Speech #1090120024

It is hard to comprehend. There are 24 lanes of traffic coming one way from Mexico into the United States--24 lanes of traffic. The easy thing for all of us to say is: Get tougher. throw more money and more Border Patrol agents at the problem. and it will get better. That is not the answer. It seems appealing. but it is simply not true. As I said. I support the strong enforcement measures included in the bipartisan Judiciary Committee bill. which are. by the way. close to identical to those included in the border security bill offered by the majority leader. I strongly believe we need to have additional Border Patrol agents. We have to modernize our computer system. We have to do many other things. most of which are included in this bill. to secure our border and enforce our immigration laws with respect to employers. But I also believe that enforcement alone will not fix our broken immigration system. To those who say we should secure our borders first and then consider ways to reform our immigration laws. I say the only way to secure our borders is to reform our immigration laws. If we want to create laws that are enforceable. first we have to make them realistic. There is widespread support for the approach the Judiciary Committee has established. including the support of most labor unions. the vast majority of businesses. religious groups. and immigrant community leaders. Months ago. I held an event at the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce building. I was stunned by the people appearing at that forum I held. but it did illustrate the broad support comprehensive immigration reform has from different sectors of the Las Vegas community. I think this is the same all over the country. In addition to representatives of the Chamber of Commerce. there were people there from the Nevada Restaurant Association. the Culinary Union. which is a union of some 60.000 people in Las Vegas which prides itself in giving people who do the dirty workpeople who park the cars. who do the janitorial work. make the beds--they pride themselves in these being good jobs. highpaying jobs.