Tom Coburn: “I rise to speak on this issue because I think we find ourselves fixing the wrong problem again. The real consequence of…”

“I rise to speak on this issue because I think we find ourselves fixing the wrong problem again. The real consequence of not having addressed the immigration problems in this country means we have problems with crops that are not going to be harvested because we don't have workers. But the time to do that is right after we finish this bill. The American people as a whole do not want an amnesty program, but they will accept an amnesty program if we fix the border, and we have not secured the border. We have not done what we need to do in this body, in the House or through the administration, to enforce the laws of this country. It is illegal to come here and we should not reward illegal behavior. But you can't even begin to address that until you say we are going to enforce closing this border for national security purposes but also for competitive purposes. We need to have a national debate about how many people need to come in and supply an effort to our Nation as we grow. All of us in this country are immigrants except for the Native Americans. We would welcome others. But it has to be done legally. We have not done our job as bodies of the legislature, along with this administration, of first securing the border. We have a national priority in terms of our own safety. Yet the politics of securing that border plays into every Presidential candidate who is running today. It becomes a political football.…”