[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7276]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  (Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, for the first time in recent history, 
Congress has a real opportunity to pass comprehensive legislation to 
fix our broken immigration system.
  Legislation being backed by a bipartisan group of Senators has done 
what many previous proposals have failed to do, and that is to gain 
broad support and to balance the needs of all of the interests of our 
country. I have been working closely with Members on both sides of the 
aisle in the House and in the Senate and with agricultural 
organizations and farm workers to make sure that the concerns of 
California's agricultural communities are met. The Senate's plan 
provides a legal and stable workforce for agricultural and critical 
protections for those who work very hard every day to put safe, healthy 
food on our Nation's dinner tables. Without these provisions, it would 
have been a deal-breaker for our valley.
  Naysayers might say it's time to wait, but that's motivated simply by 
political interests, not reality. It's time for immigration reform now. 
It's time for the House to act and to come together. It's time to pass 
this bipartisan effort to fix America's broken immigration system.

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