Immigration Reform

Floor Speech

Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, we say that America is a nation of immigrants, and, of course, that is true. There is no other country in the world for which immigration is so central to its history and its identity. Let's take a moment to reflect on what that really means.

Here is a photo. I am afraid it is not a very good quality. I took it myself. It is a photo that I took at a naturalization ceremony held for Active Duty servicemembers in Fort Carson, CO. The 13 soldiers and spouses who became U.S. citizens on that day represented 11 different countries of origin even though they are wearing our uniform.

They came from all over the world: Colombia, Haiti, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, China, the Philippines, South Korea, Togo, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. They all came for this pursuit of the American dream, and they all came to serve this country. They are going to be the people who help us determine our future.

The same is true with the refugees fleeing persecution from around the world. The parents seeking opportunity for their children and those stepping forward to serve and sacrifice for our shared values have made this country the America we love. But our existing immigration policies do not reflect this history or the values that shaped it. Instead, it is a mess of unintended consequences that hurts our businesses, rips families apart, and keeps us at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world.

Tomorrow marks 365 days--1 year--since the Senate acted to fix these problems and passed bipartisan immigration reform. Yet here we are still waiting for the House of Representatives to do the same. The House's inaction is costing our Nation. It has cost us, among other things, $13.4 billion in lost revenue in this last year alone. With each additional day that passes, we lose another $37 million of revenue.

What is most frustrating about this to me is that we agree--on both sides of the aisle--that our current immigration system is broken. We agree that our immigration system is critical for our economy and for our country.

In June of last year we passed a bill in this Chamber with strong bipartisan support. It won the support of a broad coalition of Republicans and Democrats. It also has the support of countless organizations, from migrant workers to farmers and ranchers, from law enforcement agencies to the faith community, Latino leaders across this country, and the Chamber of Commerce to labor unions.

Often I tell those who despair about the lack of leadership in Congress that there is a model we can learn from, and it is the bipartisan work that was done on this bill. I cannot say enough about the Republican Members of the Gang of 8 who negotiated a bill over seven or eight months, knowing what the base of their party might say about the fact that they were in that room but still willing to do it because it was right to do for their country and it was right to do for their party--in that order.

In this job I have had the opportunity to meet with a diverse cross section of Coloradans throughout the State, each struggling beneath the weight of a broken immigration system. I have spoken with peach growers on the Western Slope, vegetable growers in Brighton, and melon farmers in the San Luis Valley--farmers such as Philip Davis from Mesa Winds Farm and Winery in Western Colorado who cannot get the seasonal workers he needs. He will tell you how hard he and his family have had to work to fill these gaps, and how every single day they have to keep fighting to prevent their 36-acre farm from closing.

A legal, reliable, competent workforce for our Nation's farms and ranches is essential for Colorado's $40 billion agricultural industry, and it is essential for our agricultural industry across the country. Maybe that is the reason why both the United Farm Workers union and the growers all across the United States of America endorsed this bill.

I have heard from Colorado's high-tech companies such as Full Contact, a tech startup in Boulder, CO, that acquired a company overseas. They have been unable to hire the talented engineers they need to grow their businesses and add jobs.

I have also heard from Colorado's dedicated teachers and administrators who work tirelessly to teach the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators--teachers such as Mary Edwin from Colorado Springs. Mary, a graduate of Johns Hopkins with a master's degree in education, will likely be forced to return home to Nigeria, leaving behind the children she works with at Turman Elementary School, all on account of our broken, outdated visa system.

This year on April 7, approximately 6 months before the 2015 fiscal year even begins, the government announced it had already reached its statutory cap on H-1B petitions for H-1B visas. It has also reached its exemption for 20,000 advanced-degree holders. These are exactly the type of workers our State and the national economy require.

I will paint a picture of what our country would look like if the Senate's immigration bill were actually enacted. First, millions of people who came to this country for a better life, including young people whose parents brought them here as children, would have the opportunity to enter a tough but fair pathway to citizenship. With a path in place, we would see higher wages, greater consumption of goods and increased revenue. It would reduce our debt by nearly $1 trillion--even in Washington that is real money--over 20 years, and increase our economic growth by roughly 5.4 percent over that period of time.

Next, our bill would put in place an efficient and flexible visa system that would enable us to compete in a changing 21st century global economy. Talented entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world would have the opportunity to stay here in order to create jobs and fuel our economy. High-skilled workers in math and science, and lower-skilled workers in industries such as hospitality and tourism would come into the country to fill jobs where there are no available U.S. workers.

We would provide stability for our agricultural industry with a new streamlined program for agricultural workers--one that is more usable for employers and protects our workers.

Our borders would be more secure. There is one border security bill that has passed the Congress, and that is the bill passed by the Senate. It allows for new fencing, doubling the number of border agents, and increased spending on new technology. We would have full situational awareness on the border in order to allow us to intercept threats rapidly and successfully. And with the mandatory employment verification system and more effective entry-exit system, we would prevent future waves of illegal immigration.

A huge number of people who are here entered the country legally; we just don't know where they are. We ought to have a system that tells us that. These are all changes that our Nation urgently needs.

In the time since the Senate passed the bill, we heard a litany of reasons why it can't pass the House. They say the Senate bill doesn't have support in the House. If Speaker Boehner put the bill on the floor tomorrow, it would pass. They say the Senate bill is too long, too big, too comprehensive. I, for one, am willing to consider looking at this bill in smaller pieces as long as all the problems with the system are addressed. But the House has not produced--never mind voted--on a single bill, much less a series of smaller bills.

They say they want more border security, but what do they know about the border that our Republican colleagues from Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake, don't know? What do they know about the border that Senator Flake and Senator McCain don't know? We have 21,000 border agents, and we are putting another 21,000 on the border if this bill were passed. We spend more money on the border than we do on all other Federal law enforcement combined, but they say there is not enough border security--not that they passed a border security bill. The only folks who have passed a border security bill are right here in the Senate. We should ask them how many more agents they need, and how many more billions of dollars we should spend.

If the House wants to secure the border first, which the Senate bill does, let's see their legislation. We are waiting. I, for one, would like to see them think about customs agents and trade instead of adding more billions of dollars at the border.

The most common excuse we have heard is that the House has not had time to pass a bill. The House was only scheduled to work 9 days last September. Ultimately, they came back for a few extra days to shut the government down.

In the year since the Senate passed the bill, the House has found the time to vote 17 times to repeal, delay or dismantle the health care bill--54 times in total in the last 4 years. They voted to name 20 post offices and an assortment of 20 other government buildings. They have held five separate House committee hearings. They produced three different public reports and passed one resolution on the topic of Benghazi--a topic that has never come up in most of our town hall meetings.

What I hear in Colorado over and over is we have to stop excuses, stop posturing, and pass a bill--a good bipartisan bill, and that is what the House of Representatives ought to be doing now. Fixing our broken immigration system is long overdue, and I believe that the bipartisan solution crafted in our Senate bill will fix it just fine. It is time for the House to act.

With that, I yield the floor, and I thank my colleague, again, for his patience and kindness in allowing me to go first.

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