Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to remind my colleagues that we were promised an open and fair process on this legislation. The fact that the majority is moving to table my amendment proves this so-called open and fair process is a farce. The majority is afraid to have an up- or-down vote on my amendment. They are apparently afraid to have an open debate and vote on a provision that ensures true border security before legalization, and that is what the people of this country want. They claim to be open to improving the bill, but this motion to table shows they are not ready to fundamentally change the bill. By tabling my amendment, the majority is stifling progress on this bill. They are refusing to have an amendment process to improve it. This is not the right way to start off on a very important bill. You know, we only do immigration reform once every 25 years. So what is the hurry? Surely, we need an amendment process in which true immigration reform can succeed. There is a lesson to be learned from the 1986 legislation that is now the law of the land. Then, we legalized first and thought we were going to secure the border later, which we never did. So this amendment is the first of many that will improve the bill and do what the authors of the bill say they want to do, secure the border and do what the American people expect us to do.…”