The distinguished Senator from Massachusetts knows full well that we have just completed 6 months of hard work on the Mine Safety Act. which this Senate today will pass unanimously in response to the terrible tragedy at the Sago mines. He knows how much time and effort went into the hearings and the studies to see to it what OSHA needed to do and what we needed to do. To summarily come to the floor on an immigration bill and amend the OSHA laws and the Fair Labor Standards Act. the National Labor Relations Act. to throw in massive penalties. massive criminal finesin fact. just to give you an example. it dramatically increases criminal and civil penalties. with up to as much as 5 years in jail for a workplace accident. Arbitrary provisions such as this have no business on the floor of the Senate being tacked on to a bill that deals with a major pressing problem in an entire other area. Just to add the piece de resistance. this amendment. as I read it. overturns the Supreme Court ruling in Hoffman Plastic Compounds. Inc. v. the National Labor Relations Board. What that would. in effect. do is force employers now to go pay back compensation to illegal immigrants who were working in the workplace and put the Justice Department as their designated attorney when they are not even here legally in the first place. Now. if that action is the right thing to do. it certainly needs to be done in civil debate and through the committee process and not as a lastminute attachment to a bill that is in itself controversial and in itself comprehensive. So with all due respect to the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts but with respect for the integrity of the committee system.
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illegal immigrants immigration