Mr. Speaker, our Nation depends on immigrants' labor, and I hope we can create an immigration system as dependable as they are.

Nothing happens here in this building, in the House of Representatives, if there's no demand from outside the Capitol.

I will argue until my last breath for a pathway to citizenship that is quick and efficient because I want to end this chapter. I want to end it...But let me say, conversely, I am as committed as any Republican to ending illegal immigration as we know it...They want to end it. So do I.

I mean, the greatest laugh I always get is, if darkness, right, just overwhelms the Earth one day and Obama had the key to light, he says, "I have a bill that will bring sunlight," they'd rather live in darkness than have him bring the light.

So given that reality, let us not cast that all of the problems and ills of our society are somehow upon the immigrants who have come to this country.

The next step has to be the necessary step. It's always to put the immigrant community and the civil rights movement ahead of partisan politics.

The politics, policies, the President [Barack Obama] and the American people are all pointing in the right direction to fix our immigration system and pass legislation this year.