Speech #1090173426

Mr. Speaker. today I rise to call on my colleagues in Congress to refocus their efforts on comprehensive immigration reform. What we need is not to debate and pass a bunch of bills that duplicate legislation already passed by the Houselegislation that has little chance of passage in the Senate. What we need is to get back on track with what the bipartisan 9/11 Commission has repeatedly called forcomprehensive immigration reform. Only when we enact comprehensive reform will we be truly effective in securing our Nations borders. Today we are considering three bills. which do little to fix our Nations illegal immigration problems. We need to do more. and we need to do it in a sensible. bipartisan and comprehensive fashion. The American people expect Congress to secure our borders. and that extends to understanding who currently resides in our country and why they are here. Just as importantly. in considering border security legislation. we need to focus on securing weapons of mass destruction to ensure they do not make their way through our ports of entry. I find it redundant and unnecessary that we are going back to consider legislation that has already been passed by this body when there is so much unfinished business we ought to be focusing on. We need to focus on "smart security" and develop a comprehensive plan. I continue to support the KolbeFlakeGutierrez bill. which is a broad and multifaceted approach to securing our borders. Under this legislation. we would hire and train more border patrol agents to secure our borders. improve our surveillance technology. and require employers to verify the status of their employees. This proactive approach ensures we keep those wishing to harm us out of our country and allows us to ascertain precisely who is in our country and why they are here. We also need to refocus our efforts on monitoring exactly which materials come through our borders.