Speech #1040271501

This is a crime. it is a disease. and we must get rid of it. So our bill will put the resources into that. But I am very concerned about the illegal immigration bill and what the administration did in negotiating that bill. That bill passed this body months ago. We had a strong bipartisan effort for a bill that does give us the tools to stop illegal immigration into our country that costs our taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. It was told to us that the bipartisan bill would be signed. It was told to us by the President that he would sign the bill. Yet. after that representation was made. he came in with the threat that he would shut down Government and blame the Republicans for it and reopen the illegal immigration bill that had bipartisan support in this Congress. It appears that that bill has been changed and some of the key provisions have been taken out. such that a person on welfare would be able to bring other immigrants into this country and supposedly vouch that they would not become dependent on taxpayer resources. A person who is dependent on taxpayer resources saying that they will support another person coming into our country and that they will not be supported by taxpayer resources. how naive can we be? Mr. President. I am hoping that this Senate will be able to vote on a bill. that we have already passed in both Houses of Congress. on Monday that will put those key provisions back in to the illegal immigration bill so that we will have teeth in it and we will protect the taxpayers from people who would come to this country with their hand out rather than coming to this country in the spirit and tradition of the legal immigrants looking for the opportunity to do better for themselves and for this country. I am very concerned that we would renegotiate the bill on illegal immigration that gives us the chance. finally. to say it means something to be a legal immigrant in this country. because if you come in illegally. there will be a price to pay and that price is that you will not be able to come into our country and seek citizenship for 10 years if you have broken the laws of our country by entering illegally. I hope that we can pass the illegal immigration bill in its entirety on Monday and that we will not succumb to the pressures from the White House to renegotiate a bill that the President said he would sign after it had already been agreed to by both Houses of this Congress on a bipartisan basis. I commend our majority leader. Senator LoTr. who came in to his job quite suddenly just a few months ago without very much notice and. yet. has fought so hard to make Congress live up to its responsibility to the people of our country and pass the laws that will improve the lives of the people of our country and improve accountability to the people of our country.