Political Quotes

“The sponsors of the legislation--Senators Kennedy, Brownback, Feinstein, and myself--had worked hard to develop this legislation in the aftermath of September 11 because we held hearings in two different subcommittees of the Judiciary Committee that revealed loopholes in our immigration laws, loopholes through which some of the terrorists who came here and carried out their horrible attack on September 11 were able to gain entry into the United States. They came on legal visas, visas that in some cases should never have been granted. They were here under student visas, even though they no longer attended the classes they had signed up to attend. In the case of some of them, they were out of status by the time of September 11. We set about to identify loopholes in our immigration and visa laws that we could close to make it much more difficult for terrorists to gain entry into the United States.”