Speech #1090054018

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to issue a challenge to my colleagues. those who have criticized the comprehensive immigration reform that has been offered as legislation. In the last Congress. the gentleman from Arizona and myself and Senator MCCAIN in the Senate offered comprehensive immigration reform. We have offered a similar bill this year. There have been a lot of critics who have taken the floor and have said that we should not do this. what we need to do rather than have comprehensive immigration reform is to simply secure the border and enforce the law. enforce the current law. Let me just run down what that actually entails. If we were to enforce the current immigration laws that we have. it would mean that we would literally round up between 10 million and 15 million illegal aliens who are here presently. uproot them from their jobs. often from their families. and ship them home to their home country where they would be subject to a 10year bar from reentry. After that 10 years. then they would get in line to go through the legal orderly process. which would probably take another 20 years. Now. when I explain that to those who are critics of our immigration bill. they often say. well. we do not mean to enforce the current law as it is. Let us selectively enforce it. Let us go after the criminals. not after those who are legally lawabiding here. Well. that is called selective enforcement. and some will actually use that term. We need to selectively enforce the law. I ask the critics of comprehensive immigration reform. how is that any less of an amnesty than what has been proposed? Under our legislation. anyone here illegally. who has broken no other law than crossing the border illegally. would be required to register. pay a fine. and wait as many as. at least 6 years until the current backlog of those going through the legal orderly process in their home country is complete. Then they would be forced to pay another $1.000 fine. How is that an amnesty. when simply selectively enforcing the current law is not? Please explain. For those who are criticizing comprehensive immigration reform. how are you going to secure the border and enforce the law without a temporary worker program? Our legislation realizes that there are many here. probably around 8 million. that are in the workforce currently. Unless we are willing to uproot them and send them all home. then we have to have a temporary worker program or a guest worker program before we can enforce the law. That is why we have to have comprehensive immigration reform that says we need the rule of law. In order to have the rule of law. we must have a law we can enforce. That is what this is all about. and that is the challenge I issue to those criticizing the comprehensive immigration reform that has been offered. the McCainKennedyKolbeFlakeGutierrez bill. Please come up with your own. Explain how we are going to enforce the current law unless we have a temporary worker program.