Jon Kyl: “I appreciate not waiving the budget in this last point of order. I will confess to you, I think that Senator Menendez…”

“I appreciate not waiving the budget in this last point of order. I will confess to you, I think that Senator Menendez had a point in saying we should only allow people who had a reasonable expectation to be immigrants, and those who didn't should not. The bill itself drew an arbitrary deadline. Senator Menendez drew a different arbitrary deadline. This side-by-side actually is constructed so that, under existing law, everyone who has a reasonable expectation of being allowed to immigrate under a family visa will be able to immigrate under a family visa. Only those people who never had any reasonable expectation would be denied. What it does is to take it out to the year 2027, 20 years from now, and anyone who could have had a reasonable expectation of immigrating within that 20-year period would be allowed to immigrate under this amendment. It is a more precise and fair and just way to allow family members to come into the United States. The numbers are approximately identical to those who would be allowed to immigrate under the bill.”