We had tried to work together with members of the conference who were interested in some of these issues that were not necessarily partisan to see if we would at least have an opportunity for a brief debate on some of those. I think we were prepared to have that discussion and debate and to raise those issues. The most important of all of the issues. of course. is the Gallegly amendment. and whether we. as a public policy. are going to dismiss from the public schools of this country those children who may be the sons and daughters of illegal immigrants. The Gallegly provision is strongly opposed by the law enforcement officials and by teachers. who do not become teachers only to be turned into a truant officer who turns in names of suspected illegal Immigrant children to INS. There were a number of other important issues in the Republican conference report. which I will mention in a few moments. Then we were notified just a few moments ago that our Republican friends are in disarray about what their position is with regard to the Gallegly amendment. and that there is no consensus. Even right now. since we have been notified that this conference is postponed. there is no effort to try to include Democrats in the conference. or to talk about issues of concern to us. There is still no effort. even at this late date. to craft legislation that would deal with a central concern of the people of this country. and that is the growth of illegal immigration. The Republican conferees .still have not allowed us to address in a bipartisan way what this conference report means in terms of job loss for American workers. what it means in terms of crowded schools. and what it means for the challenges that we are facing on the borders. with all of the complex social and economic criminal elements associated with it. These are complex issues that the Democratic Members want to address and come to some conclusion on.
Keywords matched
illegal immigrants illegal Immigrant illegal immigration