Speech #1100069049

Madam President. I wanted to come to the floor to offer a few thoughts and observations on the important vote we had earlier today on the immigration bill. I know many people are puzzled when they watch us debate big and important issues such as this. What usually happens is our views are reduced to a bumper sticker. Particularly on complex topics such as immigration. a bumper sticker doesnt tell the whole story. So I wish to offer a few thoughts on the way forward on this important issue. I have not found an issue in my short time In the Senate. now about 42 years. which has been more closely followed and on which there has been more passion than the subject we have been debating this week and which we voted on this morning. Sometimes. as we all know. passion can produce more heat than light. but what we need is some light and some clear thinking and some better solutions to our broken borders and our broken immigration system than we have had so far. I dont say that with the intent to criticize the hard work that people have put into this effort. I am proud of the fact that since I have been in the Senate. I have tried to constructively contribute to a solution to this problem. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a former chairman of the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee of that Judiciary Committee. now as the ranking member. I have tried my best to contribute to a solution. But I think the one message I would take away from what we saw happen earlier today is the American people. my constituents in Texas. are profoundly skeptical of big Government solutions with a lot of moving parts based on big. grandiose promises. when our history has been one of not delivering consistent with what we promised. Let me mention what I mean by that. In 1986. we had a big immigration bill. supposedly one to fix all the problems. President Ronald Reagan signed that bill. I remember Ed Meese. his Attorney General. wrote a piece in I believe the New York Times explaining what was going through President Reagans mind as he signed that amnesty for 3 million people. Ed Meese explained that President Reagan was told in 1986 that if you do this amnesty one time. that will be the end of it. you will never have to do another one. as long as we have enforcement of our laws that go hand in hand with that grant of amnesty for 3 million people. Part of the skepticism that I think the American people and certainly my constituents in Texas have had about this bill is that they saw coupled with a path to legalization and ultimately American citizenship for roughly 12 million people that we mean it this time. we are going to get serious about border security. we are going to get serious about eliminating the document fraud and Identity theft that makes our current worker verification system virtually unworkable. and they saw a repetition of 1986. There were components of this bill that I thought were actually pretty good. that represented an improvement over the status quo. But I think some of the debate got a little bit bard to believe such as when people said the only way you are going to get border security is if you agree to a path to citizenship for 12 million people. The American people are pretty smart. They can see through that. and they know there is no obvious linkage between border security and a path to citizenship for 12 million people. They know if we were serious about border security. we would have already done it. So I think. at least the lesson I have learned from this vote this morning is not that we can give up because the problem is not going to go away. It may get caught up in Presidential election politics and maybe part of what we need to do is continue this grand national conversation about how do we solve this problem because I dont believe there is any problem that is too big for the American people to solve.