José E. Serrano: “I want to take the gentleman from California's approach also and thank the majority party and the gentleman from…”

“I want to take the gentleman from California's approach also and thank the majority party and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas) for bringing this measure to the floor; and I will vote for it tonight. However, upon voting for it I will continue to insist that we make this a permanent situation. Obviously, bringing a bill to the floor indicates a desire to solve this problem; but the 4-month extension does not solve the problem. The President's comment about fixing this problem means that he recognizes a need to do the right thing, but he did not say 4 months, he said just fix it. The INS, which came before the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary, said that they will accept at the minimum a 1-year extension. Everyone has said that they will take longer to solve the problem, and yet it has been decided to curtail the time; and, thus, create perhaps another problem. Let me remind my colleagues what the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) said. 'The folks that we are talking about are the folks who will make the next generation of great Americans; who are, in fact, today doing all those jobs Americans do not want to do, and doing those things that so many of us need to have done.' These are people who want to keep their families together, and that is what this country is about. It is about immigration and it is about family.”