Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we are debating the immigration bill again today, and as the Presiding Officer knows, I am one of those Members of the Senate who believe our immigration system is broken, both the legal system and the way in which we want to deal with those who come here illegally. I have concerns with the underlying legislation. I have spoken about that on the floor. I have concerns about the workplace magnet. I think the E-Verify proposals in the underlying bill are an improvement to the current system but still not as strong as they need to be to be an effective deterrent to those who are unauthorized to work. I don't think the system will work, frankly, unless we strengthen those provisions at the workplace. Most people want to come here for economic reasons, and if we don't deal with the workplace we will not be able to affect much at the border if people really want to come here with their families to get a job. Second, we have learned now that 40 percent of those who are here illegally have actually overstayed their visas, meaning they came here legally but then overstayed their visas and are here illegally now. We also learned that under E-Verify, unfortunately, about 54 percent of those who are unauthorized to work are getting through the system now with the pilot programs that are available. So that needs to be strengthened, and I will have proposals to do that.…”