[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5627-H5628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              FINDING MIDDLE GROUND ON IMMIGRATION REFORM

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, last year, the President of the United States

[[Page H5628]]

called on Congress to find a rational middle ground between amnesty and 
mass deportation in the debate over immigration reform. Then, as now, 
the Senate is moving legislation that would respond to the President's 
call by simply granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.
  But amnesty is not the middle ground. The true middle ground of this 
national debate would put border security first; reject amnesty and 
require that all illegal immigrants leave the country and apply outside 
the United States for the legal right to live and work here; create a 
new center built on the private sector that could make that an orderly 
process; temporary workers returning to America would learn English; 
and employers hiring illegals would face serious penalties.
  That is the true rational middle ground, and after the Senate is done 
with its work, I hope it is the middle ground that we find in this 
Chamber on behalf of the American people.

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