Mr. President. over the coming week the Senate has a historic opportunity to move forward with tough. smart. and fair comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders. that ensures our economy continues to thrive. that protects American workers. and that at the same time undoes the process of committing millions of people to languish in the darkness and be exploited. or we can choose to abdicate our responsibilities and tacitly maintain the status quo of failed laws and a broken immigration system that is weak enforcement. that leaves our borders and our citizens unsecured and at the same time permits human exploitation to continue. As a group. several Senators. including myself. have been meeting and negotiating on comprehensive immigration reform over the past couple of months. I appreciate the President making Secretary Chertoff and Secretary Gutierrez available to try to reach an agreement that would do those things. I have come. during the course of that process with other colleagues. to a better understanding of my colleagues and their thoughts on this issue through the many hours we have spent talking together about solving the immigration problems. though I have not always agreed with them. I would like to believe our discussions were serious. thorough. and in good faith. At times they were productive. at other times they hit obstacles. but when one considers the enormity of the task at hand. along with what is at stake. one would have to be naive in thinking this would be an easy process. One thing we know for sure is that beginning next week. if cloture is invoked. an immigrating bill. in some form. will be considered on the floor of the Senate. I sincerely appreciate the commitment in regard to the time spent and the thought invested on this issue from all sides involved. The amount of work that has been put into this effort represents the interest level. not to mention the stakes.
Keywords matched
immigrating immigration