After Putting It under the Microscope, the Immigration Bill Was Hard to Support (Sen. Pete Domenici)

This was really a tough situation, because we know we’ve got a problem to solve. A lot of hard work was put into drafting this bill. But the longer we worked on it, the more I began to question whether we had legislation that we truly understood and that could actually be enforced. It became more and more complex and in need of change the longer we worked on it. So I generally would conclude that we should not again, try a bill that’s this difficult unless we let it go through the normal committee channels.

Some of the most important provisions that I was initially optimistic about, like the guest worker program, were amended to the point that they could no longer accomplish what we intended. And once the process was used to limit core amendments that might have made the bill workable, I knew I couldn’t support it.

Now somebody’s got to take the lead and get, in my opinion, a slimmed down, simple bill that would take care of the border enforcement and get the $4.4 billion appropriated forthwith. We can’t wait to secure our borders, and that’s where we must now focus our efforts.