Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007

Floor Speech

COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - June 06, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. CORNYN. I will, Mr. President.

Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the Senator about a hypothetical that is not a hypothetical. It is a real case that has come through my office in Chicago. I ask the Senator from Texas if he would consider the facts in this case and tell me how his amendment would apply to the case.

In a family in Chicago, the father is a citizen of the United States and the four children that he and his wife have are all citizens of the United States. The mother is undocumented. The mother came into the United States illegally. She was married, raised a family--and her grandmother died in Mexico. She went back over the border and, when she tried to reenter the United States, produced identification that was false. They caught her. They deported her back to Mexico, but she made it back to the United States. She is now with her family in Chicago.

It is a case that has had a lot of publicity because she was deported 2 days before Mother's Day. She has been allowed to return to the United States on a humanitarian waiver to be with her family.

I would like to ask the Senator from Texas, how would you treat her under your amendment? What would her status be? Would she be characterized as an aggravated felon? Could she, under any circumstances, be given any opportunity to become legal under your amendment?

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I will be glad to try to answer the question. Similar to a lot of hypotheticals, it has a lot of twists and turns. Let me give it a try.

Under this amendment, people who entered the country illegally and who are guilty of illegal entry, or who come in legally and overstay, would not be rendered ineligible, not under the Cornyn amendment. Those who are repeat offenders--in other words, people who have entered illegally, then exited the country and reentered; exited, reentered--are guilty of a more serious offense because they are multiple offenders.

I am not sure, under the hypothetical the Senator asked, whether this individual would be barred. But people who are serial offenders and violators of our immigration laws would be barred under this amendment.

Mr. DURBIN. So if I might ask the Senator from Texas: The Senator from Texas would suggest, then, that this mother of four citizens, married to a citizen of the United States, who has lived here for more than 10 years, should be deported?

Mr. CORNYN. What my amendment would do would not order her deported. What it would do is say she is ineligible for a Z visa.

Mr. DURBIN. I ask the Senator from Texas--let's get down to the reality of the situation. As far as this family is concerned, where the mother has gone through the experience I described, you would say that family has to either break up or leave?

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I disagree with the characterization of the Senator from Illinois. As this hypothetical individual is married to a U.S. citizen, she could get a waiver on that ground because she is married to a U.S. citizen. She would not, under existing law--she could get a waiver and would not be deported necessarily.

Mr. DURBIN. If I might ask one last question, is that a provision in your amendment? Or is that in the underlying bill?

Mr. CORNYN. In response to the question, that is a provision of current law that my amendment does not touch.

Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator from Texas.

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