Speech #1090098639

I cannot fathom what this family must be going through. nor can I understand how we have not reformed a system that would allow this separation. We must not put families in a situation where they feel they must make a decision to enter legally or illegally or separate their families. We must reform our immigration system to end backlogs and to help reunite families. As I said before. this is a multifaceted issue of which family unification is only one component. There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. They came here illegally in search of a better opportunity. to work on farms and restaurants. hotels. and hundreds of other service jobs. Whether we like it or not. they are part of our economy and fill a needed gap in our labor force. That is why the chamber of commerce. the business community. the immigrant community. and the President all support a guest worker program. That is the only way to end the incentive to enter the United States illegally to find work. and bring out of shadows the illegal immigrants already here. This legislation. however. ignores these issues. That is not to say it is without some needed provisions. I support increasing the number of border patrol agents and port inspectors as well as adding radiation detection equipment at all of our maritime ports. However. on the whole. it is filled with illconsidered provisions. What makes this worse is that there is no reason why we need to rush this through in the last days of the session. It is clear there are many questions surrounding this legislation. The action we take on immigration will reverberate across the country and affect peoples lives. We need to know its full implications before we proceed. It is not clear that we need to do this now.