Opening Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy,
Ranking Member, Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Immigration Reform
March 27, 2006
We will turn our attention this
morning to the fundamental issue of whether our bill will include a
path toward earned citizenship for the many undocumented immigrants
in the country. This should be the focus of the Committee’s
attention today, and we should seek to make progress and vote. The
peaceful demonstrations around the country over the last several
days indicate the need for us to recognize the human dignity of all
and do the right thing.
It will be a difficult debate today
because some do not want resolution of this matter, nor do they want
a comprehensive approach to immigration. Democrats have long
supported effective enforcement. I was among those who pushed for
added enforcement along the Northern Border as well as our Southern
Border over the last several years and have voted to provide the
resources necessary to make those commitments a reality. It is the
Bush-Cheney Administration that has at times been the impediment to
the hiring and training of the additional Border Patrol agents we
have sought to require legislatively. It is striking and
disappointing just how distant the President and his Administration
have been in these days as congressional Republicans have resisted
comprehensive immigration reform. I have not seen or heard from
them and they have not weighed in to make their early rhetoric a
reality.
Many members of this Committee have
said the right things. We have already talked about the dangers of
creating a permanent underclass and the need to avoid that. We have
agreed that those undocumented immigrants already in the country do
not get to cut to the front of the line but, in accordance with the
bipartisan plan that Senator
Kennedy has offered, will need to pay
fines, pay taxes, work hard, and wait in line for green cards and
earn their way on a path to adjusted status and citizenship. Today
we need to adopt that proposal in a bipartisan way. Democrats will
not be able to do it alone. We need to provide an orderly system
for immigration that is consistent with traditional American
values. We have already shown our willingness to toughen border
security. Immigrants who are here working and paying taxes and not
committing crimes are ready to abide by the rules. Immigrants serve
on active duty in our Armed Forces. We need to fix our immigration
system. We need a comprehensive solution to a national problem. We
need a fair, realistic and reasonable system.
I am here to join in what I hope will
be a bipartisan effort to make real progress on the fundamental
issues that need to be considered if we are to have comprehensive
immigration legislation this year. The President has talked about a
guest worker program for years, but there has been no action by the
Republican Congress. Farmers in
Vermont and across the country need
help. Immigrants are hopeful that we will reaffirm the promise that
America has long represented with our Statue of Liberty and its
inspiring words of hope and comfort to the oppressed and
downtrodden.
I am disappointed that the Republican
leader has decided to circumvent the Committee. Recently
The New York Times
included an editorial entitled “Immigration’s Moment,” in which it
quite rightly noted that this is a “pivotal week in the search for
answers for the nation’s immigration problems.” This is the pivotal
day and pivotal morning in that search. I ask that a copy of that
editorial be included in the record.
Mr. Chairman, I hope that this morning
we follow through on the discussion we signaled and began at our
earlier meetings. You said, and I believe you, that you do not want
to create a permanent underclass. Many of us have spoken about the
need to bring people out of the shadows. Today is the day for us to
amend the Committee bill to make those purposes a reality, for
Republicans and Democrats to join together in achieving that goal.
Thousands are watching and listening, and thousands more depend on
our following through on those commitments.
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