WASHINGTON – After a failed cloture vote to end debate and proceed to a final vote on the immigration bill, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who voted in favor of cloture, today took to the Senate floor to express his disappointment with the bill’s direction and eventual collapse.

            “The Senate had a historic opportunity to move forward today with comprehensive immigration reform that truly secured our borders, that realized the economic realities of our time, and allowed people the opportunity to come out of the shadows into the light and to earn, to earn their legalization in this country,” said Menendez. “Unfortunately, the Senate decided to maintain the status quo, a status quo of broken borders, a status quo that does not meet our economic challenges, and a status quo that permits exploitation and human trafficking to take place.”

Bush Administration

            Menendez criticized the Bush administration for its lack of success in getting Senate Republicans behind the comprehensive immigration reform legislation. 

            “Ultimately, in my mind, this came down to a President and a party that once again were there for the photo ops and the press conferences, but weren’t willing to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work to improve this bill and help it move forward for our nation,” said Menendez. “The same president that used large amounts of political capital misleading our country into a disastrous war in Iraq, but little political capital on truly securing our nation’s security through tough, yet practical comprehensive immigration reform. A president that used political capital on tax cuts for the wealthiest in our country, but not on truly meeting our nation’s economic needs through fair comprehensive immigration reform. And it’s either a president that has no political capital or one who just wasn’t willing to use it.”

            Looking to the Future

           Despite the bill’s failures, Menendez expressed optimism for future reform.

            “The last phrase of Emma Lazarus’ poem emblazed on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, says ‘I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’ Maybe today that lamp is somewhat dimmer but it will shine again.  The course of history is unalterable, the human spirit cannot be shackled forever, the drum beat for security, economic vitality, and most importantly justice will only grow stronger.

            “To those who often refer to ‘those people’ in this debate, let me say on behalf of ‘those people’ that we have seen the light and we will not be thrust back into the darkness.”

# # #

 

The full text of Sen. Menendez’s remarks as prepared for delivery:

 

The Honorable Robert Menendez

Comments on Failure of Cloture Vote on S. 1639

June 28, 2007

 

Mr. President, from my home state of New Jersey and that part of the state in which I live, we can almost touch Lady Liberty.  She is that close to us from a state park called Liberty State Park, an area that I have the privilege of uniquely representing in the House of Representatives for 13 years and an area that I still obviously represent as the junior Senator from New Jersey.  It is an area that I have very fond memories of because of the power, the power of what it means.

 

From that same park we can cross a bridge and get to Ellis Island, a place in which millions came to America to start a journey, a journey that contributed enormously to its great promise and enormously to the great country that it is today.

 

So I come to the floor to discuss the recent cloture vote on immigration with that context in mind.  The Senate had a historic opportunity to move forward today with comprehensive immigration reform that truly secured our borders, that realized the economic realities of our time, and allowed people the opportunity to come out of the shadows into the light and to earn, to earn their legalization in this country.

 

Unfortunately, the Senate decided to maintain the status quo, a status quo of broken borders, a status quo that does not meet our economic challenges, and a status quo that permits exploitation and human trafficking to take place.

 

As someone who was a part of the early negotiations back in March of this year on the question of immigration reform, I maintained that the administration had leaped away from the bipartisan bill of last year that received 23 Republican and 39 Democratic votes to a much more conservative, a much more impractical, and a much more partisan proposal this year.

 

So I was unable to join several of my colleagues in what has become known as the “Grand Bargain” that was announced on May 17^th.

 

And I want to say I acknowledge and appreciate several of those who advocated because we were only on the floor on immigration reform, a truly critical issue for this country, as a result of their leadership.  My colleagues such as Senators Kennedy, Salazar, and Graham who truly believe in that opportunity and at the same time, because of the leadership of the Majority Leader who is willing to tackle one of the most contentious issues.

 

It has been contentious throughout the history of our country and I have talked before on the floor of the Senate about the language used in those past debates.

 

Ben Franklin referred to no longer being able to accept those who were coming to our shores in negative terms.  He was then talking about the Germans.

