Speech #1090121649

It is important to stress again and again we must focus on border security first. When I first announced and then introduced my border security bill last fall along with my colleagues. Senator SESSIONS and Senator COBURN. people across America were talking about securing our borders but there wasnt any action. No bill in Congress was moving because most of the efforts tried to tackle everything and ended up doing nothing. I proposed changing the way we address immigration reform and introduced a bipartisan bill that focuses on border security first. Until we secure our borders. the U.S. will never be able to control the deeper problems of illegal immigration. I repeat: without securing our borders first. the U.S. will never be able to deal with its illegal immigration problems. That is why. I. along with my colleagues Senator SESSIONS. Senator BYRD. and Senator VITTER are offering our bipartisan border security bill as a complete substitute to the bill that Senator SPECTER and the Judiciary Committee have offered. We all have great respect for Senator SPECTER and the hard work by the Judiciary Committee to complete the bill they reported out last week under difficult time constraints. It is a good thing that we have so many people working together trying to find solutions to our illegal immigration problem. But it is important that those efforts are not lost because we tried to tackle everything and accomplished nothing. Those efforts are why we must focus on border security. My colleagues and I are convinced that there is only one way we are going to find consensus and see real action this year. and that is if we take the very important step of securing our borders first. Our proposal would add 3.000 border patrol agents per year for 5 years and enhance border security technology. It also adds: 1.000 new investigative personnel dedicated to stopping immigrant smuggling. 10.000 new Department of Homeland Security investigators dedicated to worksite enforcement. and 15.000 immigration enforcement agents dedicated to fraud detection. At the same time. we give employers the tools they need to confirm the status of prospective employees to ensure that they are following the law. If the companies have completed the verification process they will be protected in their hiring decisions. And the companies will not need to be concerned with verifying documents nor will they have to be in the business of making sure that documents handed to them are not fraudulent. However. if a company ignores this process and hires illegal immigrants anyway. our proposal enhances the penalties for breaking the law. We believe that this is an important component for securing our borders and addressing the problem of illegal immigration. By removing the motivation behind most illegal immigrationsecuring employment through fraudulent documents or unscrupulous employerswe can take another important step towards resolving our illegal immigration problems. In addition to aiding employers identifying illegal immigrants. this proposal also helps border security agents to stop immigrant smuggling. human trafficking. and other border offenses. This will ensure that gangs. organized crime. and individuals looking to exploit illegal immigrants for profit are prosecuted and prevented from putting immigrants in harms way. Currently. these offenders are difficult to prosecute and are soon back committing new offenses of the same old crime. I understand there has been some confusion about who this provision of the Border Security First proposal targets. I would like to set the record straight and make absolutely clear that this section is not aimed at prosecuting any religious or humanitarian groups that assist individuals in need. These people are not prosecuted now nor will they be in the futurenor should they be. Instead. we need to stop the criminals who are smuggling people for financial gain and commercial profit. They are the ones hurting immigrants. not our religious and nonprofit groups. I would also like to clarify for the record that this proposal does not make illegal immigrants in this country felons. It merely seeks to secure our borders as a first step towards resolving our illegal immigration problems. I continue to push for border security first because I believe that it is our responsibility to work together to find a solution to this problem confronting our Nation. Our fellow Americans expect no less from us. I continue to push for border security first because it makes common sense. We all agree that the borders need to be secured. And with a problem as pressing as illegal immigration. it is important that we work to build a consensus and that we concentrate our efforts on getting something accomplished that moves us along the path towards resolving this problem. The disagreements we face all stem from the additional problem of what to do with the illegal immigrants already here. I am for securing the border firstand then developing a plan for the illegal immigrants already here. We cannot afford to miss this opportunity to begin solving this problem because we concentrated on the things we disagree about rather than working to make sure we accomplished what we all agree needs to be accomplished first. Unless we secure our borders first. the problem will only continue to worsen and the number of illegal immigrants we need to address will be larger than it is now. Unless we secure our borders first. the U.S. will never have a firm grasp on the interior problems we have as a result of illegal immigration. Unless we secure our borders first. we will never be able to adequately address the remaining issues that illegal immigration present. Unless we secure our borders first. we will miss this opportunity to begin solving a problem and we will have failed to properly do our jobs for the American people. By implementing tough new changes to secure our borders we can take an important first step toward addressing illegal immigration. Today as we continue this debate and we continue to think about the bill that is before the Senate. we need to redirect our attention and put border security first so we can then go on. The "do everything" bill that is before the Senate today will end up doing nothing. The reason is if it is passed by this Senate and goes to the conference committee. it cannot be squared with the House version that has already been passed.