Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator. It was very difficult politics. It was a very fragile but robust coalition back in the day. President Bush sent over two Cabinet Secretaries every week and was personally involved in trying to get comprehensive immigration reform passed in 2006 and 2007. I saw firsthand the commitment by the White House, where Secretary Gutierrez and many others came over--the Homeland Security Secretary came over-- and basically wrote the bill line by line--Senator Kennedy, myself, McCain, Kyl--a bunch of people--Salazar. Senator Obama showed up on occasion. But at the end of the day, the basic construct was that for a modern immigration system--merit-based immigration, a new way of doing business, better border security, better employer verification systems--Republicans would allow the 12 million to earn their way into lawful standing--a long and arduous way back to citizenship they would have to earn--and, in return, we would get a temporary worker program that would help American businesses supplement the labor force when they could not find an American worker, after paying a competitive wage. The chamber, all businesses were for this because it gave the business community the certainty they needed regarding immigration. Part of the grand bargain was that the chamber would be able to access labor in a more modern, efficient way. The labor unions hated that part of the bill.…”