Speech #1090138996

Republicans joined with us to defend the core provisions of that bill. and we defeated efforts by Senators KYL and CORNYN to gut the guest worker provisions and to undermine the pathway to earned citizenship. Instead. we adopted the Bingaman amendment to cap the annual guest worker program at 200.000 and the Obama amendment regarding prevailing wages in order to better protect the opportunities and wages of American workers. I spoke last week about the need to strengthen our border security after more than 5 years of neglect and failure by the BushCheney administration. A recent report concluded that the number of people apprehended at our borders for illegal entry fell 31 percent on President Bushs watch. from a yearly average of 1.52 million between 1996 and 2000. to 1.05 million between 2001 and 2004. The number of illegal immigrants apprehended while in the interior of the country declined 36 percent. from a yearly average of roughly 40.000 between 1996 and 2000. to 25.901 between 2001 and 2004. Audits and fines against employers of illegal immigrants have also fallen significantly since President Bush took office. Given the vast increases in the number of Border Patrol agents. the decline in enforcement can only be explained by a failure of leadership. Meanwhile. once again the administration is turning to the fine men and women of National Guard. After our intervention turned sour in Iraq. the Pentagon turned to the Guard. After the Governmentwide failure in responding to Hurricane Katrina. we turned to the Guard. Now. the administrations longstanding lack of focus on our porous southern border and failure to develop a comprehensive immigration policy has prompted the administration to turn once again to the Guard. I remain puzzled that this administration. which seems so ready to take advantage of the Guard. fights so vigorously against providing this essential force with adequate equipment. a seat at the table in policy debates. or even adequate health insurance for the men and women of the Guard. I have cautioned that any Guard units should operate under the authority of State Governors.