Issue Position: Immigration

Issue Position

Issue Position: Immigration

Congress must act on this important issue.

I believe that is at its best when we welcome people from other countries, other cultures, and possessing diverse skill sets. I believe that, in fact, this strengthens our country.

I need only to go back a couple of generations to see this in my family, who immigrated to this amazing country from and Eastern Europe .

But my ancestors came legally and that is the question, in part, before us. We have lost control of both our northern and southern borders, our maritime border is porous and anyone with the most innocent or worst of intentions can walk or drive into the and assimilate into our communities.

This illegal immigration must be stopped.

Securing our border is the proper first step. I agree with authorizing more border patrol agents, who are properly equipped with modern technology to monitor those coming into our country. More needs to be done to properly secure our ports of entry along our east and west coasts and our northern and southern borders. For the many agencies involved, this is a large but very important task.

Employers must be provided better means to information, allowing them to determine whether or not the potential hire is properly documented. Furthermore, some responsibility needs to be on the employer to make such a determination.

We must revise our current laws to allow legal and secure immigration.

I am disappointed that the House bill did not contain a sensible, nonamnesty guest-worker provision. We have the opportunity to take the lead on this aspect of immigration policy and it would be a mistake to ignore it.

A good guest-worker statute recognizes that folks from around the world desire to work in the to earn good wages and to help their families, and these workers add to the value of our country and its economy.

A guest-worker statute should ensure that the guest-worker is not a criminal, is not associated with a terrorist organization, is healthy and has an employer-sponsor. The employer must have some responsibility to actually hire this person for the entire duration of the worker's time in the and notify the proper agency if the worker changes or leaves the employer.

As the great nation we are, we should welcome those who want to contribute and not accept those who refuse to live under our rule of law.

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