Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I rise to speak on the immigration bill, and I will do so, particularly on the amendment process my friend and colleague from Iowa has discussed, but first let me say a few words about two of the President's nominees whose confirmations we will address later today or within the next day or so.

NOMINATIONS

Penny Pritzker will truly be a great Secretary of Commerce, in my view. She has experience and acumen and ability that will serve her well in building strong relationships in the Federal Government, but also strong partnerships with the business community in promoting job creation and fostering sustained economic growth. She has been a strong leader not only in her own business, but in her community, and I look forward to working with her as the Chair of the Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion in the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation where I serve.

Mayor Anthony Foxx, if he becomes Secretary of Transportation, likewise has a record of accomplishment as a local official, as a strong mayor, and I look forward to working with him on investment in high-speed rail, distracted and drunk driving, air safety, rail safety, and all of the issues that are so important to the infrastructure of our country and to the transportation issues that will help promote jobs and increase economic progress.

I will be submitting statements for the Record at greater length on these two nominees who I believe embody the principle of excellence and dedication in public service.

Madam President, we are reaching a fateful and extremely important moment in the history of our country when we have the great opportunity, the exciting and energizing prospect, of providing a path to earned citizenship for 11 million of our fellow residents. They live alongside us, in our neighborhoods and communities, and they serve on community boards and all kinds of activities where they are indistinguishable from citizens except for the fact they are not citizens. There are 11 million people living in the shadows, including young people brought to this country when they were infants or as children, who know only English as a language, whose home is here, and who know only this country as their home, whose friends and life are here, their schools, and even the military many of them serve. The DREAMers are among those 11 million, and their parents and loved ones who came with them to this country.

We have this historic opportunity to provide them with a path to earned citizenship. To earn citizenship they are paying back taxes and penalties, learning English, if they do not know it already, and meeting the other strong standards and criteria this act provides. Along with enhanced border security and a crackdown on illegal employment, this act provides better skilled people more opportunities to come to this country in a program I have helped to lead on, as well as lower skilled workers who want to fulfill the American dream.

This legislation is about the American dream, and it culminates a careful and cautious and deliberate process led by Chairman Leahy in the Judiciary Committee, where abundant opportunity was afforded to offer amendments and have them pass. In fact, a number of my amendments adopted in the Judiciary Committee strengthen due process, fight human trafficking, afford opportunities for people to seek release from solitary confinement, and protect American workers, and standards and compensation for American workers, against unfair and illegal competition from other businesses and other workers based on substandard conditions and exploitation of workers here.

Those kinds of amendments have improved on the very important work done by the Group of 8. I join in thanking them, the Group of 8, those eight Senators who labored so long and helped to provide such a great model for us to move forward and improve further.

I believe this legislation can be improved. Two amendments I have offered would help improve it. The little DREAMers, who are too young to qualify right now for the expedited path to citizenship that is provided the DREAMers under S. 744, would be helped by an amendment I have drafted, with support from the great champion of the DREAM Act, Senator Durbin, who deserves so much credit for spearheading this effort over so many years. I have done this at the State level before coming here as a Senator, when I was attorney general, but Senator Durbin has championed their cause year after year, Congress after Congress, and so I have joined him in supporting an amendment to this bill that would help those littlest of DREAMers, too young now to qualify for that expedited citizenship, and to do so if they are in school or otherwise satisfy the criteria the amendment would provide.

I also thank Senator Murkowski for cosponsoring this very bipartisan measure with me so that anyone left out of the DREAM Act because they are too young would be covered.

A second amendment I believe would improve this bill would provide more whistleblower protections for H-2B visa workers. They come to this country to work here and they are dependent on their employers to remain here. So, naturally, if they are exploited, if illegal working conditions subject them to hazards, and if they provide the basis for unfair competition because they are paid less than the minimum wage, they are fearful of retaliation when they make complaints because their employer can discharge them and they are then automatically deported. So this whistleblower amendment would provide them with protection. This is essential to making possible their redress and remedy when they are victims of illegal violations.

Both those amendments would improve this law. But I recognize this bill is a huge and historic step forward. It is imperfect, but I will not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. I will continue to fight for these amendments, these improvements in this law--enabling the little DREAMers to have those same opportunities as the DREAMers who have been brought to this country and now are here and can contribute so much to our Nation; and I will continue to fight for whistleblower protections for all workers who may be exploited if they are brought here under visa because whistleblowers deserve that protection. They are protecting not just themselves when they complain, but all workers. But I will vote for this measure even if there are no more amendments because I believe this measure fulfills the American dream of opening this country--a Nation of immigrants--to others who have the American dream and see this country as a beacon of hope and opportunity.

Anyone who doubts it should do what I do regularly. Whenever I have the opportunity on a Friday in Connecticut, I go to our Federal courthouse and attend the naturalization ceremonies. People come there with tears in their eyes, accompanied by their families, neighbors, and loved ones to celebrate one of the biggest moments in their lives--becoming a citizen of the United States of America. Many of them come after years of struggle to achieve that status--physical struggle to reach our shores, emotional separation from their families abroad, and professional hard work embodying the best about America. I thank them for becoming U.S. citizens. I thank them for not taking for granted what all too many of us do--the great privilege and right of being a citizen of the United States.

Let us seize this moment as a Nation of immigrants to open our doors once again, open our hearts to those 11 million people who want simply a path to earned citizenship--a historic and rare moment in our history where the American people have come together in a deep and enduring consensus that now is the time to strengthen border security, as the amendment we are considering would do, to crack down on illegal hiring, as this bill would do, and to make possible for millions of Americans what my father did, what others did, which is to become citizens of the greatest country in the history of the world.

We owe it to ourselves, as well as to our children, to give them that opportunity, and we owe our Nation the opportunity to benefit from their strengths and talents and energy and, yes, their dedication to the country that has given them this historic opportunity.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

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