Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to speak about the immigration bill as we approach the end of this week because we are obviously hearing from many people outside of the building who are concerned about this issue, and I think it is important to make a few things clear as we head into next week and what I hope will be final passage of this measure. First, let me describe how this program works because immigration is complicated. It can sometimes even be confusing. We throw around these terms here, and we assume everybody understands what they mean, so I want to explain. The way I will explain it is how this bill will work if we pass the amendment filed by Senators Hoeven and Corker, which I believe will pass and should pass with significant bipartisan support. First, let's describe the problem we have today. No. 1, we have a broken legal immigration system. We have a system of legal immigration. About 1 million people a year come here legally. But the system is broken because it is designed, for example, solely based on primarily family reunification, which, by the way, is how my parents came in 1956. The problem is that the world has changed, and as a result, because we live in a global economy where we are competing for talent and not just workforce, we need to have more of a merit-based and career-based immigration system, and this bill would move us in that direction. We have a broken legal immigration system, by the way, because it is cumbersome and complicated and bureaucratic.…”