Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise to speak against the amendment offered by my friend and colleague, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

What does this amendment do? It is very simple. It says that the 11 million people living in the shadows cannot even get RPI status, the provisional status by which they can work and travel, until--until--the Secretary of Homeland Security says the border is fully secure.

We all know that will take years and years and years, and that is why an amendment very similar to this came up in the Judiciary Committee and was defeated 12 to 6, with two Republicans joining the Democrats in voting against it, Mr. Flake and Mr. Graham, who were part of our so-called Gang of 8.

The problem with the amendment is very simple: What do we do for 5, 6 years until the border is fully secure? It is going to take a while to do it. We need to bring equipment there. We need to build fences there. We need to do all of the kinds of things that are in our bill. We provide $6.5 billion to build $1 billion worth of border fence, to deploy sensors, fixed towers, radar, drones that will cover the entire border.

So what are we telling those 11 million? If you hide successfully from the police, then maybe 5 years from now you can stay here and get the right to work and the right to travel. This clearly would undo the entire theme and structure of the immigration bill that has such bipartisan support that is before us today.

Again, let me repeat, as I understand it, it is opposed by all the Members of the Gang of 8--the four Democrats and the four Republicans--for the very reason it will take years and years until the border is secure. To wait that long, we will have millions more come across the borders illegally, the number of illegal immigrants in America will increase, and we may never get to real immigration reform that is needed--so desperately needed--by the country.

I strongly urge that this amendment be defeated. The American people made it resoundingly clear they want us to move forward with immigration reform in a careful, balanced, and bipartisan way. They want us to secure the border, and they want us to be reasonable about the 11 million who are here and about future immigration so we can grow the American economy. That is what our bill does.

This proposal would undo much of that without proposing any real solutions as to what we do before that. It has bipartisan opposition, and I strongly urge that it be defeated.

I yield the rest of my time to the chairman of our Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy.

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