becomes a law when it passes both chambers of commerce and gets the president ial signature. Forgive me for saying this but that bill failed to succeed. I know you are proud of it but that was also a different time than we are in now. Before the biden border crisis became so dire. I think there is a different dynamic. Certainly there is a republican house. They are not going to take up and pass a gang of eight bill. You know that. I know that. Everybody knows that. So forgive me but when you keep talking about the gang of eight bill as somehow being the gold standard, i have to disagree. Mr. Chairman, may i ask you a question . Sen. Durbin you may. Mr. Chairman, i was not here when the bill that you obviously favor was considered by the senate. My question is simple. Did it grant amnesty to folks who were in our country illegally . Sen. Durbin know, senator. I dont believe the dead. The decision in the bill was those who are undocumented currently living in the night states would report themselves to the government and pay their taxes and their social security. They would not qualify for citizenship. At least in the outset. The idea was to get everybody on the books once and for all. I think that is a positive step forward. It did have a favorable section for dreamers which as you can imagine i had some interest in. But how is that not amnesty acrylate sen. Durbin dream act . How is that not amnesty . Sen. Durbin it is not as if they are being forgiven for wrongdoing. They were brought to the country as infants. I dont think there was any culpable conduct on the part of these dreamers. So you were allowed to register and if you registered you could stay indefinitely . Sen. Durbin a path to citizenship for dreamers. There was no culpable conduct on the part of infants brought here to this country. Im just trying to understand. It just sounds to me like that is amnesty. Sen. Durbin in your eyes it may be. If a child is brought here at the age of two to say they are guilty of some criminal act and should have criminal culpability i think is an extreme position. Im not trying to say twoyearolds are bad people. Im trying to understand what your bill does. It sounds like it is amnesty. Sen. Durbin it is lengthy. If i may, mr. Chairman, i was part of that. Here is what i will tell my good friend. Have to get bipartisan buyin. Have to secure your border. If you dont it is a fruitless exercise. Need to increase legal immigration. We dont have enough people to work in our economy. Need to deal with the people here illegally. I have been open to doing all of those things but it is 2023 and senator cornyn mentioned it did not make it. Even i would say in 2023 the problem is so much bigger than it was before. It would take more effort on the border. It would take a real lift to stop the flow. I am willing to work with you. I am willing to compromise but the administration has done a thing. Has done nothing. They sent a bill nobody on our side would support. It was the dream of the left. At the end of the day, i dont mind disagreeing with republicans about how to fix an immigration system to i do mind doing nothing about it. The sooner we can have this debate in this committee and you may be surprised. It might be consensus. Big bills, small bills, middle bill. Something is better than nothing. America is under siege and we need to fix this problem. Sen. Durbin we are going to return to the subject of this hearing shortly. Senator klobuchar. Sen. Klobuchar im looking forward to hearing from us is. I did want to point out the argument nothing has been considered for eight years or Something Like that. When you look at the arc of time on this when president bush was in, he wanted desperately republican president to get this done. Under graham was in the group that works senator graham was in th group that worked on this. You fastforward to obama. Even during President Trump, there was a major effort made by senator round if you remember that was maybe wet Center Graham was eating at when he talked about a more limited bill. It had funding for the border. Significant funding for the border. It also included more work on work permits and visas. Something people on this committee, a number of people on both sides of the aisle carry car