On the recordApril 16, 1996
I just reflect that Senator Kennedy and I are ready to go forward with this measure. It is an issue that is very topical and must be addressed--the issue of illegal immigration, the issue of legal immigration. Both bills are here. One is at the desk and one is being processed. I want to assure all that immigration reform is not a partisan issue. It never has been and it never will be. It cannot be. I just hope that before we go on with these maneuvers, we recognize that I do not think anyone, especially in an election year, would want to be known as the person that took this bill down and left it down. It is an issue that, as I say, is not going to resolve itself. It is a Federal issue, not a State issue. We either resolve it, or we will have proposition 187's in every State of the Union. From me, I have buried my dead many times before with regard to both legal and illegal immigration, and life will go on if you bury it one more time.
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