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Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, before beginning my remarks, I would first like to thank my friend and colleague, the distinguished Senator from Iowa, for his tireless efforts in managing this process from the Republican side. It has not been easy, and his effort has reflected a certain level of statesmanship that is to be commended.

I rise today in support of immigration reform. I support strengthening our borders and ensuring that they are secure before beginning a pathway to citizenship because it is the only way we can avoid the mistakes of the past.

I support robust interior enforcement and a biometric visa tracking system because without those things in place, we will not solve the problem of illegal immigration. I support modernizing and streamlining our visa system because we need an efficient process of legal immigration that meets the needs of our economy. I support immigration reform that is tough on those who have chosen to break our laws and fair to those who have obeyed them and have been patiently waiting their turn in line trying to come here legally.

Today there is reason for disappointment, but there is also great cause for encouragement. The bill we have before us is an enormous disappointment. The American people deserve better. As a matter of public policy, this bill fails to meet many of the goals we set at the beginning of the process.

It is full of promises to beef up border security, but it makes no assurances. This legislation cuts the American people out by cutting out any congressional oversight of the opening and progression of the pathway to citizenship. It remains grossly unfair to those who have languished in our current legal immigration system, unable to get answers for decades in some cases. It transfers enormous authority and discretion to the executive branch, exacerbating an already widespread problem within our Federal Government.

It also fails perhaps the most important test. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill will reduce illegal immigration by just a mere 25 percent over the next 10 years. This should be reason alone to scrap the entire bill.

As a matter of process, Members of this body should be embarrassed about how this bill has moved through the Senate. From day one the country was misled about what was in the bill. The talking points never matched the reality of what was in the bill.

We were told if we didn't like what was in it, we would have an opportunity to fix it. But that wasn't true either. During the committee markup, Democrats and the Gang of 8 Republicans voted as a block to defeat virtually all substantive amendments proposed to improve the bill.

They said there would be regular order on the floor of the Senate, but that turned out to be a false promise as well. For a 1,200-page bill, the Senate, including the 92 Members not on the Judiciary Committee or the Gang of 8, was allowed exactly 10 rollcall votes before the process was shut down.

By contrast, during the 2007 debate on immigration reform, the Senate voted 32 times to amend the bill. Some would argue even that was too small. But certainly 10 votes on a 1,200-page bill does not suggest that the proponents of the bill are interested in regular order.

For the grand finale, at nearly the end of this process, the proponents substituted what is effectively a brandnew bill in place of the one we have been debating for over 2 months. They gave us very little time to read it before we had to vote on it. Once we were on the new bill, they did not allow a single vote on any amendments.

This is an embarrassment to this institution, and it is an assault on the principles of democracy, but like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, from this low point in the Senate springs an encouraging path forward for those who, like me, truly want immigration reform.

First, this exercise has laid out in front of the American people all the problems inherent in passing massive pieces of legislation presumed to fix all of our problems at once. The so-called comprehensive approach has been utterly discredited. From denying votes to buying votes with special interest carve-outs, our experience over the last 2 months only reaffirms why the vast majority of Americans don't trust Washington.

The special interests had a huge hand in writing the bill, while the American people had none. Almost all of the discussions and negotiations took place in secret backroom deals. Rather than debate policy differences, the debate was a daily fact check on misleading and outright false claims made by some of the bill's proponents.

The good news is the House appears to have learned this lesson and wants no part of this. Already the Speaker has said the Senate bill is dead on arrival. So today's vote is largely symbolic.

The House Judiciary Committee has recently passed two significant pieces of immigration reform--the one on

interior enforcement and another dealing with agricultural workers. It proves that reform can be passed in a step-by-step process. Indeed, the only reason immigration reform is so controversial is because the Senate refuses to pass it one piece at a time. There is simply no legitimate reason we have to pass a one-size-fits-all, 1,200-page take-it-or-leave-it bill.

Although it is likely this bill will pass today, I strongly encourage my colleagues to consider where we started, where we are now and, most importantly, what lies ahead of us. They said it would secure the border; it does not. Congress has been fooled by false promises before. We should not go down that same path again.

They said illegal immigration will be a thing of the past. Under this bill, it will not. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed that under this bill, there will be 6- to 8-million illegal aliens in the country 10 years from now. They said it would be good for the economy. It isn't.

CBO also confirmed that it would lower wages and increase unemployment. They said it would be tough but fair. It is neither. It is not tough on those who have broken the law, and it is not fair for the people who have been trying to come here legally.

If this bill passes today, it will be all but relegated to the ash heap of history as the House appears willing to tackle immigration reform the right way. The sponsors of this bill had the best of intentions but, in my opinion, intentions are not always enough.

As I said at the outset, I stand here today strongly in support of immigration reform, but this bill is not immigration reform. It is big government dysfunction, and that is why I cannot support it and urge my colleagues to vote against it.

Thank you. I yield the floor.

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