That is why we have a
House and Senate. That is why we have legislators. The whole reason we narrowed the scope of our negotiations is so that
we could accomplish something for the Dreamers, rather than
relitigating comprehensive immigration reform in such a compressed
timeframe. This body passed a very fine bill, in my opinion. It was really tough
on the border. It was tough on benefits. It was tough on a path to
citizenship. For the first time, for instance, green card holders had
to learn English. That was in our bill that passed this body--led by
Senator McCain and myself and the Gang of 8--68 to 32. The House didn't
dare take it up for the same reason they seem to have trouble today:
The hard right said no immigration reform. And we are stuck. That hurts
everybody. I am sure my good friend is hearing from farmers in his State, as I
hear from farmers in mine, and businesspeople. We have to tighten up
our borders. We have to make sure we have a rational system of
immigration. We can't assure that every person who wants to come here
comes here. We all agree with that. But that is comprehensive
immigration reform, because we also believe that the 11 million here
should be given a difficult but fair path to citizenship. We can't
start litigating all of that. Some of my friends on the other side of the aisle say: I have to have
this provision outside DACA and border security. They are hurting the
cause of getting something done. If we can reach an agreement by the end of this week or over the
weekend, we can pass it into law as part of a global deal on the budget
by next Friday.
Keywords matched
immigration border security green card DACA