It is my expectation that the Senate will work its will and will enact legislation. Then. under our bicameral system. we will go to work with the House of Representatives. which has a substantially different approach. having passed a bill that is an enforcement bill. Our legislation is comprehensive. including a temporary guest worker program and an approach to deal with the approximately 11 million undocumented workers in the United States. On the subject of the 11 million undocumented workers. it had been my hope that we would have been able to reach an accommodation between McCainKennedy and KylCornyn. Last week. and on Saturday and Sunday. the staff was here working full time. late every night. I was in town all of last week. Monday through Thursday. until Friday morning. trying to come up with an accommodation which would deal with the elements of KylCornyn. There is obvious concern that we not produce a bill which would be justifiably categorized as amnesty. and I believe we have a bill which is not justifiably categorized as amnesty. We have a provision that people who were among the undocumented aliens will have to pay a fine. will have a criminal background check. will have to be at work for 6 years. and will have to earn their path to citizenship. The option of having the undocumented aliens return home is a very difficult decision. There is no doubt they have violated the law of the United States by coming in without complying with our immigration procedures. They have come in because there has been a demand for the workers. because people have wanted to give them work. The employers have given them work.
Keywords matched
undocumented immigration