Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006

COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2006

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Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I would like to address the Kyl-Cornyn amendment tonight. I obviously have listened to some of this debate over the last hour. There is one thing I want to address before I get into what I think are the real critical issues here, not just on this amendment that we are going to be voting on but the bill, the purpose, underlying focus.

I heard the junior Senator from Alabama say that the White House, the President, was supporting the Kyl-Cornyn amendment.

That is not my understanding. As a matter of fact, the senior Senator from Arizona, Mr. McCain, and the senior Senator from Florida, Mr. Martinez, and I just got off the phone with the Chief of Staff of the President of the United States. He did not tell us what I just heard on the floor of the Senate as to the President's support of this amendment. There seems to be some confusion. I would welcome the junior Senator from Alabama or maybe the junior Senator from Texas clarifying that if they have some tangible evidence that the President is supporting this amendment. As I said, we just got off the phone with the Chief of Staff of the President of the United States.

I would even add further that maybe some of my colleagues didn't hear the President of the United States Monday night. I think most of America did. As a matter of fact, there seems to be some significant approval developing out there because the President of the United States articulated very clearly essentially the underlying bill that we are debating and have been debating this week on the Senate floor. Much of that is about the Hagel-Martinez bill. The President laid that out rather clearly.

I don't know if the President of the United States is withdrawing his position that he clearly articulated to the people of the United States, and why he felt the underlying bill was important. He laid out his principles. Those principles are the principles in this underlying bill.

I welcome clarification of where the President is on this. Maybe the White House would like to clarify that as well.

Let us talk about what this is about. This is a difficult issue. It is complicated. It is wide and deep. Yes. Why is that? Because we have essentially deferred this issue for years. We have provided no leadership for the American people. We have not had the courage to deal with it because it is political, because it is emotional, because it cuts across every sector and every line of our society. It is about national security. It is about autonomy, and our future. It is about our society, our schools, our hospitals. That is difficult. It is difficult.

But what the President of the United States did Monday night--and a number of my colleagues have been doing for a long time--was to try to find a resolution.

Mr. President, the American people have a very low opinion of you, of me, of the Congress, of the President--not because I say it. Read the latest polls. I do not know if the President takes any heart in the fact that his job approval numbers are higher than ours.

Why are the American people upset with us? Because we are not doing our job. We talk about: Let's run to the base. Let's run to the political lowest common denominator. That is not governing. That is cheap, transparent politics. That is why we are all down in the twenties and the low thirties. The people of this country have lost confidence in us, and no wonder. We run from every tough issue. We can get into the subsections on page 17 and 500 and 433 of the underlying bill--all imperfect, absolutely, because resolution on this issue will be imperfect, absolutely. But we are trying to do something. We are trying to come to some resolution. We are trying to find some answer for the American people.

What do we do with the 12 million illegal aliens in this country? Do the American people really believe we are going to ship them all out of here, go down to the bus depot? Is that really what they are going to do? Come on. That is not the answer.

Why are we so afraid of this issue? This issue brings out the best in our society and the worst in our society. Why are we afraid to deal with this issue? Do we really want, as Senator McCain, Senator Kennedy, and others have said, a second-class system in this country? Do we really want that? Do we know what the consequences of that are? I am not sure we do.

This Kyl-Cornyn amendment destroys every fiber of what many of us have worked for, including the President of the United States, to try to find some resolution, some common denominator center point, some consensus of purpose about how we do this. Sure, we can pick apart temporary worker visas. Does that really mean that somebody is going to stay longer or not going to stay longer? All imperfect, absolutely, but do you know what we were doing with a resolution like this, as imperfect as it is? What we are saying to our country, to the world? That we can deal with the tough issue. We, in fact, can put people onto a path of responsible behavior, of legal status, just like America has always stood for--hard work, opportunity, do your best, 12 million illegal immigrants. They are here illegally. Of course, they are. Yes.

This nonsense about amnesty. I said on the floor yesterday--Mr. President, you might remember 1978 when Jimmy Carter gave amnesty, unconditional, no questions asked: Come on back over the border, all of you who ran away from this country and didn't want to serve your country, didn't want to go to Vietnam, didn't want to be a part of our country. Jimmy Carter said in 1978, no questions asked, unconditional, come back. That is amnesty.

What we are talking about is not amnesty. The President said it very clearly Monday night.

We are talking about pathways to legality, responsible processes, opportunities for people to come out of the shadows.

Who are we helping with the current situation that we have today? How are we winning? People stay in the shadows, we don't collect the taxes we need, we don't have the complete involvement in communities that we have always had from our immigrants. There is a national security element to this. There is a law enforcement element to it. There is certainly an economic element to it.

Are we really winning? No, we are losing. We are losing everywhere.

What we are trying to do is find a way to move this forward so that we can start to resolve the issue. I will be the first to say, since I had a little bit to do with helping construct this and I have been at this for many years--I have not been at this as long as Senator Kennedy has, but I tell you, not many Senators on the floor of this Senate have been at this as long as I have. It doesn't mean that I am right. But I do know a little something about it. I have been down on the border. I have talked to immigrants and have spent personally thousands of hours on this issue, as has my staff. It doesn't mean I am right or that I am smarter. But I know a little something about it. I know a little about this country. I know how this country was built, and I know about the people of this country.

The people of this country want us to resolve the problem. It isn't perfect. That is what we have been doing this week. We have been adding amendments. Some amendments I did not vote for, some I didn't like. But adding to this, crafting something for the future, for our history, for our children, and for our society, that is what it is about.

If this amendment passes tonight, if this goes down, the entire compromise will go down. What will stand in its place? What will stand in its place?

I yield the floor.

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