Speech #1100055885

I thank my friend from Tennessee for his comments on the importance of immigration reform. I would say there is agreement in this Chamber among both Democrats and Republicans that what we need to do is secure our borders. The legislation before us today and the legislation we have been working on is. in fact. intended to secure our borders. We all recognize we need to move from a system of lawlessness and broken borders that create a wake of victims. to a system of law and order and a system of immigration reform that works for our country. We have been making significant progress as we move forward with this legislation. At this point we have already had 15 rolicall votes on this legislation. We expect to have another seven roilcall votes on this legislation as we move forward today. That gets us up to 22 rolicall votes. Last year before cloture was invoked on the immigration bill that was before the Senate. there were. at that time. 23 rollcall votes. So by the end of tonight we should he at a point where we would have equaled at least the number of votes we had last year. We have some difficult amendments still coming up that we will be voting on. both today and tomorrow. but it seems to me we are making significant progress. and I appreciate the hard work that is going on today on the Democratic side as well as the Republican side.