Speech #1090100506

Mr. Chairman. I rise today to oppose the so called Border Protection. Antiterrorism. and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. H.R. 4437. I am deeply concerned by this bills enforcementonly focus and the simple fact that it fails to seriously address our Nations true immigration problems. Our Nations immigration system is broken. It does not work. Our legal immigration system does not meet the needs of American employers. lawful immigrants seeking residence in the U.S.. and families seeking to reunite and pursue the American dream. And yet that does not need to be the case. One of the main reasons we have a huge illegal immigration problem is that our legal immigration system just does not work. We could be talking today about the widely recognized problems and debate comprehensive immigration reform. But we will not do that today. I am deeply troubled that this bill. which would drastically alter our Nations immigration laws. was rushed to the House floor just a little more than a week after it was introduced and after only one committee hearing it was voted out on party lines. On this key issue we should be able to work together. Immigration is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is truly an American issue. The history of America is a history of immigration and immigrants. From the first Europeans to settle on our shores in places like Jamestown and Plymouth. to the millions who were greeted by the Statue of Uberty and Ellis Island trying to flee hunger and poverty in the Old World in search of a new life and a new start in America. legal immigrants continue to this day to be a vital part of our social fabric and our economic growth. I firmly believe in the necessity of legal immigration. Our country was founded on the principle of immigration. and we are fortunate to have millions of hardworking. lawabiding immigrants living in this country. Studies show that. far from being a tax burden on us. immigrants add billions of dollars to the U.S. economy. Statistics also reveal that immigrants are likely to set up their own businesses. which creates jobs for workers and sales opportunities for American companies. It is important to recognize the many benefitseconomic and otherwisethat legal immigrants provide to our country. However. like many Americans. I am concemed about the influx of illegal immigrants into our country. I believe the best answer to this problem is to comprehensively address our Nations legal immigration system and to also fully and effectively enforce our immigration laws on the books. But this bill focuses almost solely on new enforcement actions. It is a piecemeal attempt to solve a much larger problem and it will end up jailing foreign citizens who come illegally into the United States and make all employers in the country deputy immigration officials. These are not sensible solutions to the immigration problems that exist. I strongly believe that we need to secure both our southern and northern borders. It is also imperative to secure our seaports and airports. But we also need to acknowledge and deal with the fact that an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants hide in the shadows of our country. This bill simply ignores them and tries to fool the public into thinking that real changes are being made to secure our borders. Over the last 20 years. Congress has passed into law 17 different immigrationrelated pieces of legislation. But a clear problem still remains. Rather than seriously doing something about immigration. the Congress has passed politically expedient but not policybased legislation. It is clear that the Immigration and Nationality Act. INA. needs dramatic changes and the American people have continually called for such changes. The INA needs to be updated to meet the labor shortages that American employers face. It needs also to be fundamentally altered in how it handles foreignborn workers. Too often the INA is more complex and arcane than even the IRS Tax Code. This leaves businesses. citizens and prospective immigrants confused and unsure of what to do. In my central New Jersey district alone this means that I have more than one fulltime employee to help the citizens and residents of my district navigate these laws and the outofcontrol bureaucracy they have created. This bill is extreme and will not fix these arcane rules and procedures. And it will certainly fail to do what it promises. This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain all illegal immigrants who enter the United States until they can be returned to their country of origin. Yet the bill does nothing to provide DHS with facilities or capacity to do just that. DHS will not be able to meet this flawed expectation and it will prove to be an untenable burden on an already overextended detention system.