Jim Sensenbrenner Quotes

President Trump's made it clear that his administration is going to put the safety and security of the American people first.

When we talk about safety and security of the American people, politics falls aside pretty quickly.

I will make no apologies, ever, for protecting the lives and the safety of the American people. We have to give more tools to our folks to be able to do that, not fewer, and then trust those people and oversee them to do it the right way. As president, that is exactly what I'll do.

We have no more fundamental obligation in government than to ensure the safety of our citizens.

Last week in the Homeland Security Committee, Republicans were against port security; and today, one week after Democrats unveiled our Real Security Agenda, they're for it.

Of all the tasks of government, the most basic is to protect its citizens from violence.

[Impoundment has become] a means whereby the White House can give effect to social goals of its own choosing by reallocating national resources in contravention of congressional dictates.

We are much safer in the United States, but not yet safe.

We will not contract out the security of the American people …. You can’t compromise the safety of the American people.

To the American people … nine years after 9/11, nine years of spending, and nine years of beefing up security you are still unsafe even in the holiest and most sacred of days to you, Christmas Day….

First and foremost, my job is to protect the American people.

I have long believed that the first duty of government is to protect the safety of our citizens.

One of the biggest challenges for any Home Secretary - indeed, any government - is how we deal with emerging threats.

I plan to work with all my colleagues on education and labor issues and to ensure the security of our nation by providing agencies from FEMA's disaster recovery efforts to the Coast Guard protecting our nation with the tools they need to be successful.

My job as Home Secretary is to keep families and communities across our country safe.

Safety and security are the most basic job of government. I understand that - both as a mayor who works every day to secure public safety and reduce crime, and also as someone who deployed in uniform to Afghanistan because I believed joining the military was part of my duty to help keep my country safe.

The quest for homeland security is heading ... toward the quasi-militarization of everyday life ... If danger might lurk anywhere, maybe everything must be protected and policed.

Lots of the free world has become weak. When you look at Brussels, when you look at the way they've handled things from law enforcement standpoints, when you look at Paris, when you look at so many other places, no, it's not. But neither is the United States a safe place, because we're allowing thousands of people to come in here. Nobody knows where they're from. Nobody knows who they are and they're coming in here by the thousands. And let me tell you something, we're going to have problems just as big or bigger than they've got.

Today the Justice Department did issue a blanket alert. It was in recognition of a general threat we received. This is not the first time the Justice Department have acted like this. I hope it is the last. But given the attitude of the evildoers, it may not be.

The men and women of America's homeland security apparatus do important work to protect us, and Republicans and Democrats in Congress should not be playing politics with that.

Those who heralded the decision not to give law enforcement the tools necessary to protect the American people just simply don't see the world the way we do.

The federal government can't remodel every firehouse and buy every new policeradio in the name of Homeland Security.

President Trump has no higher priority than the safety and security of the American people. And he made it clear in this election, particularly in the wake of the terrorist attack in Paris where individuals had used a refugee program to gain access to that country.

You have to almost apologize for saying, please enforce the laws. The laws, that they're [government] receiving good federal dollars to be able to ensure for public safety, which is incumbent upon them to secure on the streets in every city and state across this country. And instead government allows individuals who are a risk, who are a threat, to come back in the country, routinely, regularly without any kind of checks and balances.

The second term of the Bush administration and first five years of the Obama presidency have been devoted to codifying and institutionalizing the vast and unchecked powers that are typically vested in leaders in the name of war. Those powers of secrecy, indefinite detention, mass surveillance, and due-process-free assassination are not going anywhere. They are now permanent fixtures not only in the US political system but, worse, in American political culture.