Speech #1090131528

I believe we can craft. under our bicameral system. a legislative package in conference which will be acceptable to both the House and the Senate. There have been those who have said they will reject any major changes in the Senate bill. I believe the core provisions in the Senate billfinding an answer to the 11 million undocumented immigrants. an answer to their status. is indispensable on immigration reform. We cannot create a fugitive class in America. We do need immigrants. guest workers to handle very important jobs in our economy. I believe within a broad ambit we can reach agreement with the House of Representatives. We are looking at this large group of undocumented immigrants. estimated by the Pew Hispanic Center to be between 11 and 12 million individuals. We know these undocumented immigrants constitute almost 5 percent of our labor workforce. We know. according to the Center for American Progress. the total cost to. socalled. round up every illegal immigrant within the United States would be $200 billion to $230 billion over 5 years. without the capacity to house people once they are arrested and under very difficult circumstances. The legislation we are considering today is not amnesty. That is a pejorative term. really a smear term used to denigrate the efforts at comprehensive immigration reform. This is not amnesty because amnesty means a pardon of those who have broken the law. That is not the case here. These undocumented immigrants will have to pay a fine. They will have to undergo a rigorous criminal background investigation to be sure we do not have a criminal element subject to staying in the United States and being on the citizenship track. They will have to learn English so they can integrate into our society. They will have to have a job for 6 years. They will then be at the end of the line. When the comments are made about enforcing our borders. the first amendment which will be offered by the proponents of the bill will be a border security certification. which provides that: The Secretary may not implement any program authorized by this Act or by any amendments made under this Act which grants legal status to any individual or adjusts the current status of any individual who enters or entered the United States in violation of Federal law unless the Secretary has submitted a written certification to the President and Congress that the border security measures authorized under title I and the increases in Federal detention space authorized under section 233 have been fully completed and are operational. Now. this certification really is directed to those who have said we ought to have border security in place and employment sanctions in place before we consider what we do with the 11 million undocumented aliens. immigrants. or what we do on a guest worker program. Well. that is the cartbeforethehorse argument. This border security certification puts the horse in place before we move ahead to the cart and I think. when implemented. as implemented. will answer that point. This bill. which we are laying down today. provides very material items on border enforcement. For example. it increases Border Patrol by 400 per year for 5 years. authorizes technologies to create a socalled virtual fence along the southern border. authorizes physical barriers for highly trafficked parts of Arizonas border and Californias border. and highly trafficked parts on other borders provides for a study of a possible new fence along the southern border. and creates crimes for eluding immigration inspectors. and it ends the catchandrelease practice for otherthan Mexicans. We also have very substantial provisions on interior enforcement. It eliminates gang members from admissibility for citizenship and deports those gang members. It clarifies and strengthens alien smuggling laws with increased penalties. It provides criminal penalties for various immigrationrelated document fraud. It provides for 20 more alien detention facilities. with the capacity for 10.000. In title III we have employment enforcement. One of the major failings of the 1986 legislation was the failure to have employment enforcement. We have provisions for a guest worker program. We have provisions for familybased and employmentbased green cards. We have title VI: work authorization and legalization of undocumented individuals. Mr. President.