Mr. President. I wish to take the time allocated to me to address the larger issue of this bill. although. clearly. the amendment being offered by our colleagues from Arizona and Texas impacts the larger question: the decision of whether we deal with a part or the whole of the immigration issue. You can make a case. obviously. that by just dealing with border security issues. you are dealing with an important and essential element of immigration reform. I would quickly argue that if you just deal with border security and do not also deal with the phenomena of 11 million people who are here illegally. you would only be addressing half of the issuea legitimate half of the issuewithout any kind of recourse or plan on how you ultimately deal with the fact that we have 11 to 12 million people who are here under an illegal status. So I appreciate the work of my colleague from Arizona. and I would be urging colleagues to vote no on the motion to table because I think we ought to have a bit more time to analyze and discuss exactly what the implications of this amendment are. Mr. President. I rise to address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. I want to acknowledge the work of those on the Judiciary Committee who have done a fabulous job. in my view. through extensive hearings and a very worthwhile markup session. I watched almost every minute of it.
Keywords matched
border security immigration