Thread: Transcripts: Dobbs and Kyl

DOBBS: One of the key lawmakers in the compromise over comprehensive immigration that was announced today is Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona. Senator Kyl, one of the senators announcing the deal at a Capitol Hill news conference today. Let's hear what some of those senators had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PA: Immigration has become a third rail in American politics.

SEN. KEN SALAZAR, (D) CO: We have had broken borders in this country for 20 years.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY, (D) MA: Year after year, we have had broken borders.

SEN. JOHNNY ISAKSON, (R) GA: We have got to fix our broken border.

SEN. MEL MARTINEZ, (R) FL: Some will call this amnesty.

SPECTER: It is not amnesty.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) AZ: We are not going to repeat the 1986 amnesty.

SEN. JON KYL, (R) AZ: No one gets 100 percent of what they want.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D) CA: The ag jobs bill is part of this bill.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SC: Ag jobs, we hope, to be in.

FEINSTEIN: Is in.

GRAHAM: Is in. OK.

MARTINEZ: It's a very, very complicated piece of legislation.

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS, (R) GA: We still have some language to work out on ag jobs.

MCCAIN: But this is what the legislative process is all about.

ISAKSON: The pressure is on us.

KYL: It is not perfect.

GRAHAM: This is what my ninth grade teacher told me government was all about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOBBS: And joining us now from Capitol Hill is Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona. Senator, good to have you here.

KYL: Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: As I watched you all announcing that compromise, I and my colleagues could not help but be struck by a very similar press conference a year ago when a compromise had been reached on comprehensive immigration reform. How does this differ if your judgment from that one?

KYL: Well, first of all, I'm supporting this one. And I didn't support that one. It was far too liberal. It didn't do the job in my opinion. And I think because of the influence that I and other conservatives brought to the table this time, the bill is far more conservative, more restrictive than the bill that passed last year.

For example, who would have thought that we could get a bill that would end chain migration forever? Meaning, if you haven't applied to come into this country as a family member, after May of 2005 you cannot come into this country.

And we have got that in the bill. So there are a variety of thing that is are in this bill that were not in the bill last year.

DOBBS: And at this point, the Senate majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, says he wants a vet on this thing. He wants to a vote to end debate Monday. He wants to move ahead and have it out of the way next week. Do you find that somewhat unseemly in the speediness of the process?

KYL: It's a very short timeframe, you are right. Now the vote on Monday is simply onto proceed on to the legislation. But you are right. It's a very short time frame for a very complex bill. It may be that we don't finish it by the end of the week and then we would have to continue after the Memorial Day recess.

DOBBS: Troubling, also, Congressman Duncan Hunter. He pushed through his bill on the border fence. Today, after just meeting with the president, he said this legislation cuts his bill, the fencing provided for by his legislation, his law, that he got enacted last year, cuts it in half right off the bat.

We moved to what Secretary Michael Chertoff calls virtual border security and, you know, unfortunately the issues of border security and illegal immigration as you know are not virtual. They're very real.

KYL: Yeah. Lou, could I shark (ph) the record here?

DOBBS: Sure.

KYL: Duncan Hunter is one of my very best friends. He is a great patriot and American and I helped him get through his very first border fence in the San Diego area a decade ago.

DOBBS: Smugglers' gulch.

KYL: That's right. this bill does not change his bill one iota. All it says is that until more than half of the 700 miles called for in his bill is built, nothing can happen here in the United States with the illegal immigrants are here. In other words, that's part of the trigger. But it doesn't stop with the 370 miles of fencing that have to be built. That is just the first step.

DOBBS: Well, let's -- because you and I have discussed this. Let's just go because we're all going to have time to read this. Well, we're not going to have time probably many of us to read it but I guarantee you I'm going to read it. I'll make that pledge to you. I will read every page of this. But the issue has been all along that we cannot as I have said here, you cannot substantively reform immigration law in this country unless you can control immigration. You can't control immigration if we don't have control of our borders and ports.

Is it - do you believe that this legislation after compromise -- let's assume it passes the Senate, moves to the House and passed, do you believe that border security will be established?

KYL: It will not yet be established but established as much as 18 months more of activity can establish it. Like, for example, hiring 18,000 Border Patrol agents, building the fencing, doing all of the other things the bill calls for. I don't want to ever stop. I don't want to ever say, Lou, once we get to 20,000 Border Patrol agents, then we are all done. Until we have secured the border I am not done.

DOBBS: Well, you are definitely not done in moving ahead with this legislation. You have said -- well, let's put it this way. This process moving ahead, many of the senators will not even have a chance, my guess is, or their staffs to read the legislation if Senator Reid has his way. Where are we in the process? Let's take it -- let's put it in a baseball metaphor, nine innings. Where are we in this game?

KYL: Well, you can say in one way, we're in the second inning because the bill has not even quite been written yet.

The text will be given to everybody tomorrow. We'll have over the weekend and Monday to take a look at it. Then Tuesday, we'll actually begin debating the bill on the floor of the Senate. We can debate it and amend it all next week. The leader would like to finish it at the end of next week but it may well be that senators are not done with it. So let's say that it finally passes the Senate. Then the House has to take something up. They could either take up our bill or their own bill. Let's assume the House passes a bill. Then the two body haves to decide, are they going to take each other's bill up or are they going to go to a conference committee?

If the conference committee agrees on a product, they go back to the two houses. If both houses pass that, finally it goes to the president.

So there's going to be a long time for everybody to become totally familiar with this. To your point that a week is very short in the Senate, you are absolutely right. But there will be plenty of opportunity for everybody to see what it's all about and to get their input and citizens need to do that.

DOBBS: And before the citizens, I think most of us citizens would sure appreciate it if our senators and congressmen did their reading before ever making a vote on it.

KYL: Absolutely.

DOBBS: We'll pass along the results of our poll tonight which goes to that issue. Senator Jon Kyl, one of the -- one of the folks I know who does read legislation. As well as write it. Good to have you here. Senator Jon Kyl.

KYL: Thank you very much, Lou.

I used to think Kyl was almost a 'good guy'.

He has sold us out - making secret deals with Fatboy and the 'Decider' is nothing to be proud of. Shame, shame, shame on you Mr. Kyl. You have taken us down the failed path just as in 1986 - only this time, the stakes for the country are so much greater.

I hope the good people of Arizona see to it that Kyl is promptly unelected at the next available election (even better, if you all can muster the effort to recall him from office, well, that would be appropriate even more)