Mr. President. I come to the floor of the Senate today to talk about the importance of immigration reform in a comprehensive manner. We are in the last week of this legislative session before the November elections. It is obvious to me. in terms of what is going on in the country. that the leadership of the Senate. the Congress. and the White House has decided to allow politics to triumph over the very fundamental national purposes for which we have tried to work together with respect to comprehensive immigration reform. It is my hope that those speaking for principled immigration reform stand up and say that we are not going to let politics triumph over national security. that we are not going to let politics triumph over the rule of law. which is a central tenet of our Nation. basic to the stability of our Nation. and that we are not going to let politics triumph over the economic and human and moral realities with which we deal in immigration. As we move forward in the days ahead. dealing with this fence legislation. legislation that would create a fence across Arizona and Texas and Mexico and the possibility of a fence between the United States and Canada. I hope the voices of reason that brought Republicans and Democrats together on the floor of this Senate to say we needed comprehensive immigration reform. once again will say we reject piecemeal legislation that deals with creating a fence only because we know that will not be the answer for the comprehensive immigration reform we need. When I look at the map which has come out of the House of Representatives which would create a fence which would essentially follow the entire border of Arizona and large pieces of the Texas border. it seems to me what we are doing here in Washington is we are telling those States that we know better here in Washington where the fence ought to be located and we will authorize this fence to be built only in these particulars locations. We are. in fact. not listening to the Department of Homeland Security and to our Border Patrol officers who know there are places where it is appropriate for us to put a fence. Indeed. in our legislation here in the Senate. what we did is we authorized the construction of a fence. but we also recognized there was latitude to be given to those experts who are in charge of making sure we create a secure border. When I look at what we are trying to do in this debate which will take place with respect to the Secure Fence Act on the floor this year. I would like us to look back and see what was being said around the country with respect to immigration reform just a few months ago when we were debating immigration reform here on the floor of the Senate. Our Secretary of Homeland Security. Secretary Chertoff. said this about the fence: Fencing has Its place in some areas. but as a total solution.
Keywords matched
Border Patrol immigration