Speech #1090179443

In May. the Senate passed a historic bipartisan bill supported by 64 Senators. The House however passed a very different bill last December one that has been roundly condemned as cruel and ineffective by religious leaders. Latino leaders. and immigration and security experts. It focuses only on enforcement and makes it a felony for any Good Samaritan to help immigrants. As one religious leader described it this week. you could go to jail for giving an undocumented immigrant a cup of water in Jesus name. Whats more. the bill does nothing about the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are here already. and it does nothing about the Nations future immigration needs both vital ingredients to an effective immigration policy. Common sense tells us that enforcement alone is not the solution to todays complex immigration challenges. We can build fences. but people will come around them. We can put high tech devices on our borders and they will deter some people. but we all know that many others still will find a way to come. We can make criminals of the pastors and priests who help immigrants. but that is not only contrary to our values. it will have little impact on immigration. The logical next step would have been for Congress to appoint conferees so we could begin negotiating a compromise. That is what we dopass a Senate bill and pass a House bill. Then conferees are appointed from both Houses to reconcile their differences on the bill. That is what Congress does on critical issues. But. instead of rolling up their sleeves and doing the work necessary to get legislation to the Presidents desk that deals with the key elements of the immigration problemthat will bolster national security. ensure economic prosperity. and protect familiesthe Republican leadership in the House frittered away the summer. preferring to embark on a political road showfeaturing 60 cynical onesided hearings. and wasting millions of precious taxpayer dollars. And after the bunting came down and the klieg lights were removed. after all the political hoopla and hot rhetoric. what did they produce? A fence. Did they do anything about the millions of people who come here on airplanes with visas. and stay here illegally after their visas expire? No. Just a fence.