Issue Position: Immigration

Issue Position

Issue Position: Immigration

America is a land of immigrants. Most of us, my family included, descend from immigrants. The Third District has been fortunate enough to have a large number of hard-working Hispanic Americans move here to help grow our economy. But, as you know, we have lost control of America's borders. In today's world, this is not acceptable. We have to secure our borders and fix the system by which immigrants come to this country.

I supported a comprehensive bill to reform immigration and secure the borders, H.R. 4437. To strengthen the border, I support more personnel for the Border Patrol and Customs, and I back the use of military, if necessary. New technologies can and should be used to improve our border security and keep out illegal immigrants, and the drug smugglers and possible terrorists who hide among them.

American businesses must be held responsible, too. I support making verification of the citizenship status of all employees mandatory. It takes just a minute or two and can be done on-line by any employer. This will likely have the helpful side effect of reducing other types of identity theft as well.

I do not and will not support any amnesty provision in any legislation. We should not reward people who break the law with amnesty. I also believe that not enforcing the laws on the books is unfair to immigrants who have legally come here and to U.S.-born citizens. During my time in Congress, I have always voted against amnesty and I will continue to do so.

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