Mr. President, we are down to the final few minutes of what has been a long and complicated process but a very civil process-- as some of my colleagues have referred to the process which has been a very civil process in the best spirit of…
Mr. President, we are down to the final few minutes of what has been a long and complicated process but a very civil process-- as some of my colleagues have referred to the process which has been a very civil process in the best spirit of the Senate.
The Senate is about to vote at last on an issue that bears directly on our core responsibility to make America a better place by making it a safer place, a more secure place. It is an issue that focuses on our identity as a nation, a bill that rises to the challenge of solving the problem of illegal immigration with a plan that not only secures our border but is a comprehensive plan that balances the needs of a growing economy with our heritage as a land of proud immigrants.
This debate has been conducted in the Senate's finest tradition. Since I announced last October that the Senate would act this year, the understanding of this issue has increased, and increased every day we have debated and discussed and voted. The
conversation both in Congress, in the Senate, and throughout the country has become more mature, more sophisticated, has led to a better understanding of the complexity of the challenge before us.
With this better understanding, the fact has become clearer and clearer: true border security combines energetic border enforcement with a realistic program, a practical program which identifies who is in America today, which lays out firm but fair requirements for those who want to be part of our great country.
Last fall, I had the opportunity, as so many have, to go to the border. I went then to the Rio Grande border in Texas. The night before Senator Hutchison and I arrived, 800 illegal immigrants were arrested there and were in detention the next morning, and over 200 pounds of marijuana was seized. But you had to wonder how many more people slipped through unseen. Another 400, 500, 1,000, another 1,500, just through that one sector? Who were they? Where were they headed? What were their intentions? What were their names? You had to wonder how many might die crossing the desert, not knowing exactly where they were going to end up. How many pounds of drugs, in addition to that 200 pounds of marijuana we witnessed, were making their way to the streets of Tennessee, New York, and California?
When I returned from Texas, I told the American people the Senate was going to act to make those borders more secure, to make our country safer, to stop that hemorrhaging coming across every night. As one of the major first orders of business in 2006, the Senate took up a strong border security bill. I specifically outlined when we took up that bill that over the ensuing days we would expand that bill to comprehensive immigration reform.
First, the Senate needed to demonstrate we were going to fortify our borders. Next, we would strengthen worksite enforcement where the magnet is attracting people across those borders. Third, we would establish a strong, accountable temporary worker program. Fourth, we would offer a plan for a path to citizenship that deals with the 12 million people, the diversity, that range of people, many who are fully assimilated into our society, some who over the last 6 months just snuck across the border.
Today, I am proud to say the Senate has acted. We will vote here in a few minutes. We have addressed what had seemingly started as an almost insurmountable problem. We are acting with a comprehensive solution. It is not a perfect bill--we all understand that--but a bill that will accurately reflect the will of this Senate, the 100 Members in this Senate.
We took a bill to the Judiciary Committee and in a short period of time, several months, generated a comprehensive bill. We took that bill to the Senate, amended it, and made it better. We have taken a bill that the American people would have concluded was amnesty and, at least by my lights, we took the ``amnesty'' out while putting the ``security'' in.
This bill we are about to pass has a 6-year plan to dramatically increase the number of agents along that southern border, agents who are hired, who are trained, and who are deployed along that border to stop that hemorrhaging. With the amendment by Senator Sessions, we have agreed to build at least 370 miles of triple-layered fence, with another 500 miles of vehicle barriers at strategic locations. This adds to provisions in the underlying bill which give the Border Patrol the technology and tools, the sophistication of technology we know they need to make that border less porous. At last, we will have a long-term border control strategy that will work and give us results to make America safer, to make America more secure.
To further bolster border security, we approved an amendment to authorize the National Guard to temporarily support border patrol operations. Coupled with the almost $2 billion in funds we approved in the Senate last month to beef up that border patrol and building on the money we appropriated last year--almost $10 billion--to begin hiring new agents, Americans should know the Senate is serious about stopping that hemorrhaging coming across our borders.
We also moved to tackle another commonsense issue of national cohesion. The Senate voted in favor of an amendment by Senator Inhofe to require that English be declared the national language of the United States. Learning to speak English is a necessary step for each and every aspiring American to be successful and to join in the mainstream of American society.
If the American experiment is to succeed, built on common principles and civic duties, every person making their life in this country--all of them, all of us, native born and otherwise--needs to learn the language, needs to learn the culture, needs to learn the history that binds us as a people, as an American people.
As Americans, we are also bound by our right to vote in free and democratic elections. The bill before the Senate provides substantial reinforcement to our border and to the laws on the books. It also provides a means for some to earn citizenship, while enforcing necessary restrictions.
Illegal immigrants who have been in this country less than 2 years must return home. Those who have been here 2 to 5 years would be required to come out of the shadows and leave the country, with the opportunity to legally return as temporary workers. Those who have been here for 5 years or more will be eligible to begin an 11-year process to become citizens without uprooting and returning home. No one who comes here illegally will reap the benefit of citizenship without first demonstrating the commitment to earning, and no one who breaks our laws should gain advantage over those who heeded them.
As I mentioned, this product is not perfect. Much more refinement needs to be done. That can be done in conference. But without a doubt, the amendments and the debate of the past 2 weeks have strengthened the core of this bill. We have had at least 20 Republican amendments, at least 18 Democrat amendments. A number of other amendments will be part of the managers' package. I am grateful to my colleagues for insisting those amendments be heard.
I thank Senator Specter, who shepherded this bill through the Judiciary Committee, and Senators Hagel, Martinez, Kyl, Cornyn, and McCain for standing with us all to insist on a fair process that allowed for free and open debate in amendments so we could move forward. I thank Senator Kennedy for helping all of us set a tone for a civil, healthy debate. And I thank Senator Reid for, again, agreeing to open and full debate. We have been in full agreement as to how amendments would come forward; thus, both of us can be proud that, working together, the bill we will be voting on in a few minutes does accurately reflect the spirit and the will of this Senate.
I do hope, as others have suggested this morning, as we turn to other issues, the same spirit with which this debate has been conducted will continue and will characterize our future deliberations in the Senate.
I also thank President Bush for his strong leadership for a comprehensive solution to these challenging problems. From day one, he staked out a position that was tough, not particularly popular when we started but one that was tough as well as compassionate, a position that acknowledges the rich contributions of America's immigrants while recognizing the need, first and foremost, to buttress our borders, that respects our heritage as an immigrant nation while upholding the laws of the land.
Early on in this debate, I said:
This debate, and our effort, is about the American dream
and the hope that this country holds for so many hard-working
people.
But I should add, it is also an issue about what it means to be a nation. Every nation must keep its citizens safe and its borders secure. We should not have to choose between respect for our history and respect for our laws. With hard work and responsible debate, we can have both.
In this Senate, we have engaged in responsible debate over the last several months. We have worked hard. And with the bill before the Senate today, we do have both.
In closing, we are practical people. We are here to solve problems, applying the very best of my conservative principles, learning about the best ways to act, setting deadlines, seeking action, not giving up just because
things turn tough. That is the job of leadership in the Senate.
So much has been said and done in relation to this bill now, there is only one thing left for us to do: vote, up or down. I will be voting yes, and I hope my 99 colleagues will also vote their conscience but also in the affirmative. We are ready for the clerk to call the roll.
Amendment No. 4083