For Immediate Release:
May 17, 2007
Craig Lauds Compromise Immigration Proposal

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Idaho Senator Larry Craig offered the following comments on the announced compromise on immigration reform:\

"The American people have rightly demanded that Congress solve the national problem of immigration, and the bill announced today is a serious effort to do just that. It has all three legs of the immigration reform stool - increasing border security, reforming our guest worker programs, and addressing the workers already in our country.

"While there is no way to please everyone on an issue as complex and divisive as this one, the legislation the Senate will be debating next week has many provisions that will promote our economy, protect the security of our country and its citizens, and deal fairly with both citizens and non-citizens alike. I believe this bill will serve the interests and needs of Idaho and the nation well."

For the past several years, Craig has promoted extensive changes to the agricultural guest worker program and border security. S. 340, the most recent iteration of AgJOBS, is sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and 28 other Senators. It has been incorporated as part of this compromise on immigration reform. It was also included in the immigration reform bill that passed the Senate last year.

For the past several years, he has also worked closely with Senator Robert Byrd, D-W.V., on border security. Their efforts have added thousands of border patrol agents, improved detention facilities and enforcement efforts, and added technological security efforts to our borders.

Debate on the immigration compromise proposal is expected to begin in the U.S. Senate on Monday, May 21.
[30]

http://craig.senate.gov/releases/pr051707c.cfm