Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, it is an interesting time on the floor of the Senate. We just heard the most fascinating speech about fingerpointing I have heard in decades--fingerpointing from the other side that is trying to suggest they are blameless, absolutely without blame, because the Senate is stalled in its attempt to gain a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
This is one Republican Senator who, several years ago, stepped across the aisle and stood with Senator Ted Kennedy in a clear recognition that something had to be done to deal with illegal foreign nationals in our country in a just, reasonable, humane, and legal way.
To suggest that the Democratic caucus has not had conflict behind closed doors over the last week is, in fact, a false statement because today we see this veneered front. To suggest that they are without blame because the Senate for 1 week has stood still doing nothing because they would not allow amendments on the comprehensive bill? May I say shame on you? I am saying that because the veneer doesn't fit. It is paper thin like the front page of the legislation before us.
The Senate Judiciary Committee worked its will, and it brought forth a bill to this floor. Is it perfect? No. Is it the best they could do? Absolutely, yes. Did they work hard? You darn bet they did. Does it have all the components in it that we would want for tough border security and control to contain our borders, to secure them?
It must have that, and it does have that. Because I don't care how good the legislation is that I think I have created with a coalition of over 500 groups of Hispanics and labor and agriculture over the last 5 years, as good as my legislation is, known as AgJOBS, it is not going to work if the border isn't secure. You have to stop the flow of illegals, and we do that. But we don't do it by pointing a finger at all of them and saying: You are all felons. We cause them to earn, in the course of years of hard work, the right to continue to work and, if they choose--if they choose--to become an American citizen by another lengthy process. Is that unfair? Is that irresponsible? It is absolutely not. Was that created by Republicans? Yes, it was. By Democrats? Absolutely.
So let me suggest that when the assistant minority leader stands up and says: No, not me, not us, not ours, that simply is not true. Yes, the Republican side is conflicted. Yes, we have differences. Yes, there were amendments. But those amendments, as would be the normal process on the floor of the Senate after a bill came out of committee, have been denied by that paper-thin veneer you have just heard this morning from the other side.
Immigration has been and will always be a bipartisan issue. It must be. It should be. Is it to our advantage to make it partisan? Absolutely not. But some are now playing that game, and that in itself is most dangerous.
I will continue to work with all of my colleagues to resolve this issue. It is fundamentally important to America that we do.
Yesterday, on the floor of the Senate, I said: America, turn and look at yourself in your mirror, and you will find a multiethnic, a multinational image. We as Americans are the phenomenal mosaic of the world, and we are because we have historically had an orderly, responsible immigration policy that didn't point fingers and didn't play partisan politics and worked its will. I must tell you there have been and there always will be those who got here yesterday who don't want those coming tomorrow. Yet America's great energy is simply that we continue to bring people from around the world who become Americans in search of the great American dream, who live under our constitutional structure, who embody it because of the new energy as a free citizen they employ. It is in itself the only Nation in the world that has been able to do that.
I say, when I am out in Idaho and around the country, is it possible for you to become Japanese if you are not born one? Absolutely not. Or to become an Italian if you are not born one? You can't become that. But you can become an American. Why? Because this great country was never one nationality, never one religion; it was the place the world came to find freedom and to be able to use its individual energies underneath the framework of a constitutional system that established laws.
What are we attempting to do here today? We are attempting to clarify a law, to strengthen a law, to make sure that the wonderful process we have seen throughout our history continues to be orderly and just and responsible.
Who is to blame here? The U.S. Senate, the Congress of the United States, when, in 1986, they passed a law about immigration, but they didn't recognize in doing so that they were creating a natural magnet and they didn't control the border, dominantly to our south; and then again in 1996 we did the same thing and we didn't control the border. This great economic engine of ours became the magnet for the downtrodden to come to work, to earn a little money, to improve themselves. We took advantage of that, hopefully in a positive way, hopefully in a humane way--not always, but we did take advantage of it. Then, after 9/11, we awakened to this phenomenal reality that there were millions in our country who were illegal, and some of them were bad guys bent to do us harm. Now we are playing political games on the floor as to who is on first and who is on second on this issue. Shame on us. Because the veneer on the other side is just that: paper thin.
This has been and will remain a bipartisan issue, it is an American issue, and it is responsible for this Senate to deal with it. It is right and proper under our rules that if someone has an amendment in disagreement to what I have done--and now I see my colleague from California, Senator Feinstein, who worked with me and introduced into the committee mark a very valuable component as it relates to American agriculture. We didn't play the partisan game. We came together because she has in her State and in the great San Joaquin Valley, which is, without dispute, the greatest agricultural valley in the world, a true need to stabilize and build a legal workforce; and in Idaho, at the peak of our labor season, I have anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 illegals. She has more illegals in one county in California working than I have in my entire State. Still, Senator Feinstein and I understand one thing very appropriately: that what we do must be legal, that American agriculture cannot build its strength on an illegal foundation, and it knows it, too. That is why we have worked with them to solve this problem.
We think that within the committee bill, there is a solution. There are some on my side and on the other side who probably disagree with that, and there are amendments over here that would change what Senator Feinstein and I have proposed, and that is within the committee mark. I think I can defeat those amendments. I am certainly willing to debate them. It would be appropriate under the rules of the Senate that some of those amendments would be offered, but that has been denied. I am disappointed in that.
I hope that over the course of the next 2 weeks, calm heads will prevail. I hope the idea of finger-pointing goes away. We all have a responsibility here, not only to our home States but to our Nation, to develop a comprehensive immigration reform policy to secure our borders for the sake of our Nation's security. That is what this Senate has attempted to do, and that is what we are now being denied. I don't believe that is the appropriate position for any of us.
Immigration reform has been--let me repeat--and will always be and must be a comprehensive approach, a bipartisan issue where we work together to resolve what is in itself a major national issue of the day. Our citizens have asked that we do this. While they are divided by our effort in every way, we attempt to bring together that division in what we hope is a comprehensive, responsible, legal approach that first embodies national security and secondly, and as importantly, though, represents a balance for our economy, a reasonable and responsible approach toward humanity for those who come to work and for those who want to be citizens. In my opinion, that is a responsible position.
I yield the floor.