WASHINGTON— Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten on the Senate immigration votes:

"It's pathetic that the president of these United States would vilify immigrants, engage in xenophobic demagoguery, and use that rhetoric and his considerable bully pulpit to defeat any fair path to protect Dreamers—who are Americans in virtually every sense of the word and who have given so much to our country—even a path that provided substantial funds for his ‘wall.’ We are a nation of immigrants, including the president’s family, and we should build on that heritage instead of tearing it apart."