NOTICIAS

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued the following statement today upon conclusion of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s mark-up of S. 744, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act”:

“We have a broken immigration system that threatens America’s sovereignty, security and economy. While there is strong disagreement on how to fix this, there is broad consensus that we can no longer leave the status quo of de facto amnesty in place.

“I appreciate the work of the Senate Judiciary Committee in taking the bill my colleagues and I introduced in April as a starting point for debate and making improvements to it over the past few weeks. Through an extensive, open and transparent process, they have made real improvements to the bill.

“The amended bill that heads to the Senate floor would make significant progress to secure our borders, make E-Verify mandatory for the first time in American history, effectively crack down on immigrants who overstay visas, and modernize the legal immigration system to meet America’s 21st century economic needs for both highly skilled talent and guest workers to fill labor shortages.

“However, the reality is that work still remains to be done. Immigration reform will not become law unless we can earn the confidence of the American people that we are solving our immigration problems once and for all. As evidenced by the statements of many of my colleagues who voted against the bill in committee today, the vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum are prepared to give millions of people living here today illegally the opportunity to earn legal status and, potentially, permanent residence and citizenship – but only if they pay fines, pass background checks, don’t receive federal benefits and wait in line behind everybody who followed the rules. And only if we secure the border and take steps that ensure that we will never again have another wave of illegal immigration.

“We have an historic opportunity to end today’s de facto amnesty and modernize our immigration system to meet our 21st century needs. I remain optimistic that the Senate, by improving the bill through an open and deliberative floor debate, will seize this opportunity.”