[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8185]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am glad we are returning to the 
immigration bill, as Senator Frist has alluded. I am concerned, as he 
is, there will be so many amendments offered we may not be able to 
bring it to a satisfactory conclusion soon.
  We tried to get a limitation on amendments on the Democratic side and 
were unsuccessful and decided, finally, in desperation really, to go 
forward and to have amendments offered on the floor in the hopes that 
Members who offer them would accept reasonable limitations on their 
debate time.
  It was unusual that when we debated health insurance for small 
businesses last week, the Republican majority used a procedure called 
``filling the tree,'' and then, of course, the cloture motion to cut 
off amendments, to limit amendments. When it comes to immigration, 
there has been no effort by the majority to do that. So we are going to 
face quite a few amendments, and I hope we can handle them in a 
reasonable and expeditious way.
  This is an important bill. Comprehensive immigration reform is 
necessary in America. Our system is broken, badly broken. It does not 
protect America as it should, and it is not fair to people who have 
come to this country. We have to find a reasonable way to come up with 
comprehensive, tough but fair law when it comes to the issue of 
immigration.

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