Speech #1100050972

It was born and nurtured by those who wrote a Constitution starting with the words "We the people" that has created the most affluent country on Earth. with a dramatic expansion of the middle class and opportunity that is universal opportunityuniversal education. saying that every child can become whatever their Godgiven talents allow them to become in this country of ours. What a great place we have created. But given what is happening on this planet. we have had to at least provide some order and some limitation with respect to immigration into this country because so many would want to come. So we have a legal system of import quotas. That is a system that many have used. They have waited for years to be at the top of the list to come to this country. But it is a system that many have ignored. instead deciding they wanted to get a visiting visa. jump on an airplane. and when it lands. disappear into the populace. never to be seen again. and stay here illegally. or others have come across on foot. across the Rio Grande or from other areas. deciding to remain here without legal authorization. Border security has become very important. It was something discussed at great length in the year 1986. when the SimpsonMazzoli bill was passed by the Congress. That was a period of time when we had an immigration crisis. The SimpsonMazzoli bill was designed to address the immigration crisis. It was going to shut down employment opportunities for illegal immigrants by providing employer sanctions. It was going to provide for border security. employer sanctions. and it was going to shut down this system and. therefore. we were going to solve the immigration problem. Even as that bill was passed. it provided for amnesty for 3 million people at that point who had come here Illegally. Well. we know that since 1986 that didnt work. All the promises that were offered then have been promises that were not kept. So we find ourselves. from 1986 to 2001. with Osama bin Laden. alZawahiri. and others associated with alQaida deciding to launch an attack on our country and murder a good number of Americans. thousands of Americans. on that fateful day of 9/ 11/2001. All of a sudden. we have another spurt of interest in border security. Not with respect to specifically the issue of immigration but border security with respect to keeping terrorists out of our country. Because if you dont control your border. if you dont know who is coming in and keep track of them. you have unbelievable security problems for this country. So we. at various times. have had these spurts of interest with respect to border security. Now we come to the year 2007. and the issue again is a comprehensive immigration billbut as a portion of it. border security. Of course. border security ought to be. should be. some say will be. but certainly must be the first and foremost important element of any immigration reform. If you cant provide for border security. let us not spend a lot of time thinking about how we are going to keep people out if you cant keep them out. Border security is first and foremost the responsibility of any immigration reform planborder security that works. Yes. it is important for terrorism. it is also important with respect to this bill dealing with immigration. If border security is important. and I believe it is the most important issue at this moment. then other issuesif you have solved the border security issue. and I dont believe this piece of legislation hasother issues are also important as well. one of which is the issue I came to talk about. and that is the issue of the guest worker amendment. The guest worker amendment in this compromise on immigration provides that 400.000 people who are not in this country now. who are living outside of our country. will be able to come in to assume jobs in our country per year400.000 a year. The bill says there are 12 million people who came here illegally who will be given status to stay here and to work here. That is what the bill says.