Jon Kyl: “I first wish to express appreciation to the Senator from Georgia for explaining very well both the need for and the…”

“I first wish to express appreciation to the Senator from Georgia for explaining very well both the need for and the description of the legislation on which we will be voting tomorrow, which is our version of the legislation that will help employers in our agricultural sector by including immigration reform which will make it easier for them to obtain workers from both the illegal immigrants who are in the country today as well as those legal immigrants who would be applying under our legislation. Let me go back to kind of a 30,000-foot elevation view here and describe the reasons we put this legislation together and are offering it at this time. As we have said before, the supplemental appropriations bill, which will be debated again tomorrow as well as later today and which will help pay for our war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, is not the appropriate place to be debating immigration. Unfortunately, some of our colleagues saw fit to bring amendments to the Senate floor which related to that subject. One of those amendments is this amendment that deals with agricultural labor. It was at that point that Senator Chambliss and I had no alternative but to present the alternative view of how to serve those agricultural needs.…”