Political Quotes

“in May of this year, this body passed comprehensive immigration reform. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. We must honor both of those heritages. Accordingly, we pursued in this body a four-pronged approach to reform: first, fortify our borders; second, strengthen worksite enforcement; third, develop a strong temporary worker program; fourth, develop a fair and realistic way to address the 12 million people here already who entered our country illegally, but under no circumstances would we offer amnesty. Unfortunately, at this point it is pretty clear to everyone that we will not reach a conference agreement on comprehensive immigration reform before we break in September. While I have made it clear that I prefer a comprehensive solution, I have always said that we need an enforcement-first approach to immigration reform--not enforcement only but enforcement first. We share a 1,951-mile border with Mexico, and it doesn't take too much creativity to imagine how terrorists might plot to exploit that border. It is time to secure that border with Mexico. As a national security challenge, that is absolutely critical to fighting a strong war on terror. That is the approach of this bill, the Secure Fence Act of 2006, a bill on which we will shortly vote.”