Speech #1090118264

President. I yield myself 4 more minutes. We believe that immigrants. like women and African Americans before them. have rights in this country. and the time is ripe for a new civil rights moment. We believe that a nation of immigrants rejects its history and its heritage when millions of immigrants are confined forever to secondclass status and that all Americans are debased by such a twotier system. The time has come for comprehensive immigration reform. Our opponents believe that blunt enforcement can solve our current crisis. We believe that the culture and infrastructure of illegality can only be disrupted and our security and prosperity can only be assured through a threepronged approach. First. we favor smarter and tougher enforcement through greater reliance on technology. better screening at our consulates abroad. more international cooperation on migration enforcement. working with Mexico and the other countries in Central Americawhich our opponents never think about or have asked to or have a program to try to doand also tracking terrorist mobility and more efficient screening at U.S. work sites. Our national security and our immigration control efforts are both weakened when we fail to distinguish the millions of undocumented immigrants making vital contributions to our economy and the handful of extremists who would enter the United States to do us harm. How can we seriously consider diverting our scarce resources to building a fence along the border? This is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem. A fencemuro de muerte is the alternative. and we are saying that is the kind of wall we are going to build. with all the technology we have? It is a bankrupt policy. The focus on the border will not prevent undocumented immigration. Almost half of all undocumented immigrants enter through legal channels. and others will always find ways to go over. under. or around the wall. More importantly. a United StatesMexico border fence does nothing to help us identify and track terrorists who would almost certainly choose other strategies for entry. including the use of fraudulent or legitimate documents. or entry anywhere along an unguarded northern border or coastline. Second. in an economy which depends on immigrant labor. we favor the creation of legal opportunities so that all American workers have the right to labor with dignity and the protection of our laws. More opportunities must be created for workers and families to obtain green cards through our permanent visa system. And the 400.000 or so undocumented immigrants now joining our workforce each year must be offered access to temporary visas and to a spot in the formal economy when employers cannot find U.S. workers to take these jobs. Our temporary worker program differs in fundamental ways from the failed approaches of the past. We inelude robust wage guarantees to ensure that temporary workers will not depress the wages and working conditions of American workers. which is happening at the present time. and we back up these guarantees with strong complaint procedures and protections for whistleblowers. We believe guest workers must not be tied to a single employer but. rather. must have the right to vote with their feet by changing jobs when employers would exploit them. And we believe workers must have the right to adjust to permanent status if their situation changes and they choose to remain in the United States. Third. immigration reform will be fundamentally incomplete without a plan for bringing the undocumented immigrants already among us out of the shadows and into legal status. Our national security requires the United States to know who resides in our country. Our economic prosperity requires that undocumented immigrants5 percent of all workers in the United Statesjoin the legal economy.