Patrick Leahy: “when the Judiciary Committee met to consider a comprehensive immigration reform bill, we adopted an amendment by Senator…”

“when the Judiciary Committee met to consider a comprehensive immigration reform bill, we adopted an amendment by Senator Kyl on limited fences and barriers along the border. I supported that amendment. It called for replacing and repairing barriers in certain border towns. Now Senator Sessions is offering an amendment to correct what Senator Kyl had included in the Judiciary Committee bill and that was incorporated in the underlying bill now before the Senate. I had thought that the Senator from Arizona had consulted with the administration and, in particular, with the Department of Homeland Security before offering his amendment and that the committee action would have been sufficient. Apparently Senator Sessions and his cosponsors, which include a number of Republican Senators on the Judiciary Committee, think that the Kyl amendment was inadequate. They say that their discussions with Secretary Chertoff, the Border Patrol, and Homeland Security lead them to seek a needed change and correction. As Senator Kennedy noted, the fact may well be that the Secretary and the administration have all the legal authority they need without this amendment to do what they think needs to be done. That they have not done more before now was not for the lack of authority as far as I know. Nor has Congress refused to provide such authority as may have been necessary or that has been requested by the administration.…”