Dianne Feinstein: “I would like to say one other thing. A lot of people come to me in desperate circumstances for private bills. I have…”

“I would like to say one other thing. A lot of people come to me in desperate circumstances for private bills. I have tried to meet some of the families. What I have seen in these families is truly amazing. I have seen a legacy of work over a period of time that is amazing for any human being. I have actually seen families whose children are valedictorians of their high school class. I have seen them hide, but they pay their taxes, and they own a home. Some are even supervisors of companies. If you look around America, the meatpacking industry, the chicken- processing industry, virtually all of the manufacturing and production, you will see these people as a dominant part of that workforce. I look at the great bread basket that is California, the largest agricultural State in the Union, and I know at least 600,000 of our workforce are undocumented and illegal. I know they come here because of the absence of any hope or opportunity or ability to make a decent living where they were living before. I think this whole dialog we are having puts an enormous obligation on Mexico to begin to understand the needs of their people and do something to help them become economically more upwardly mobile because this is certainly the main problem that leads to the cross-border immigration that is illegal into our country. So we have tried to solve this with a comprehensive bill. I think it makes sense. It says to everybody that you have to earn this legalization.…”