Speech #1090157644

Mr. President. yesterday I offered a commonsense amendment that would help secure our broken immigration system. at least in part. This is an amendment which would have helped the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol execute what is known as catch and return--or expedited returnrather than the current catch and release program that the Department has been engaged in when it comes to people who come illegally into our country from places other than Mexico. Last year. 1.1 million people were detained coming across our southern border. and approximately 165.000 of those came from countries other than Mexico. The fact is that South America. Central America. and Mexico itself have become a land bridge for people from around the world seeking to come through our southern border into the United States. The only way we are going to be able to begin to deal with this is to create a real deterrence that convinces people that if they attempt to immigrate illegally across our southern border. they will not only be detained but they will be returned to their country of origin without any delay. Because of a lack of personnel and because of inadequate policies. we have had what has literally come to be known as a catch and release policy. In other words. people who come from Mexico can be returned literally the same day. But if you come from countries other than Mexico. it takes on average about 2 months to return those individuals to their country of origin because of the need to process the paperwork. get permission of that country to return the foreign national to that country. and the like. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Michael Chertoff. has specifically said that this is a key to the success of our expedited removal program. which will finally allow us to create some deterrence when it comes to fixing our broken immigration system and border security controls. I ask unanimous consent that Secretary Chertoffs letter of March 27. 2006. endorsing this amendments approach be printed in the RECORD at the end of my remarks.