Speech #1100052894

You petition to have your adult child come to America. but you did so after the arbitrary date of May 1. 2005. Under this bill. that U.S. citizen would lose their right. However. those undocumented in the country after May 1. 2005. get a benefit. It is hard to imagine. but it is true. Right now. this bill is unfair and nonsensical. capriciously punishing those who have followed the rules and legally applied for a green card. What message. then. do we send? I have heard a lot about the rule of law. a lot about waiting in line. a lot about all those who should have followed our immigration laws. Yet what message does the bill send? You followed it. but your rights are vitiated. taken awaynot the rights of the family member waiting abroad to come here. it is the rights of the U.S. citizen to make the claim for that individual. That is what bothers me about the underlying legislation. They are taking my right away and your right away as a U.S. citizen. We must make sure that people who have played by the rules and legally applied to immigrate here are not arbitrarily placed at a disadvantage in respect to those who are in this country in an undocumented status. As I have said many times before. comprehensive immigration reform must be tough but must also be practical and fair and tough on border security. Certainly. we have done that herethis bill even moved more to the rightby providing a pathway to earned citizenship. At the same time. we have to be fair by rewarding those who have followed the law. I think we have to remain true to those principles. Let me give you a little sense of this. I have heard a lot about chain migration. You know. it is interesting. we have seen during history that when we want to dehumanize something. take out the humanity of something. when we want to make it an abstract object. we find a word or a phrase for it. such as chain migration. I have heard a lot about what a "nuclear family" is and is not. I will use these paperclips to demonstrate this.