CNN "American Morning" - Transcript

Interview

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. President Obama hopes a speech that he'll deliver in just a few hours will generate support for immigration reform. The president wants what he calls a comprehensive approach to fixing the system and he says, Democrats can't do it alone.

Joining us to offer both sides of this hot button issue from Washington, Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California and on Capitol Hill, California Republican Brian Bilbray also of California.

Congresswoman Sanchez, let me start with you. You know, two wars, replacing General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan, the struggling economy, the oil spill. A lot on the president's plate right now. Why bring this up now?

REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, first of all, it's long overdue. It has been a long time since 1996, since we had a reform bill. We need one because, first of all, it is about the economy. When the economy turns around. We'll need more workers than the ones we have in the United States. So we have to get ready for that. And we should have a process that works where people can come and work here.

Secondly, it's about tearing apart our families. Usually, it's a mother who gets taken away from her children and gets deported. Her children are left behind. And that's not a good thing. That's not what we stand for. But more importantly, as the vice chair of the Homeland Security Committee, I will tell you, I have limited resources. We have limited resources to really train those resources on terrorists who want to do us harm. And so we need to be able to sort of get rid of that haystack of other people who are coming here in an illegal way.

ROBERTS: Right.

SANCHEZ: So that we can open the door to those who want to come and work. We know who they are. And of course, we've been doing that by trying to fortify our borders, both on the northern, the southern border. But also our maritime borders, all our coastal system is also a subject to that.

ROBERTS: Congressman Bilbray, all of these laws that are being passed at the state and local levels, state of Arizona SV 1070, a law that was recently passed in Fremont, Nebraska. Immigration is supposed to be a federal issue. Does the federal government need to step in now and do something about it?

REP. BRIAN BILBRAY (R), CALIFORNIA: Yes, John. And they should. They should not make the same mistake they did in '96, OF rewarding people for being here illegally. But call on everybody who work together on the bipartisan bill. The Schuler bill which had, you know, over 230 supporters in the last Congress.

The president should abandon the concept of going back to the '86 law and trying to do amnesty again. Let's do something we can all agree on. Let's concentrate on the employment magnet. That's what's (INAUDIBLE) in it. Let's create a simple system and require everybody to use e-verify. A program that the president has agreed for not only the federal government, for all the contractors.

Let's do what we can do together right now, rather than holding out for another amnesty program. We can do this.

ROBERTS: So -

BILBRAY: Bipartisan efforts have been done and people on both sides of the aisle agree, let's concentrate on the employers. Let's concentrate on the simple system of verification, and only after we control illegal immigration should we be talking about any of these other stuff that's being piled in and holding the process hostage.

ROBERTS: Congressman Bilbray, do you believe that if you implemented the e-verify system and you put the onus on employers not to hire undocumented aliens that these people will simply go home? I mean, what do you do with undocumented aliens who are already in this country? BILBRAY: Well, first you do is you stop paying them to stay here. Second of all, you do not tell the world that you're going to reward illegal immigration. I spent most of my time -

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: Sure, sure. But again, what do you do? Do they go home? What do you do with them?

BILBRAY: Either a great majority of them will be return down there but we address that issue after we've secured our borders and our workplace. Because while you're talking about, talking about rewarding illegal immigration, how do you expect people around the world to expect that we're going to enforce it when we're openly discussing that we're going to reward 12 to 20 million people with permanent residency if not citizenship because they broke the law. You can't ask people not to come here when you make that kind of an announcement.

ROBERTS: OK. On this issue of border security, the president says he's going to send 1,200 more National Guard troops down to the border. That's not good enough for Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and she's up for reelection this year, so it's a hot button issue for her.

Here's an ad that she's running. Let's take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: He promised that we would get word from his administration on what they were going to do to secure the border. Well, we finally got the message - these signs. These signs, calling our desert an active drug and human smuggling area.

This is an outrage. Washington says our border is as safe as it has ever been. Does this look safe to you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Congressman Sanchez, Governor Brewer met with the president. That's where she got assurances of greater border security. They got some signs.

Is the president doing enough on border security?

REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: Well let me say that this Congress and the president have grown, for example, our border patrol from 4,000 people five years ago to 20,000 border patrol now. A majority of that is put on our southern border, even though our terrorists have come - all known terrorists that have come across have come across the northern border or through our airports.

Secondly, we have more assets, meaning, you know, those planes that fly around that take a look at what's going on there, more stuff from our DOD, from our Departments of Defense. I have things that I can't even talk to you about that we are doing on the border. So, this whole insinuation that somehow we have not done anything is incorrect, including, by the way, now we are stopping traffic before it goes into Mexico to get cash and to get the - the guns that are sold from the 7,000 gun shops that are within five miles of that Mexican border. There are a lot of things we can do. We have also done quite a bit.

ROBERTS: Congressman Bilbray, final word to you here, do you agree?

Is enough being done on the border?

REP. BRIAN BILBRAY (R), CALIFORNIA: No, now (INAUDIBLE). I was born and raised on the border. The fence is working, but we're never going to control the border until we control our employment facilities that are the draw. If you eliminate the employment facilities, you reduce overwhelmingly the majority of people who'll be crossing that border.

But we've got to be tough enough to be willing to tell our friends, sorry, big employers, they're not going to be able to continue to exploit this cheap, illegal labor anymore. But until we're able to tell our friends no more cheap labor, you're not going to be able to control that border. You're playing a shell game.

We need to control all the employment facilities in the United States, and then you'll see the border problem being reduced down to the drug smuggling problem that we can manage.

ROBERTS: All right. We'll be looking forward to the president's statement today.

Congressman Bilbray, Congresswoman Sanchez, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for coming in.

BILBRAY: Thank you very much, John.

Source