Speech #1100069043

Our history of civil rights legislation did change America forever. It made America stronger. fairer. and a better nation. Immigration is another issue like that. We know the high price of continuing inaction. Raids and other enforcement actions will escalate. terrorizing our communities and businesses. The 12 million undocumented immigrants will soon be millions more. Sweatshops will grow and undermine American workers and wages. State and local governments will take matters into their own hands and pass a maze of conflicting laws that hurt our country. We will have the kind of open border that is unacceptable in our post9/11 world. Immigration reform is an opportunity to be true to our ideals as a nation. Our Declaration of Independence announces that all of us are created equal. Today. we failed to live up to that declaration for millions of men and women who live. work. and worship beside us. But our ideals are too strong to be held back for long. Martin Luther King had a dream that children would be judged solely by "the content of their character." Today. we failed to make that dream come true for the children of immigrants. But that dream will never die. It has the power to overcome the most bitter opposition. I believe we will soon succeed where we failed today. and that we will enact the kind of comprehensive reform that our ideals and national security demand. Soon. word will echo across the country about the consequences of todays vote. The American people will know that a minority of the Senate blocked a record investment in border security. H.L. Mencken said that for every complex problem. there is a simple solutionand it is wrong. A minority in the Senate has employed a simple label against this billamnestyand they were wrong. too. A minority in the Senate rejected a stronger economy that is fairer to our taxpayers and our workers. A minority of the Senate rejected Americas own extraordinary immigrant history and ignored our Nations most urgent needs. But we are in this struggle for the long haul. Todays defeat will not stand. As we continue the battle. we will have ample inspiration in the lives of the immigrants all around us. From Jamestown. to the Pilgrims. to the Irish. to todays workers. people have come to this country in search of opportunity. They have sought nothing more than a chance to work hard and bring a better life to themselves and their families. They come to our country with their hearts and minds full of hope. We will endure todays loss and begin anew to build the kinds of tough. fair. and practical reform worthy of our shared history as immigrants and as Americans. Immigration reforms are always controversial. But Congress was created to muster political will to answer such challenges. Today we didnt. but tomorrow we will.