On the recordJuly 21, 2020
reserving the right to object, I am a little flabbergasted at this moment, when I find myself in a rare circumstance of disagreeing with literally every word uttered by my colleague, the senior Senator from Illinois. He is my friend. He and I have worked together on a number of issues--criminal justice reform, protecting the civil liberties of Americans when it comes to domestic surveillance, all kinds of things on the Judiciary Committee. I disagree with nearly every single word, every syllable he just uttered. I find myself wondering whether we experienced alternate universes in recent months. I have worked nearly the entire time I have been in the U.S. Senate on this issue--for years, nearly 9\1/2\ years, on discrete pieces of legislation, trying to fix immigration. Immigration is a big issue. It is a contentious issue. It is an issue as to which, to put it mildly, there is not always bipartisan consensus. It is one of the areas that I have concluded remains open and possible for bipartisan agreement, is on taking discrete, individual problem areas within our immigration code and updating them and modernizing them. So what we are talking here today about is a bill that I have long championed, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act.…





