WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined CNN New Day this morning to discuss the bipartisan immigration bill that he introduced yesterday with Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.).

“It has 27 Republican co-sponsors in the House, 27 Democratic co-sponsors, 54 co-sponsors. It's our hope it can be a promising base bill for further discussion in the Senate. As you referenced in your introduction of the bill, it calls for the Department of Homeland Security to present a detailed plan for how to achieve operational control of the border by 2020,” said Senator Coons. “As an appropriator, I would support the appropriations necessary to accomplish that, but I don't support what President Trump is calling for, for us to simply hand over $25 billion without any ongoing oversight by the Congress.”

Full video and audio available here. 

Excerpts from the interview below: 

Sen. Coons on the McCain-Coons immigration bill: Well, I think once again we're seeing the President isn't particularly constructive as we try to get to a bipartisan deal here in the Senate. Part of why I was so honored to have Senator McCain reach out to me is that he has long represented a border state, Arizona. And the bill that we've introduced is already a bill in the House that was introduced by Congressman Hurd of Texas from the El Paso area and Congressman Aguilar from Southern California. It has 27 Republican co-sponsors in the House, 27 Democratic co-sponsors, 54 co-sponsors. It's our hope it can be a promising base bill for further discussion in the Senate. As you referenced in your introduction of the bill, it calls for the Department of Homeland Security to present a detailed plan for how to achieve operational control of the border by 2020. As an appropriator, I would support the appropriations necessary to accomplish that, but I don't support what President Trump is calling for, for us to simply hand over $25 billion without any ongoing oversight by the Congress. 

More on the bill: Absolutely. I think we should be investing in a smart wall or in wall systems. I don't think an idea of a single concrete wall going from sea to shining sea makes any sense at all. 

More on the bill: Absolutely. I think we could and should support several billion in appropriations and come up with a pathway where a ten-year plan presented to us by DHS gets annual appropriations with some trigger. I'm working with a Common Sense Coalition, a group of about two dozen senators, Republicans and Democrats to come up with a consensus proposal that would allow us to embrace a robust investment in border security while still maintaining a critical oversight role for Congress. 

Sen. Coons on McConnell: I don't know yet what he might bring forward. I do think the McCain-Coons bill with some commitment to border funding would be an excellent base bill. I think it does meet the two core issues that we all agree on. The President and others have tried to bring in lots of other issues. I think we should turn to those broader issues in phase two of comprehensive immigration reform, clear out the underbrush of all the key unresolved issues that have been held up for months now, appropriations for the Department of Defense and our domestic priorities, responding to disasters that we still haven't funded, authorizing community health centers and take these two issues on, Dreamer status and border security, and move forward. I think this bill would be an excellent starting point for that debate on the Senate floor. 

Sen. Coons on the State of the Union: Let me be clear about this. I attended the State of the Union. I was respectful, I stood and applauded when appropriate. On many of the points that I thought were non-debatable, when the President was recognizing the service and sacrifice of soldiers, the North Korean who fled for his freedom, police officers and community leaders who have taken great steps, and I, of course, applauded things like economic progress and some of his proposals like paid family leave, some of his ideas around infrastructure. But, there were lots of places in his speech where the Republicans leapt to their feet to cheer, for example, by the things he's done to harm the Affordable Care Act where I and many other Democrats chose not to applaud. The President once again is making a simple but scary mistake here. He is not the state. Cheering for our President is not the same as being a patriotic and loyal American. In fact, there's this thing called the First Amendment in the Constitution that protects the right of all of us as citizens to either cheer and applaud the President when we agree with him or to not applaud when we have differing priorities. He simply doesn't get that. He's not above the law and he's not the state and failure to cheer him when he thinks we should is not only not treasonous, some of us would argue it's patriotic. 

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