Speech #1090120435

Let me be clear from the outsetsomething we need to say over and over and over and over againimmigration reform is first and foremost about protecting Americas national security. our economy. and our citizens from the myriad of challenges we are going to face in the 21st century. We have no higher priority than those: to protect our national security. to protect our borders. and to protect our economy. Therefore. any discussion of immigration reform must begin with an emphatic declaration of our intentions here: to secure our borders. to protect our citizens from a flood of people arriving here. albeit with good motives. But it is unrealistic to assume that any nation in this world can have open bordersunlimited for people who want to come here. So I believe it is extremely important we state that case at the outset. But I also believe that it is an enormously complex and difficult issue. It is that very complexity that leads us to the concerns expressed by some of my colleagues. There is a very real temptation to deal only with certain aspects of immigration and to put off the more difficult matters to some future time and date. That is exactly what the other body did back in December when they passed a bill dealing only with the issue of border security and enforcement and neglected entirely dealing with the phenomena of 11 million human beings who reside in this country today without documentation. Which brings me to the legislation currently before the Senate. One version. introduced by our colleague. Senator FRIST. mainly addresses border security and enforcement. Certainly. these are critical components of any immigration reform package. No bill should be considered comprehensive without them at all. But Senator FRISTs bill does not go nearly far enough toward addressing the other monumental challenges we face on immigration. including the presence of more than 11 million human beings. undocumented. in the United States. who need to be brought out of the shadows and into the open. In my view. turning our backs on this reality is the same thing as turning our backs on providing border security. If we had a bill before us that only dealt with how we handle 11 million people who are here illegally and not border security. that would be a flawed piece of legislation. The fact that you are dealing with just border security is equally flawed. We need to have both parts here if we are going to succeed. Thankfully. of course.