The immigration reform bill is again before the U.S. Senate today as more amendments are being considered. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says as long as the legislation contains language that enables millions of illegal immigrants to immediately become legal, he will -not- support it.
Grassley says, "When you allow people to break the law and get away with it and don’t penalize, that’s amnesty. With amnesty in it, I can’t vote for it, even if a majority of the bill are a lot of good things that need to be done for immigration." Grassley says the bill contains a number of elements he considers positive, including beefed up border patrols, the fence project, employee verification using Social Security numbers and higher penalties for people who hire illegal immigrants.
Grassley says: "All of those are good things I can support in the legislation, including some things that would even enhance the numbers for legal immigration coming into the country. I think with four-percent unemployment, we do need some workers, particularly skilled workers, and then in agriculture in some parts of the country, maybe some workers that aren’t so skilled." Even with all of the things Grassley says are good in the bill, he says they don’t overcome his objection to amnesty.