María Elvira Salazar: “as we come back to the floor of the Senate today to take up this issue of national security and the national urgency on…”

“as we come back to the floor of the Senate today to take up this issue of national security and the national urgency on workable immigration law, I want to first say that I applaud my colleagues both on the Democratic and the Republican sides who have been working so hard to move forward with a comprehensive immigration reform package. I also want to say thank you to the President of the United States of America for his statement last night to the Nation, in which he appealed to the best interests of America to come together and develop a comprehensive immigration reform package. I believe it is worthwhile to quote again from what the President said last night. Tonight I want to speak directly to Members of the House and the Senate. An immigration reform bill needs to be comprehensive because all elements of this problem must be addressed together, or none of them will be solved at all. The House has passed an immigration bill. The Senate should act by the end of this month so that we can work out the differences between the two bills and Congress can pass a comprehensive bill for me to sign into law. Again, he said we need to work on this problem together, on all of its elements, or none of the elements will be solved. Mr. President, amendment No. 3994 is an amendment that takes a very different approach from the Senator from Georgia, my good friend, Senator Isakson.…”