By Alan Silverleib, CNN Congressional Producer
Washington (CNN) - Partisan tempers flared at a Senate immigration hearing on Monday as top Democrats accused opponents of comprehensive reform legislation of using last week's Boston Marathon bombings to slow or even derail the bill.
"Last week, opponents of comprehensive immigration reform began to exploit the Boston marathon bombing," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.
"I urge restraint in that regard. ... Let no one be so cruel as to try to use the heinous attacks of these two young men last week to derail the dreams and futures of millions of hard-working people," Leahy added.
He said the bill crafted by the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" would "serve to strengthen our national security by allowing us to focus our border security and enforcement efforts against those who would do us harm."
"A nation as strong as ours can welcome the oppressed and persecuted without making compromises in our security," he said. "We are capable of vigilance in our pursuit of these values, and we have seen the tremendous work that the local law enforcement as well as the federal law enforcement have done in the Boston area, and I am so proud of them."
FULL STORY
The U.S. is truly no different from most regimes and third-world pocket nations. Your politicians can be just as slimy, conflating and manipulative as theirs, you just get to pick them from a pre-selected coven during primaries, and believe that's democracy...
Boston bombings exploited??? Lmao
Yeah, just like sandy hook was.
If Obama can exploit the Sandy hook masacre to push his gun control agenda then republicans can do the same with immigration but it doesn't make it right just politics as usual
So true.... but the libs deserve every bit of it for their shameful bid to ram through gun control laws because it f some nut case. Even though they don't utilize the laws that already exist.