On the recordJune 25, 2013
As we have seen over the past 2 weeks, immigration is a very emotional issue. It is an issue that engenders strong feelings from both sides of the aisle and maybe out in the grass roots of America even stronger feelings than are expressed on the floor of the Senate. Everyone wants reform in the Senate. I have not heard anybody say the present situation is A-OK, but everyone has their own ideas and different solutions. Now, at the grass roots of America, there are people who say we ought to give citizenship yesterday. There are people on the other side who say 12 million people ought to be rounded up and shipped out of the country. Neither one of those are very realistic today, but those are even stronger voices than you hear on the floor of the Senate. Now, we are trying to find some reasonable solution. I do not think the bill that is eventually going to pass is a reasonable solution. But I will not know whether this is a reasonable solution until we get through the entire legislative process, meaning the House of Representatives and the conference. But I think down the road we can do much better than is going to be done in the Senate. Now, as I said, everybody has their own ideas and different solutions. Unfortunately, the process has not allowed us to fundamentally improve this bill on the floor of the Senate like we were able to have that chance--not too successfully--but at least we had that chance in committee with that fair and open process.…
