Speech #1090121614

I also note he and I were participants in a codel that just went into Iraq and Afghanistan. The issues we face around the world on national security are so important that it is going to require a coming together of our country to make sure we are working toward the creation of a better. safer. and more secure world. I want to speak briefly to the bill that is currently before this Chamber. and that is the immigration reform bill in its comprehensive form that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I believe from a national security and homeland security perspective this Chamber is working on one of the most very important issues facing our Nation today. and that is the issue of making sure we take our broken borders and the lawlessness coming across the borders and create a system that is comprehensive in nature to address that lawlessness. I believe the legislation which came out of the Judiciary Committee does that. and it does so by making sure. first and foremost. that we are strengthening our borders. and secondly. making sure that within the interior. we are creating the kind of immigration law enforcement program that is going to be effective. that looking at the immigration laws and simply ignoring them Is a chapter which will go away if we are able to get our hands around passage of this bill. And finally. dealing with the reality of the 11 million workers in Americathose workers who toil in our fields. those workers who work in our restaurants. those workers who work in our factories. and all of those who make the kind of lifestyle we have in America possiblewe need to address those issues with respect to what some have said is the big elephant in that room. and we need to do it in a thoughtful and humane manner that upholds the rule of law of our Nation. I want to speak briefly about the importance of border security and what this legislation does. In the days after 9/11. when we have hundreds of thousands of people coming into this country. without any sense of where they are coming from. whether they come here to seek a good job and to be a part of the American dream. or whether they come as terrorists across the border. it makes the statement that we need to make sure we are doing everything within our power to strengthen those borders. This legislation out of the Judiciary Committee does exactly that. It does so by adding 12.000 new officers to make sure our borders are being patrolled. We go from a staff level of about 12.000 Border Patrol officers up to an additional 12.000 and that will get us to almost 25.000 people who will be deployed along our borders to make sure we can enforce the law. It creates additional border fences in those places where we know now there are significant streams of illegal and undocumented workers coming back and forth across the borders. So it creates those additional fences. It creates virtual fences by deploying the kind of technology that allows us to detect movement across our border. It also makes sure we create the avenues for checkpoints and ports of entry so we dont have the massive backup on the borders on either side. I believe the border security aspects of this legislation are where Republicans and Democrats should come together in the name of national and homeland security. and we should be supportive of this legislation for that very purpose. Second. this legislation is also about enforcing our laws. It is about making sure we have an immigration system where everyone in our country is standing up for enforcing the rule of law. We will do that by providing an additional 5.000 new investigators to make sure those laws are being enforced. Today there are many violations of our immigration laws that are taking place across every one of our States in America. and yet our immigration laws simply are on the books. They are not being enforced. A law on the books that is not being enforced is almost like not having a law at all. So what we will do is hire 5.000 additional investigators and create the law enforcement capacity to make sure those laws are being enforced in the interior. In addition. when apprehension occurs of someone who is here illegally. it is difficult to find a place to house these individuals until they are deported. This legislation calls for an additional 20 detention facilities. Those 20 detention facilities will give us the capacity to process those who are breaking the laws of immigration. The legislation also addresses a very important issue that is critical to State and local governments. State and local governments have been dealing with the influx of undocumented workers and illegal aliens in our country for a very long time. Yet there has been no system providing them compensation for what they are doing to try to enforce the laws at the State and local level. essentially on behalf of the Federal Government because this is a Federal issue. after all. What this legislation will do is provide reimbursement for the States for the detention and imprisonment of criminal aliens. The legislation also requires a faster deportation process. I go back to the old adage of justice delayed is sometimes justice denied. We have people who are sometimes waiting in the system for months and months and years and years without coming to any kind of resolution. This legislation will require a faster deportation process. There are significant provisions in this legislation that will make additional criminal activity for gang members. money laundering. and for human traffickers. We know human trafficking across the borders creates tremendous hardship on people.