The former Governor of Massachusetts in the early 1900’s said that they were sending the most illiterate of their people to our shores.  He was talking then about the Irish.

In 1925, in an official report of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, they said that Mexicans are suitable for agricultural work “due to their crouching and bending habits ..... , while the white is physically unable to adapt himself to them.”

We also had the Chinese exclusionary provisions.  So while this has always been a welcoming country, the debate has not been as welcoming.

 

On that day when the Grand Bargain was announced, I came to this esteemed Chamber to express my opposition to the deal that was announced because I believed that it was deficient in several regards and to say that I would work to improve it.  Looking back on that statement in light of today’s vote, it is strikingly clairvoyant to me, to say the least.

 

I said on that day that we must come together not as Democrats and Republicans, or liberals and conservatives, but as statesmen and, in doing so, honor the traditions of the Senate as a body that values reasoning, honest debate, and compromise over sound bites, and talking points, but especially over the politics of fear.

 

Unfortunately, today the voices that appealed to that fear and lowest common denominator won out.  Only 12 Republican colleagues were willing to stand up and vote to invoke cloture, almost half of those that voted for last year’s bipartisan immigration bill.

 

Only 12 Republican colleagues willing to move forward at least on the essence of debates, amendments, and to a final vote.  About half of those who voted last year for immigration reform.

 

Personally, I still had serious concerns about the direction of the bill, but I voted to keep it alive because I wanted to work to make it better and because I believe in comprehensive immigration reform as something that is in the national interest and national security of the United States.  And because I believe America’s promise and security should not have been snuffed out by a single vote.

 

I stated on that day in May that I could not sign on to the agreement because it tore families apart, and it says to many that they are only good enough to work here and give their human capital and sweat, but not good enough to stay.

 

But instead of responding to earnest concerns from those of us willing to be supportive of comprehensive immigration reform, the appeal was constantly made to the right of the spectrum, to those who actually achieved some of the things they wanted in the bill, but who obviously never intended to vote for comprehensive immigration reform.  Not even to vote for it to move forward.

 

As it moved to the right, it got less and less support from the right.

Unfortunately, instead of working with those of us that were willing to not only work to improve this bill, but also put our votes where our mouths were, they kept giving in to demand after demand from conservative Republicans, and in turn this bill moved further and further to the right.

 

In fact, at least two members who were at the press conference on May 17^th and got things included in this bill, voted against keeping this process moving forward by voting against cloture today.

 

Ultimately, in my mind, this came down to a President and a party that once again were there for the photo ops and the press conferences, but weren’t willing to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work to improve this bill and help it move forward for our nation.

 

A Republican party that was not about progress, but about partisanship.

 

A Republican party that was not about solving our nation’s problems, but seeking political gain by stopping progress of any sort in this Senate.

 

The same president that used large amounts of political capital misleading our country into a disastrous war in Iraq, but little political capital on truly securing our nation’s security through tough, yet practical comprehensive immigration reform.

 

A president that used political capital on tax cuts for the wealthiest in our country, but not on truly meeting our nation’s economic needs through fair comprehensive immigration reform.

 

And it’s either a president that has no political capital or one who just wasn’t willing to use it.

 

Finally Mr. President, throughout my life and most recently on the Senate floor, I have heard the phrase “those people.” 

 

“Those people.”

 

Those who use that phrase are the voices of division and discrimination.  They are the xenophobes that exist today and have existed at different times in our nation’s history, but whose voices have ultimately been overcome to give way to the greatest successful experiment in the history of mankind:  The Unites States of America that we know today.

 

The last phrase of Emma Lazarus’ poem emblazed on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, says “I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

Maybe today that lamp is somewhat dimmer but it will shine again.  The course of history is unalterable, the human spirit cannot be shackled forever, the drum beat for security, economic vitality, and most importantly justice will only grow stronger.

To those who often refer to “those people” in this debate, let me say on behalf of “those people” that we have seen the light and we will not be thrust back into the darkness.