Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006

COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2006

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I listened carefully to the President's speech last night. He gets it. As you listen to the debate on the floor from both sides the aisle, more and more Republican and Democratic Senators get it. They understand it now. It isn't just a matter of getting tough. It isn't just a matter of enforcement. It is a matter of enforcement and a process that results in comprehensive immigration reform.

If it were just a matter of making it tough to cross our borders, you would assume we would have moved toward solving the problem. But it hasn't happened. In the last decade, we have doubled the number of Border Patrol agents. They have spent eight times as many hours patrolling the border in that 10-year period of time, and during that same period the number of undocumented immigrants coming into the United States has doubled--despite this dramatic increase in resources. Enforcement at the border is not stopping the flow.

The comprehensive bill says you need to do three things. You need border enforcement. I support what the President said last night. I think sending the National Guard, if we can get all the details, on an interim basis is a good thing to move toward enforcement. But you also need to have enforcement in the workplace so there is no magnet for these people to move into the United States. And you need to deal honestly with the 11 million or 12 million who are here and bring them out of the shadows so that we know who they are and where they are, whether they are working and whether they pose any threat to this country. It is a comprehensive approach.

Senator Isakson is stuck on the first issue--just enforce the borders and do nothing else until you have enforced the borders. But we have learned that is, in and of itself, not successful. You need to have a comprehensive approach--enforcement at borders, enforcement in the workplace, and a process that brings these people out of the shadows.

Senator Salazar has offered a reasonable alternative. He says leave it to the President of the United States to certify that it is in the best interest of our national security to move forward with this process. That puts a mind on the job that we need. It isn't just a simple certification of enforcement; it looks at the whole picture. Until you look at the whole picture on immigration, we will continue to have politicians debate it back and forth, with their 30-second ads flying in both directions, and nothing is going to happen.

This is a unique opportunity in our history to move forward with comprehensive immigration reform, something that will finally work.

Twenty years ago, when we granted amnesty, we thought it was the end of the issue. We were wrong. We have seen a dramatic increase in illegal immigration into the United States. Now, 20 years later, let us not repeat the mistake with a simpleminded, linear approach that says if we just get tough on the border, everything will be fine. You have to do the whole package. The President argued for that last night.

Part of that enforcement in the workplace is a tamper-proof ID card using biometrics so we know who that employee is, where they live, what their background may be, and finally a process--a long, tough process--where those who are here undocumented can earn their way into legal status. It may take them 10 years, it may take them 12 years, but in that period of time, they have to learn English, they have to work, they have to pay their taxes, they have to pay any fines they owe this Government for coming into this country, and they have to show they have a demonstrated knowledge of our history and the way our Government works. They have to report every year so we know that they are keeping up with their requirements. And if they stick with it for 10 or 12 years, they will reach legal status. It is not amnesty, but it is a sensible part of comprehensive immigration reform.

I urge my colleagues to support Senator Salazar and oppose Senator Isakson's amendment.

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