I have undertaken to talk to many of my colleagues. Senators who opposed the bill. to get a sense from them as to whether. with the automatic path to citizenship out. and dealing only with the fugitive status. that there might be some greater willingness to find an accommodation and deal with the issues. With respect to citizenship. even under the legislation that was defeated. there would not be an opportunity for citizenship until at least 8 years have passed. to take care of the backlog. and then another 5 years to work out the 12 million undocumented immigrants. So the citizenship. even under the bill which was defeated. was not something which was going to be imminent. We have seen local governments and State governments trying to deal with the issue. Reports are more than 100 laws have been passed and ordinances enacted which would deal with the immigration problem. They cannot do it on a sensible basis. Last week the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania handed down an opinIon that the city of Hazelton. notwithstanding the understandable efforts by the mayor. program was not constitutional. that under our laws. the answer has to come from the Congress. We have seen a lot of unrest on the issue. The front page of the Washington Post the day before yesterday had a report about groups of immigrants feeling that they had been mistreated. There was an uneasiness on all sides. uneasiness by people who are angry about the violation of our borders. by immigrants who think they are not being fairly treated. and a grave concern about the availability of workers on our farms across America. concerns of the hotel industry and landscapers and restaurateurs about the adequacy of our labor force. So there is no doubt that this is a very significant issue. Last week I circulated to my 99 colleagues a letter. and one page summarizing the study billI will call it a study bill.
Keywords matched
immigrants immigration undocumented