Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006

COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2006--Continued -- (Senate - May 16, 2006)

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, let me express my appreciation to the Senator from Arizona, the senior Senator, the Senator from South Carolina, for working with Senator Kyl and myself on this amendment.

This whole subject is complicated and has so many different moving parts. What I mean by ``subject,'' I mean comprehensive immigration reform. Sometimes I think people start with a deep skepticism about what other Senators are actually trying to do.

I hope as this amendment is accepted when we vote tomorrow, showing the alliance that has been created around this amendment, that our colleagues understand, even though there may be some who disagree with some aspects of the bill in the Senate, we are deeply committed to comprehensive immigration reform. We understand it is important we have border security, interior enforcement, worksite enforcement, a temporary worker program, and that we deal in a humane and compassionate fashion with the 12 million people who now live in our country in violation of our immigration laws.

Certainly, there are improvements that can be made to this underlying bill. This amendment is designed to do exactly that. It is ironic that it was first introduced well over a month ago and then, unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in getting a vote on the amendment. It now looks as if, through hard work, discussion and cooperation, the intent behind the amendment is better understood. It has already been eloquently explained by Senators Kyl, Graham, and McCain.

Let me say the whole purpose of this amendment was to make sure that those who have already had access to our criminal justice system and our civil litigation system, and lost, cannot come back and get another second bite at the apple. This amendment clarifies whether certain convicted criminals are eligible for the benefits of the legalization program contained in the underlying bill.

To be clear, the underlying bill, without this amendment, would allow certain criminal aliens to get legal status. The underlying bill disqualifies aliens who are ineligible to obtain a visa because of certain criminal convictions. But this only means crimes that are defined as crimes involving moral turpitude or drug-related crimes.

Under the current bill, without this amendment, not all crimes--including some felonies--would bar an alien from obtaining legal status. Let me share quickly a few examples of crimes that do not automatically exclude an alien from getting a visa and therefore would not render an alien ineligible for legalization absent this amendment.

For example, someone who has been convicted of the crime of kidnapping; someone who has been convicted of the crime of weapons possession; for example, possession of a sawed-off shotgun. Another example would be alien smuggling. This amendment would make ineligible any alien who has been convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors.

Ironically, this provision, once this amendment is accepted, will bring this bill in the Senate up to par, basically, with the 1986 law which recognized that problem and excluded any alien that had been convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors. That is the basis upon which this amendment is offered.

I might also add, of course, those who have had an opportunity to have their cases adjudicated, to have their day in court, but simply thumb their nose at the law and have gone underground, those individuals who have already had a bite at the apple, have already had their day in court and lost and simply gone underground and defied their deportation order, they also would be excluded from the legalization benefits contained in the bill, subject to some of the exceptions and the extreme hardship provisions that Senator Graham and others have discussed.

I very much appreciate my colleagues, including Senator Kennedy, the manager of the bill on the minority side, indicating their positive response to this amendment. While there is no formal agreement, it is the sense that this amendment is likely to be accepted by overwhelming numbers.

It just goes to show if we continue to work together, talk to each other and try to work our way through our differences, we can make progress on the bill and actually improve it over the bill as proposed.

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, through the Chair, I inquire, isn't it a fact over the last few weeks on behalf of the Republican leadership, the Senator has tried to collect all of the potential pool of amendments and consolidate those amendments down into a reasonable number in a good-faith effort to try to move this process forward? We shared that list with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Does the Senator believe that demonstrates the good faith we have tried to demonstrate from the very start?

Mr. KYL. I thank the Senator from Texas.

Yes, we have tried to do that.

I see the distinguished minority leader is here, and I suggest the best way to get this bill quickly considered and finished is to lay down as many of the amendments as Members have ready and then have the minority and majority side work together to figure out the proper order of those amendments, to try to enter into time agreements. If we are able to do that, I don't have any doubt that working in good faith we can complete the work of this Senate before the Memorial Day recess on this important piece of legislation.

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