Chuck Grassley

I am very glad that we are holding this hearing today.

I am concerned that the bill we are discussing repeats the mistakes of the past and will not secure the border and stop the flow of illegal migration.

I sent a letter to you this morning asking for answers to questions about the bombers and how they interacted with your agency.

I share this feeling that there is principle behind this legislation of legalize now, enforce later.

I would have to say we just simply do not know.

Everything this administration has done, everything this DHS Secretary has done, we can see right now this is not going to happen.

I talked about how the bill does not necessarily require the border to be secured before those here illegally are provided legal status or even citizenship.

I think we cannot blame the President if he has certain authority and he uses it.

Undocumented immigrants will get every opportunity to apply for legalization.

We need a little bit more specificity on how that would be implemented and how that would work in practice.

I support H-1B with some changes.

The provisions contained in Senate bill 600... should be included in S. 744.

I think that we ought to be very careful in this legislation, as important as it is that we have immigration reform, not to overdelegate authority and waivers and things like that.

Employers will continue to be able to bring in cheaper foreign workers and bypass American workers.

Can you tell the American people now why they should trust the purposes of legislation to secure the border after 12 million people get legal status?

May I have 15 seconds?

I want to get to the bottom of.

Is it true that his identity document did not match his airline ticket? If so, why did TSA miss the discrepancy?

American workers should have that first and legitimate shot at those jobs.

It is my understanding that the legalization program for agricultural workers mirrors in part the main legalization program in the bill.

If you want to avoid partisanship, I would say let us be very deliberate, and I think you have been very deliberate so far.

I want him and others to know that we tried to figure what you were aiming at and compensate for it.

I think we have more of a gold mine here if we start listening to these whistle-blowers.

It is difficult for me to understand how anyone, particularly anyone with knowledge of the concerns expressed by me and others, would not raise their hand.

If the whistle-blower program is going to be as effective and successful as it can be, the final regulations ought to address those concerns.