Speech #890138025

Of course. I am fully aware of the parliamentary situation that confronts me. The senior Senator from Oregon will not be a party this afternoon to jeopardizing the passage of this immigration bill. The heart of the immigration bill. as far as I am concerned. is. of course. the national origins feature of it. I believe that it is important that we get the measure passed. As I say. if I am unable to have this amendment agreed to and taken to conference by voluntary agreement. then I shall withdraw the amendment and introduce it this afternoon as a bill and send it to the desk as a separate bill. and leave it at the desk until Friday of this week at 5 p.m. for any who want to cosponsor the measure with me. We can then let it go to the Committee on the Judiciary in the hope that there will be hearings on it early in the next session of Congress. I would not want the RECORD to stand on the argument of the Senator from North Carolina without any comment by the senior Senator from Oregon on what I think is not a sound argument. which has been made by the Senator from North Carolina by way of opposition to the statute of limitations. I have been impressed by the argument of the Justice Department and the immigration authorities. in particular. that there should not be any statute of limitations available in the cases of the underworld characters who may be of alien birth. who have gotten into this country. What we ought to do is convict them and put them in prison. like any other criminals. Even these unsavory characters are in no small measure the product of our own conditioning.