[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12093-12094]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate is now in the middle of an 
important debate on Iraq, but it wasn't so long ago that we found 
ourselves in an important debate on another issue, immigration reform. 
It took weeks of negotiations for the Senate to develop the basic 
framework for legislation that both Democrats and Republicans could 
support. Then it took several more weeks to work through dozens of 
amendments and pass a bill, a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
  The day we finally passed immigration legislation, I came to the 
floor to say it was a good day for the Senate but a day not for 
celebrating. News reports from all over the country this morning show 
why I was right. For example, from the Washington Post today:

       House Republicans have largely given up on passing a broad 
     rewrite of the nation's immigration laws before the November 
     elections. House GOP leaders said today they would hold 
     hearings even before naming conferees.

  The truth is out. For all their tough talk about securing our 
borders, House Republicans have no intention of actually accomplishing 
the goal. They want to defeat comprehensive immigration reform of the 
kind we passed in the Senate, a bipartisan bill, and House leaders are 
willing to sacrifice the security of the American people to accomplish 
what I believe are their selfish goals.
  Let's be perfectly clear. This idea of field hearings is just a 
front, an attempt to delay, impede, and obstruct a bipartisan effort to 
strengthen our borders and fix our immigration system. The House 
doesn't need hearings to write a bill because they have already passed 
their bill. They don't need hearings to name conferees. The only reason 
for hearings is to pander to the rightwing base of their party and 
avoid the hard work of negotiating a final bill with the Senate for the 
American people.
  It has been clear for weeks now that House Republicans have no 
interest in passing an immigration bill this year. But even as House 
leaders speak more and more openly about their opposition to 
comprehensive reform, we have heard only silence from the White House. 
The President went on national television and pledged his support for 
comprehensive reform. Now we will see if his actions match his words. I 
know the President is overseas, but I am confident there is reliable 
telephone service in Vienna. I respectfully suggest that President Bush 
pick up the phone and tell the Speaker and the majority leader of the 
House to stop stalling. He needs to persuade them that our national 
security depends on action, a conference, and final legislation.
  Meanwhile, here in the Senate, I am waiting for assurances from the 
majority leader that the conference committee on immigration reform 
will address only immigration reform, not tax breaks for corporations 
or billionaires. I am confident the majority leader can provide those 
assurances. He has told me he wants to; he just hasn't done so.
  Democrats are ready to roll up their sleeves and get this bill done. 
We are determined to move forward. I have a list of Democratic 
conferees in my pocket. I also happen to know that there are a fair 
number of Republicans who want to move forward. I spoke yesterday to 
two of my Republican colleagues who said they are willing to sign a 
letter saying that if anything comes back from conference with anything 
other than the tax measures that are in this bill, they will not 
support the conference report.
  Unlike same-sex marriage and flag burning, immigration reform is an 
issue that affects real people every day.

[[Page 12094]]

