Douglas Alexander: “I appreciate the tremendous effort that has been made on both sides of the aisle to try to address the immigration…”

“I appreciate the tremendous effort that has been made on both sides of the aisle to try to address the immigration dilemma facing our country. In my view, other than the war in Iraq, the war on terror, there is nothing more important before us, and we should leave the bill on this floor for as long as it takes to get it right because as difficult as it is to get it right, it seems to me that failure is not an option. If we fail, then what we have done is admitted that we have just simply allowed a situation to continue where perhaps a million new illegal persons will come into our country each year. That contravenes the rule of law upon which this country is founded, it works against our ability to be a country that lives by the motto that is engraved up there on the wall, 'one from many,' to assimilate into our country the number of people who are coming, and it is a poor example for the rest of the world when we suggest to them that they create governments that rely upon the rule of law. It also absolutely enrages the American citizens, who look at Washington and say that the Government has done a horrible job for the last 10, 15, 20 years in enforcing our immigration laws. Americans have, in many cases, lost faith that we even have the ability to fix the mess.”