John Cornyn: “I have been working on immigration policy for all the time I have been in the Senate, about 10 years now. So I have some…”

“I have been working on immigration policy for all the time I have been in the Senate, about 10 years now. So I have some familiarity with the issues and the arguments that have been made. It is always amazing to hear a lot of the same arguments being repeated now that we have heard before in 2007 and before. But one of the differences is we have 43 new Senators who weren't here in 2007, the last time we had a major debate on immigration reform. So I think the discussions have been useful and, hopefully, they will be productive. There is one obstacle, in my view, to immigration reform which is something I would like to see: When it comes to securing our borders and making sure that the flow of illegal immigration across our borders stops or gets as close as we can to zero, the Federal Government has zero credibility. The reason is simple. We have been making promises since 1986 about border security enforcement. Remember, 1986 was the year that Ronald Reagan--a model to Republicans and conservatives--signed an amnesty for 3 million people, premised on the representation and the expectation that enforcement would ensue and the problem would be solved. In other words, he and the American people said: We will have a compassionate resolution of the condition of the 3 million people who are here, but we want to make sure that the rule of law is restored and that we will not have to do this again.…”