You can go look for a job somewhere else or return without fear of being turned in. without fear of being exploited." Only history will tell if this bill becomes law. whether that program will work. I do not know and you do not know. but it is certainly worth a shot. a fair and decent shot. What I would say to my colleagues who it seems to them. agriculture. it is far away and it is a politically burdensome issue in this bill. again. agriculture is 8 to 15 percent of immigration reform. Whatever your feelings. it is not worth bringing down a bill over that. We have 1.8 million people coming across the borders. as the good gentleman from California has outlined. We have millions more people living in limbo. unprotected. in our cities. in our towns. in the country. and if we do not do immigration reform. we are not going to solve either of those problems. both of which dwarf any problems that some might feel would be created by this proposal. Thus. Mr. Chairman. it seems to me that we are back where we were almost 2 years ago. Are we going to let the problems of agriculture. which again are smaller than the problems of immigration reform. sink this bill? I would hope not. We have made a sincere effort. my colleagues. it may not be the best effort. but it is clearly worth a shot. and certainly this House agrees we need immigration reform. I want to conclude by thanking all of my colleagues who have put up with me. who have put up with the vicissitudes of the bill. who have put up with the difficulties that a tough bill in the legislative process creates for us. We in a sense are the shock absorbers of American politics. The car gets beaten up on all sides. but to make it ride smooth. we go up and down. We take the hits. but I am proud we take those hits. and we do it well and we do it with style and we do it with courage and we do it with concern. and whatever happens on this bill. I want to say once again that I think the saga of immigration reform in this House is one that this House can be proud of.
Keywords matched
immigration