It is a national security issue. It is an economic issue, an issue that 
my constituents want us to deal with. It is an issue all Americans want 
us to deal with. Certainly no one wants to do it the way the House did 
it, by making felons out of immigrants, by making criminals out of 
humanitarian workers who operate soup kitchens, or the clergy who offer 
these immigrants religious counseling or, from a Catholic perspective, 
have them be given the holy sacraments. It is untoward what their bill 
does.
  The way the Senate did it, by beefing up security on the borders and 
forcing employer sanctions and giving out undocumented aliens who are 
here a way to get right with the law and to have strong employer 
sanctions, is what the American people want and deserve.
  The Senate has worked its will. The House has worked its will. It is 
time to let the conference committee go forward and come up with a 
product. It is my hope President Bush won't let a few extreme 
Republicans hold our border security hostage. It is my hope the House 
leaders will abandon their delaying tactics once and for all.
  Some have said that the immigration bill is on life support. Well, we 
Democrats don't believe that. We want to breathe life into this 
process. This legislation is imperative. It is important. I hope my 
Republican colleagues won't put this on life support. If so, they will 
help us revive this most important issue.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I join my leader urging the House to move forward 
promptly. Would the leader not agree with me that at the current time 
our borders are effectively broken and that only means a real potential 
danger to our national security, and that our legislation that passed 
in the Senate would address that aspect of the immigration issue? Would 
the Senator agree with me on that?
  Mr. REID. I respond to my friend, there is no finer example of how 
legislation should move forward than what we did in the Senate. The 
President got involved. We applauded him. We had Democrats and 
Republicans working together. What we did was extraordinary. I heard an 
interview on National Public Radio this morning where the acting head 
of the Immigration and Naturalization Service was saying that he 
doesn't want a fence on the entire border with Mexico. Well, the Senate 
worked its will. We agreed. We have a fence in certain places, but we 
have security. Security was our No. 1 issue. We took care of security. 
We took care of a guest worker program that is badly needed, a pathway 
to legalization. We took care of enforcing employer sanctions. We have 
a piece of legislation that every American should be proud of. It 
should not be demagogued, and that is what is happening in the House.
  We need to work together. It is so important that we do something. I 
hold up the Senate legislation as a model for how we should move 
legislation. We should have a conference with the House and have a 
final product. I am calling on the President today to continue his 
partnership with us on this legislation, not concede that we can't get 
this done.
  Mr. KENNEDY. If the Senator will yield for another brief question, 
the Senator would agree with me that effectively our borders are 
broken. The employer enforcement program that exists today is in 
tatters, as we have seen from the GAO report. There is continuously 
this Third World underground economy that is operating effectively out 
of control. All those issues were addressed effectively and in a 
bipartisan way in the Senate.
  Would the Senator not agree with me that if the House continues to 
avoid a conference and the hopeful aspect of a reasonable compromise, 
we fail the American people in dealing with these extremely important 
public policy issues in a bipartisan way?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as an example on employer sanctions--they 
are in such desperate shape--last year there were three enforcement 
measures taken. In our bill, we provide for 7,000 new hires that will 
deal only with employer sanctions. That is one example. The other 
example is that with border security, which is in desperate shape as we 
speak, I have been there. I have seen what happens. There are 24 lanes 
of traffic coming in at the San Ysidro border security point, 24 lanes 
of traffic every day, 24 hours a day. They don't have enough help 
there. We have given them help so they can do their job. That is 
another example.
  I feel so desperate, desperate for the American people. I feel 
desperate for my State. We have problems. This bill would address our 
problems in Nevada.
  Mr. KENNEDY. The Senator realizes, we have $25 billion for border 
security and other immigration enforcement. Evidently, the House 
doesn't believe that is something that ought to get passed if we are 
not going to have a resolution of that issue, $25 billion in terms of 
enforcement spending that is authorized. If we don't get that passed, 
we don't have that $25 billion; am I correct?
  Mr. REID. The Senator is absolutely right. I want to say to my 
friend, people are calling for bipartisanship in the Congress.
  Here we had it in the Senate. We have the Senator from Massachusetts 
who has a certain political philosophy and the Senator from Arizona 
with a certain political philosophy; they have locked arms with 
Democrats and Republicans of all political philosophies, and we came up 
with a tremendous piece of legislation.
  If there is something wrong with our legislation, let's go to 
conference on it. We would be happy to visit with them. Let's not say 
we are not going to work with you. We want to have a conference and 
work out legislation that will protect our borders and give the 
American people what they need. We have to do this.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I have a final question. Would the Senator agree with me 
that the time for talking has ended and the time for action ought to be 
now?
  Mr. REID. Yes. I have in my pocket the names of our conferees. We are 
ready to roll; we are ready to go to work.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator's leadership time has expired.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be able to 
respond to a question from my friend from Florida.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Would the Senator agree, given the fact that 
the Senate position is often described as amnesty, that indeed amnesty 
is the current situation of the law--a law that passed in the 1980s 
that is not enforced by the Government, that is not obeyed by the 
people nor the employers of this country and which, in effect, grants 
amnesty to 12 million people who are illegally in this country and that 
the whole point of the Senate bill is to remove this amnesty under the 
present condition and return those who are going to be here working in 
a legal status? Would the Senator think that is a fair 
characterization?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is very clear we worked very hard to make 
sure there was no amnesty and that there was a path to legalization. 
The people had to have a job, pay their taxes and stay out of trouble, 
learn English and pay penalties and fines and then move to the back of 
the line. What we did legislatively was nothing short of miraculous to 
get it passed in this body. It would be a disaster for this country not 
to move forward on this with the tremendous amount of work we have 
done. As I have said, on a bipartisan basis we did that. Here is a 
Senate action that was not in a partisan vein but in a bipartisan vein.

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