Speech #1140007988

So this clearly has an effect of breaking up many families that may have lived here for years. So let me be clear. The politicalI really believe they are politicalriders weighing down this appropriations bill are not designed to fix our immigration system but rather to weaken itand with the goal of embarrassing the President. We should not do that on any billlet alone a bill as important as this one. It is not just Senate Democrats who think these riders are bad policy. Sixtytwo percent of Americans in last months January poll supported "an Executive Order that would allow some illegal immigrants already in the United States to stay here temporarily and apply for a work permit if certain requirements are met." So 62 percent of the people said yes to that question. That is precisely what the President has done. A combined 69 percent of Americans supported an immigration policy that lets unauthorized immigrants remain in the United States. 54 percent supported a path to citizenship. and another 15 percent supported legal status but no path to citizenship. So to the extent we get our guidance from the American people rather than from this or that political party. we can see what the view of Americans are on this. I think it is because we have had this issue debated in this forum several times. This isnt the first big immigration bill. It is the second in about the last 6 or 8 years that has come out of committee. come to the floor with an agreement. and fallen apart. And it had been negotiated in a bipartisan manner.