Speech #1130118538

That is the question every Senator will be answering today. President Obama has announced to the entire world that he will implement a sweeping unilateral Executive amnestyonly after the midterm elections. not before. as he promised. because there is concern among his Members that it wouldnt be politically popular. This amnesty by Executive order will give work permitscontrary to lawand Social Security numberscontrary to lawto as many as 5 to 6 million people. the White House tells us. to people who are here illegally. illegally entered the United States. illegally overstayed their visas or defrauded U.S. immigration authorities. With a casual stroke of a pen. the President is preparing to nullify the immigration laws of the United States. He is preparing to wipe away the lawful protections which every American worker in this country is entitled to. He is preparing to assume for himselfhimself alonethe absolute power to decide who can enter our country. who can work in our country. who can live in our country by the millions. regardless of what the law says. what the citizenry says. and what the Constitution says. These immigration ruleswho can come. work. and live in the countryare the bedrock of any Nations immigration laws and sovereignty. The President has already erased much of these ruleserased them. And his planned Executive action would remove much of what remains of them. It would establish for people all over the world the principle that if you can get into America. you can stay in America. and work in America. Lets consider the current state of immigration enforcement. Immigration officers already tell uspeople who do this every daythat they have been barred from fulfilling their oaths to follow the law. They filed a lawsuit claiming they were required to violate their oath. The president of the ICE officers council warned: "ICE agents"Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers-"are now prohibited from arresting illegal aliens solely on the charges of illegal entry or visa overstaythe two most frequently violated sections of immigration law." The policies of this administration represent an open invitation to millions who enter the United States on visas each year. People come lawfully on visas for certain periods of time. It encourages them to unlawfully overstay. And why not? If no one is going to deport you. why would you return if you choose not to return to your home country? And what about the border? We know from the substantial influx of illegal immigrants from Central America that all you have to do is show up at the border. demand entry. and you will likely be released into the United States. You may be asked to return for some sort of hearing in the future. But people are not tracked as to where they will go and not one of those people will be looked for if they fail to show up. That is not happening anywhere in the system. Consider this recent report from the Associated Press: "As of early September. only 319 of the more than 59.000 immigrants who were caught traveling with their families have been returned to Central America." That means that more than 99 percent of those apprehended with their families have so far been allowed to stay. That is in addition to the tens of thousands who have entered without their families and who have been promptly released also into the United States on some sort of bond or promise to show up for court. and many adults from Central America who have been released as well. As President Obamas former ICE Director. John Sandweg. explained: "If you are a runofthemill immigrant here illegally. your odds of getting deported are near zero." And who picks up the tab? Local school districts. local police departments. local taxpayers. No nation can have a policy where people can simply show up at the border and demand to be released into the country. especially since the policy is never to seek to apprehend persons who dont show up so they can be deported. But that is what is happening right now under the policies of this administration. It simply is. The American people need to understand that. They need to know more fully how serious this situation is. The American people are beginning to understand that these policies represent in truth a collapse of immigration enforcement. What about our asylum system? Here is what the House Judiciary Committee reports on asylum. which is when we accept people from around the globe who are subjected to serious oppression. Asylum approval rates overall have increased dramatically in recent years. The vast majority of aliens who affirmatively seek asylum are now successful in their claims. At the same time. an internal Department of Homeland Security report shows that at least 70 percent of asylum cases contain proven or possible fraud. Seventy percent contain proven or possible fraud. Still they are being approved overwhelmingly for entry. and once approved for asylum. they are entitled to all social welfare benefits. What about our visa screening process. the people who come on visas? Here is what Kenneth Palinkas had to say on that. Mr. Palinkas is the president of the National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council. representing 12.000 immigration caseworkers and adjudications officers at the USCIS. Here is just a fraction of his dramatic report delineating and detailing the problems they are facing today. USCIS adjudications officers are pressured to rubber stamp applications instead of conducting diligent case reviews and investigations. The culture at USCIS encourages all applications to be approved. discouraging proper investigation into red flags and discouraging the denial of any application. USCIS has been turned into an "approval machine." This is the man who represents the officers doing this everyday. and what he says is true. He goes on to say in this letter: "The attitude of USCIS management is not that the Agency serves the American public or the laws of the United States. or public safety and national security. but instead that the Agency serves the illegal aliens and the attorneys which represent them." Surely this cannot be what is happening in our legal system. He goes on to say this: Large swaths of the Immigration and Nationality Act are not effectively enforced for illegal immigrants and visa holders. including laws regarding public charges as well as many other provisions. as USCIS lacks the resources to adequately screen and scrutinize legal immigrants and nonimmigrants seeking status adjustment. There is also insufficient screening and monitoring of student visas. So the contention that this administration is deporting record numbers of illegal aliens is plainly false. Removals have dropped dramatically. Now consider what will happen to our system if the President goes through with his plan that he has announced after the election to provide unilateral Executive amnesty by Executive order to illegal workers and visa violators here today. What immigration law will be left after that? The government is not enforcing the law with respect to visa overstays. illegal entry. illegal work. asylum fraud. document fraud. workplace fraud. and on and on and on. We ignore immigration law for young people. for older people who came with younger people. for the parents of older people who came as younger people. for people with relatives. for people traveling alone. for people traveling with families. for people who entered before a certain date. for people who entered after a certain date. people who entered through an airport or seaport. for people who do show up in court. for people who dont show up in court. We have made a million excuses for not enforcing the law. And when millions more enter illegally asking for their amnesty in the future. asking for their amnesty now that others got before them. will the President print work permits for them. too? What moral basis will remain to deny future unlawful immigrants work authorizations. jobs. and amnesty in the future? I am sure this will make the activists. the politicians and certain billionaire executives who enjoy dinner parties at the White House. very happy that the President is doing these things. But what about what is good for America?