Mr. President. last week. immigration agents arrested 120 illegal workers at a worksite in Colorado within 1 mile of global surveillance and a missile earlywarning facility. Most likely. they came to America to find jobs. But if any had sinister intentions. only a fence separated them from a critical military facility. Most immigrants come to America with good intentions. but not all of them. Intelligence reports show that alQaida considers our borders a vulnerability. Imagine how terrorists might exploit a 1.951mile border with Mexico. We are a Nation of immigrants. but we are also a Nation of laws and principles. Any attempt to halt the influx of illegal immigrants must respect that fact. The comprehensive immigration reform legislation the Senate passed in May struck a careful balance. We took a threepronged approach: fortify our borders. strengthen worksite enforcement. and develop a fair and realistic way to address the 12 million people already in our country illegally. without offering amnesty. Clearly. we wont reach an agreement on comprehensive immigration reform before we leave for the recess. but fortifying our borders is an integral component of national security. We cannot afford to wait until November to do that. We know what works. We built a 14mile fence near San Diego and saw illegal immigration in the area drop dramatically. We deployed 6.000 National Guard troops to our southwest border and saw a 45 percent drop in border apprehension. The comprehensive solution to immigration reform is ideal. yes. but I have always said we need an enforcementfirst approach to reformnot enforcementonly but enforcementfirst. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 lets us get a head start on the first prong of comprehensive reform. It requires the Department of Homeland Security to achieve complete operational control over our border with Mexico.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization that most immigrants come to America with good intentions, but not all of them.