John Cornyn: “this debate we are having on this important legislation is critical to our Nation. It is long overdue. I am glad we are…”

“this debate we are having on this important legislation is critical to our Nation. It is long overdue. I am glad we are finally talking about border security and immigration reform in a comprehensive way. I know, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, our chairman, Senator Specter, and the committee have worked very hard on this legislation. There is a lot of the legislation that I think is very good. For example, the border security component of the bill is very strong. I am proud to say that a good chunk of that came from legislation Senator Kyl and I have drafted and has been out there for a year or more. But I believe with all my heart that what has brought us to this day and this debate on the Senate floor is because Americans are terribly concerned that in a post-9/11 world, we simply do not have control of our borders. And they believe--and I believe they are correct--it exposes us to a danger and that the Federal Government has a primary responsibility of making sure our security interests are protected. As I said earlier today, border security is national security. Now, how did we get here? I believe this is important because I do not want people to get the wrong impression. We are a proud nation of immigrants. All of us--no matter who we are, how we pronounce our last name, where we were born--came from somewhere else.…”