Speech #1090100503

Chairman. I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for his effort at pulling together this bill. Reforming immigration in this Nationand reinforcing the borders. as I have advocated for over a year and a halfis a difficult proposition. However. the gentleman from Wisconsin and those that are in support of this bill do not seem to understand the complexities of border and immigration policy. The bill before us today would do little to solve the immigration problem. and it is not what we need to reform immigration policy and to reinforce our borders. Any effort by Congress to truly reform immigration and protect our borders must address the root causes of illegal immigration. As President Bush has stated. people come to the country to do the jobs Americans do not want to do. We must understand that it is our labor market that draws them to the U.S.. and we must address how the U.S. could absorb the economic blow of losing this part of our labor market that keeps prices artificially low for consumers. Are businesses ready to pay high wages to agriculture workers? Are Americans ready to absorb that cost and pay higher prices for their produce? An honest policy discussion is needed to address the complete problem--our broken immigration system and the needs ot our labor market. Although my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim this bill will secure our borders. it does nothing of the sort. Nothing in this bill guarantees funding for detention facilities. Border Patrol agents. immigration judges or prosecutors. The single most important thing we can do in Congress is invest in homeland security. However. our experience has been this: Numerous Members of Congress put forth ideas about how to fix border security. but funding these ideas has been impossible. Lets use 2005 as an example. One year ago. the 9/11 Commission did what Congresss current majority could not do: It inSanchez. Loretta Sanders Schakowsky Schiff Schwartz (PA) Schwarz (MI) Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Sensenbrenner Serrano Shadegg Shaw Sherman Simmons Slaughter Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Snyder Sodrel Soils Souder Spratt Stark Strickland Stupak Tauseher Terry Thomas Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thornberry Tiabrt Tlerney Towns Turner Udall (CO) Udall (NM) Upton Van Hollen Velazquez Visclosky Walsh Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Watt Waxman Weiner Weldon (PA) Weller Wexler Wilson (NM) Wolf Woolsey Wu Wynn vestigated the events leading up to the attacks on the United States. and made solid suggesdons to the Nation about how the Government could prevent similar attacks in the future. On the issues of Border Patrol agents and detention beds. the 9/11 Commission said the very least the United States needed to do was add 2.000 agents annuallyfor 10 yearsand 8.000 detention beds annually. Congress agreed. and passed the bill overwhelmingly. How did the President and Congress react when it came time to pay for it all? The Presidents budget proposed funding 200 Border Patrol agents this yearthats 1.800 short of the least we should doand 1.900 detention bedsthats 6.100 short of the least we should do. Congress acted a little better. passing an emergency spending bill and a spending bill for homeland security that netted us a total of 1.500 Border Patrol agentsstill 500 short of 9/11 Commission recommendationsand 4.250 detention bedsstill 3.750 short of 9/11 Commission recommendations. We are playing a shell game with our border security and. by extension. our national security. On the one hand. every single elected official is for more border security. Yet. the leadership in Congress does not have the political courage to pay for it. This is what always hangs us up.