Mr. Speaker. this is truly a humbling moment for me because this conference report is something that truly I wondered if we would ever see in this body. I came to Congress nearly a decade ago. and since that time my overwhelming focus has been on two things: to stop the unchecked flow of illegal immigration in this country and to find a way to convince those that are already illegally in this country that it is time to go home. This conference report goes a long way toward accomplishing both of those objectives. For many years many of us in California. Texas. and other States that have been disproportionately impacted by illegal immigration have been walking through the halls and through this body ringing alarm bells. We have been urging this Congress to wake up to the fact that our country is. in effect. under a fullscale invasion by those that have no legal right to be here yet who come by the thousands every day and consume precious social benefits that are denied every day to legal residents who are truly entitled to those benefits. Today this is a different bell ringing in this Chamber. Mr. Speaker. and the bell is a bell of change. The passage of this conference report finally signals the willingness of this Congress to seriously address the issue of illegal immigration. Mr. Speaker. we are a generous Nation. by far the most generous Nation on the face of the Earth. This legislation does not endanger or threaten that generosity but. in fact. it does nothing more than to preserve it. The simple fact is that the greatest potential threat to legal immigration is illegal immigration. There are many who would see us close the front door to legal immigration because the back door to illegal immigration is off the hinges. We simply cannot allow this to happen. I believe this conference report goes a long way toward ensuring that it never will happen.
Keywords matched
illegal immigration immigration