illegal immigration must be stopped

illegal immigration must be stopped

August, 2, 2006

While some issues are difficult to address in Washington, one issue seems crystal clear to me. We must curtail the flow of illegal immigrants across the Mexican border. Indeed, an overwhelming majority of East Tennesseans tell me they want our southern border secured and they do not want to reward with citizenship those who have violated our laws.

Last December, H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, passed the House of Representatives with my strong support. Our bill was principally a border security bill with enforcement provisions for existing laws. Unfortunately, when the Senate took action on this critical issue it passed legislation that is weaker on security and rewards those who come here illegally by setting up their "path to citizenship."

We need to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws before we can ever address a comprehensive approach including a "guest worker" program for the estimated 11 million people who are already here illegally. Many of them are providing useful services through the labor that they provide, but we have to have a system of laws that honors the commitment of the immigrants of the past. That is why we still want to reach out to the people of the world and say, "Yes, you are welcome here if you come and abide by our laws."

Failure to properly control our borders costs citizens in many ways: schools become overcrowded, medical resources are stretched too thin, other government services are overtaxed, and taxes increase further. The Senate immigration bill, supported by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Ted Kennedy, runs counter to border security, grants amnesty for those who have already come into our country illegally and guarantees them benefits not even available to American citizens.

Experts estimate that the Senate's amnesty proposal, the so-called "guest worker" program that is a central part of the Reid-Kennedy bill, would allow as many as 40 to 60 MILLION people to enter our country over the next twenty years - people who would not be allowed to enter so quickly and without proper oversight even under our current laws. The Senate bill further exacerbates already difficult-to-manage entitlement costs by guaranteeing Social Security benefits for illegal aliens who simply show a check stub from an employer. It also promises to pay them Davis-Bacon Act union wages for jobs that don't even have unions.

The Senate bill also entitles everyone crossing our border illegally to in-state tuition at state colleges and universities. The Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation calculate that passing this legislation would increase direct spending by $13 billion from 2007-2011, and by $54 billion from 2007-2016.

Senators who support granting amnesty claim to want an end to illegal immigration, but a July 24th news story in the Washington Post stated that, "Of the nearly 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, about 10 million may register to apply for legalization if the Senate plan passes. That could overwhelm the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, which last year granted permanent residency to more than 1 million people and awarded temporary worker visas to 200,000."

Should the Senate plan become law, the result would almost certainly be the same as 1986, when the overburdened system began to essentially rubberstamp applications without the required background checks. This opens the door for terrorists to take advantage of the system and obtain legal status.

In fact, current law restricts local law enforcement's ability to act on immigration violations. Four of the 9-11 terrorists who were in violation of immigration laws were pulled over by police and ticketed for speeding. Had those policemen been trained to ask for immigration papers, those four terrorists would have been apprehended.

The bill that the House passed requires mandatory detention for all illegal immigrants who are apprehended. We must have a "catch and return" policy so that we don't release them in the United States after they are arrested. We must enforce our immigration laws that were passed years ago that apparently people never intended to enforce. In my view, if we are going to have a law we had better enforce it or the rule of law becomes meaningless.

If you honor our laws and are willing to pull the wagon instead of just riding in it, you are welcome here. That's the American way. Voters are telling their lawmakers that they want legislative action on these vitally important issues before the 109th Congress adjourns, but the Senate immigration bill is a drastic step in the wrong direction for America.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tn03_wamp/immigrat2Aug06.html