Speech #1100069063

Mr. President. I rise today to speak of my vote against cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 1639. the comprehensive immigration reform bill. This issue continues to be a divisive one. both in the halls of Congress and throughout our Nation. Indeed. many people throughout the country have strongly held views when it comes to our Nations immigration policy. In fact. over the past month. I have heard from countless Utahns who have contacted me with their views on immigration reform. I expect that every Senators office has been overwhelmed with calls. emails. and faxes from constituents expressing their concerns with various provisions of the bill. While I commend the bipartisan panel of Senators that has worked tirelessly to negotiate this legislation. I must express my disappointment in the manner in which the bills proponents have sought to move this bill through the Senate. I. for one. am supportive of comprehensive immigration reform and for many of the approaches outlined in this bill. We simply cannot be asked to live with the status quo. However. once again. there are several huge problems with this bill. and I believe that a more thorough vetting of this legislation through debate and amendment could have fixed those problems and ensured that it contained policy changes the American people would support. As many have observed throughout this debate. there are currently millions of illegal immigrants residing within our Nations borders. No one knows exactly how many. only that they are here. they are working. and. in large part. they contribute to our economy. We also have many businesses and industries that must have access to foreign labor. especially during this time when. while are seeing record lows in unemployment. we still have a shortage of workers. Under the status quo. employers are too often forced to make a decision between hiring illegal workers and wondering whether our inefficient and often arbitrary enforcement efforts will catch up with them or abiding by the law and closing the doors of their businesses. We need to find a fair. compassionate and lawful way to deal with the illegal immigrants already this country. We need to create a guest worker program for those businesses in need of foreign workers. And. we need to improve the system by which we legally distribute visas and green cards to make it more fair and efficient. The authors of this legislation have tried to address these issues in the current bill. and I applaud them for their efforts. However. they addressed them in various ways that. in the minds of many. make this bill completely unworkable and ineffective.