Speech #1090135516

That leaves me to wonder. with these shortcomings. why would anyone in these categories participate in this program? Why would someone who is already living here clandestinely. working. and already active in their community voluntarily come forward and register with the Department of Homeland Security and leave the United States to join this program? With these risks and pitfalls. my experience in California and my 131/2 years on the Immigration Subcommittee tells me they wont. At worst. I fear we are creating an incentive for individuals to continue living under an illegal status. and I dont know how that benefits this Nation. the people of our Nation. the employers. or the people who are here today in an undocumented status. At best. we are creating a new burden on DHS to locate and monitor millions of people who are clandestinely integrated into the fabric of our Nation today. In addition. the Hispanic National Bar Association specifically criticized this second tier. and it wrote this: We are particularly concerned that requiring individuals in the [second tier] to leave this country in order to fully legalize their status will result in severe disruptions for families. workers. and employers ... We [also] believe that creating an additional class of undocumented immigrants will lead to greater administrative burdens as it will require the implementation of two different paths to legalization. I think that is a very true statement. Let me speak about the third tier for those who have been here for less than 2 years because according to HagelMartinez. they must all be deported. This means that DHS would be required to find and deport 2 million people. That is the bill we are going to pass2 million. find them. deport them. How is that going to get done? Even President Bush acknowledged that such a largescale deportation program is unworkable when he said this: It is neither wise nor realistic to round up millions of people and send them across the border. The only method to compel compliance with HagelMartinez is through employer sanctions. and we know from experience over dozens of years that employer sanctions do not work. In fiscal year 2004. only 46 employers were convicted of illegal immigrant employment46 employersout of the tens of thousands of employers whom we know employ the undocumented. and the number of employer sanctions cases resulting in fines has declined from a peak of nearly 900 under President Clinton to only 124 in fiscal year 2003. Not to mention even when employers are raided and then sanctioned. there is a backlash from the public. So I am one who doesnt believe it is realistic to assume that. first. the Department of Homeland Security is going to be able to go out and deport 2 million people. and then secondly. to ensure that the other 2.8 million leave to go back for the touchback program.