Lateefah Simon: “I want to join, first of all, in the comments that Senator Feingold made about Senator Simpson. Our title here is…”

“I want to join, first of all, in the comments that Senator Feingold made about Senator Simpson. Our title here is ``United States,'' not Senator from Wyoming, Senator from Colorado, Senator from Illinois, Senator from California or Wisconsin. Alan Simpson has served the people of Wyoming well. But he has also been a U.S. Senator who has looked at the broad scope of things and has been a real legislator and has contributed immensely. I will differ with him on this particular amendment. Let me add, I will differ with my friend from Wisconsin, Senator Feingold, with whom I rarely differ, on this matter of pilot verification that he was just talking about. Senator Simpson has reminded us over and over again on the floor that we have to stop the magnet that is the economic pull to people to come into this country illegally. So we passed, a few years ago, employer sanctions. It was a matter of controversy. I ended up being a minority on this side, joining the Senator from Wyoming and voting for that. Employer sanctions have not worked as well as we had hoped. I think the key is verification. Unless we are willing to try a pilot verification program, and here is where I differ with my friend from Wisconsin, I do not think you will have any meaningful way of stopping a steady flow of people who come up here for economic reasons.”