[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8241]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday morning I talked about this being 
the summer season, new movies--there is a blockbuster out, starting 
this Friday it is, ``The Da Vinci Code,'' with Tom Hanks. I suggested 
yesterday that in the third week of May, on the Senate floor, we have 
our own blockbuster that is part 2 of immigration.
  We had part 1. It didn't go very well. I suggested yesterday that in 
the President's speech he was going to give, he should become a player, 
an actor in this part 2 of the Senate blockbuster.
  Last night the President, I thought, did a commendable job in laying 
out what he felt was a path to solving this immigration situation.
  I acknowledge the President's statement, and I support the direction 
the President has taken. I want the President to continue to be a 
player in all of this. I remind everyone, however, that much of what 
the President talked about we should already have done. For example, 
the President talked--and rightfully so--about the fact that we don't 
have enough beds. We have the so-called catch-and-release program where 
we find people who are here illegally and we let them go because we 
have no place to put them.
  Following the 9/11 Commission, there was a recommendation that we 
provide additional beds for the illegals, and we did. We authorized 
18,000. But even though we have tried, the President and the majority 
have not supported our position in this regard. We only have 1,800 
beds. We have to move forward and do all of that. I certainly hope that 
can be done.
  It is important that we have additional Border Patrol agents. We have 
already called for them. In fact, our request has only been filled to 
75 percent capacity. The President has said we need more beds. Let's 
move on that now. The President said we need more Border Patrol agents. 
Let's move on that now.
  The National Guard: Yesterday, I asked the President to give us a 
timetable. He said within the next year. I hope we can take care of 
that situation so that we don't need to have National Guardsmen there. 
But in this interim period, I support the National Guard being on our 
border.
  It is important that we move forward as quickly as possible with this 
very important legislation. I hope in the days to come that the 
President will also acknowledge how wrong the Republican House approach 
is to this. They are still talking the same way. They haven't backed 
down. They think their approach is the best, from what I have seen by a 
couple of speeches the chairman of the Judiciary Committee gave last 
week.
  The President needs to stay engaged. He needs to recognize how bad 
the House bill really is and speak to the American public about how bad 
it is.
  Yesterday, there were some remarks on both sides on this issue which 
I thought were good. Here is an opportunity. We always talk about 
bipartisanship.
  Interestingly, I was just talking to a member of the Republican staff 
coming into the building today. We exchanged greetings. He said on the 
Republican side they are just going to vote their conscience. I said 
that is an interesting way to legislate. That is what we all need to 
do. We should have been doing it more in the past. This is the week in 
which we need to vote our conscience. We don't need to vote the 
Democratic way or the Republican way. We need to vote the American way 
and move this most important legislation down the road. I hope we can 
do that.

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