Speech #1090129172

La Ladrillera. a brickyard in Sasabe. Mexico. is the last gathering place where coyotes deliver final words of advice before smuggling their human cargo across the border into the United States. Each illegal immigrant pays anywhere from $1.500 to $2.000 to these opportunists to be guided on their 3day journey across the desert into their ideal of a promised land. the United States. My colleagues. let us be clear on the nature of these smugglers. They are not generous humanitarians aiding their fellow man. Many of these illegal immigrants are beaten. robbed and even raped before they even reach the MexicoU.S. border. Yet they keep paying the coyotes enough money so that these smugglers have access to sophisticated arms. weapons. GPS equipment and high quality mobile radios. Many of them have better equipment than our own Border Patrol agents. In todays Washington Times. Gilbert Reyes. one of these smugglers. or successful local businessmen. describes the situation of these Immigrants: "They want to get into the United States. and they are willing to do almost anything. even walk for mile after mile in the desert. They think they can go into America and get a pay to stay permanently. Maybe they can. Maybe they cant." His assertion about the immigrants belief rings true as we look at the facts on immigration. In 1986. the Immigration Reform and Control Act granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegal immigrants. and now today we have 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants seeking amnesty. Two years ago. President Bush first announced his guest worker program. and illegal immigrant numbers have risen steadily since. A survey conducted by the Border Patrol in 2004 revealed that of those illegal aliens in custody of the Border Patrol. 45 percent were influenced to come to the U.S. by the promise of amnesty. The immigration bill we passed in the House directly strengthened legal recourse against these coyotes and focused on securing our borders. increasing the number of Border Patrol agents. and enforcing the immigration laws that we currently have. These are essential steps that must be taken before any form of immigration reform has a hope of succeeding. And the American people agree. In a recent Zogby poll. 64 percent of respondents preferred the House bills approach of enforcement first and only 30 percent preferred the Senates approach of amnesty. Additionally. 73 percent of respondents had little or no confidence in the ability of our government to screen out terrorists or criminals if there is a mass amnesty for those 12 million illegals already in this country. And yet the pressure is mounting in favor of this unpopular and impractical proposal. There are some journalistic groups that have even begun to object to the use of the word "illegal" when referring to these immigrants. We are supposed to refer to these individuals as. quote. undocumented or even the other extreme proposal. to call them economic refugees. But calling breaking the law by any other name does not make it less of a crime. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act. it is illegal to enter the United States illegally. It is illegal to smuggle human beings into the United States for a price. And it is illegal to knowingly hire and aid a person you know entered our country illegally. Another central issue with immigration reform is to ensure that those waiting and hoping to enter this country will be treated fairly. Many of them have undergone grueling ordeals to be able to enter the United States. I have heard from one couple in my district that had to undergo multiple indepth interviews at the embassy before getting their permits.