Senator Harry Reid: Immigration Vote A Defeat For The American People, A Victory For Status Quo

June 28, 2007 -- Washington, DC — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada made the following statement today after the Senate failed to move forward on the immigration bill.

“The defeat of immigration reform is a profound disappointment. This vote rejects tougher border security, and now our border patrol agents will continue to do their jobs shorthanded. Today’s vote does nothing to solve our problem of 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows. And this vote also ignores the very real economic needs of farmers and small business owners. The current system is broken, but there were not enough Senators willing to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work to fix it.”

“When immigration reform came up for a vote two weeks ago, an overwhelming majority of Democrats supported President Bush’s bill – but only 7 Republicans joined us. I said then that the fate of the bill would rest on the willingness of Republicans to move forward with us to solve this pressing national problem. Today, unfortunately, we learned that there just wasn’t enough Republican support for the President’s approach.”

“The President worked hard, and so did many Senators. But the big winner today was obstruction. The big winner today was inaction. The big winner today was a status quo that amounts to silent amnesty.”

Source: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid