The President spoke to the Association of Builders and Contractors yesterday. Here is an excerpt of his speech dealing with the immigration reform business:Supporting free enterprise also means building an immigration system that upholds our laws and keeps this economy strong. You have made comprehensive immigration reform one of your top legislative priorities, and I thank you for your commitment on this vital issue. And it is a vital issue. We have worked -- Carlos Gutierrez and Michael Chertoff, two members of my Cabinet, have worked very closely with others in my administration with Republicans and Democrats in the United States Senate to produce a bipartisan immigration bill. And it took a lot of work. It took -- many months of intense negotiations. And it represents the best hope for lasting reform.The Executive Branch is charged with enforcing our laws not securing jobs for illegal aliens...
I was disappointed last week when the bill was temporarily withdrawn by the Senate Majority Leader. Leaders of both parties since then have expressed their commitment to resolving the issues that led to the setback and bring the bill back to the floor. And I appreciate that commitment and I urge them to do so as quickly as possible so Congress can pass, and I can sign this year, comprehensive immigration reform. (Applause.)I was elated when the bill went down in flames and I fully expect that a similar result will happen again and again until we have enforcement first.
The need for reform is urgent. Our immigration system has been broken for many years. Most Americans agree that the 1986 immigration law failed; it didn't work. It failed because it did not secure our border. It failed because it did not create a reliable system for employers to verify the legal status of their workers. And it encouraged more people to come to America illegally. It didn't work, and it needs to be fixed. When you find something that doesn't work, you have a responsibility to fix it.The system has been broken? Really? You think so? And what exactly is broken? Could it be that we have millions of illegal aliens in our country? Shouldn't we do something about that first?
The number of illegal immigrants in our country has continued to grow. And illegal immigration is now supported by criminal enterprises. In other words, there are people who are preying on these folks that are coming to do work that Americans aren't doing. You've got a whole system of coyotes -- those are smugglers -- human smugglers taking advantage of a broken system. You've got document forgers -- people wanting to work and they know they've got to have some papers, and there are people, a whole industry of people providing them with false documents. People are being exploited as a result of a broken system, and this isn't right. We can do better.You say that like this is a bad thing yet you continue to refuse to do anything about this problem first.
I understand Americans are skeptical about immigration reform. There's a lot of people saying, well, there's just no possible way that they can achieve important objectives -- after all, they tried in '86 and they failed. People are -- have got a lot of emotions on this issue. You probably hear it in coffee shops, talking about the issue. People are very emotional about immigration reform. And people have got different perspectives on a course of action. Most say -- many say the most important issue is to secure the border. Others say an important part of immigration reform is to find the workers they need to help a growing economy. Still others say that it's important to resolve the status of 12 million people already here illegally, and help immigrants assimilate into our society. There are varieties of opinions about this subject.You are damned right I'm skeptical, Mr. President. How many times have we heard you say that you'd do something about enforcement first and then just moved along to shamnesty? We can resolve the status of the illegals after we know wh othe hell they are Mr. President and not a moment before...
I believe that we must address all these concerns in order to have an effective system. And that's why I strongly support comprehensive immigration reform. And I appreciate you understanding that in order to have a system that works, all the issues must be addressed. (Applause.) By moving forward with the bill in the Senate, we will make our border more secure. In other words, if you're worried about border security, you ought to be supporting this bill.The only "comprehensive" immigration reform that will be effective is the one that deals with enforcement first. Had you actually done enforcement first, we'd be in a position to deal with the status issue by now...but you passed the buck...and we still need the enforcement first.
For decades, we have not been in complete control of the border. I was honored to be the governor of Texas; I know something about a large border with Mexico. And we weren't in control of that border. A lot of people then say, well, if you hadn't been in control, do you have the capacity to secure the border? You'll hear a lot of people here say, well, since you didn't do it in the past, you can't do it in the future. In other words, people are worried about that issue.And if you think we don't need enforcement first in a post-9/11 world, Mr. President, you ought to resign right now...
The first step to comprehensive reform must be to enforce immigration laws at the border and at work sites across the country. The administration -- our administration has taken significant steps, by the way, to increase border security and work site enforcement. Since I've took office we've more than doubled funding for border security. There's a focused effort, by the way, to do what many Americans want us to do, which is to secure the border. We've expanded the number of Border Patrol agents from about 9,000 to about 13,000. We've set our nation on the course to double the size of the Border Patrol during my presidency. In other words, we're going to add another 5,000 agents.And yet, we still have problems. Doesn't that mean that you haven't done enough enforcement first, Mr. President?
I was in Artesia, New Mexico, to a border training center. I watched these good folks prepare for this very important job. We've increased the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents -- I'm sure you understand what an ICE agent is -- from about 8,000 in 2002 to more than 11,000. In other words, on the enforcement side, we've made some serious efforts to do what the American people expect us to do.Of course, ICE is under the command of a political flunky instead of a competent manager...
There used to be a problem with catch and release -- Border Patrol agents would find somebody trying to sneak into our country illegally; they would say, we caught you, now report back to the local immigration court so you can have your hearing, because there was no place to hold these good people -- or these people. And guess what would happen? They'd head off into society and say, see you later, and never return for the court date.There is still a problem with catch and release, Mr. President...I hate to be the one to break it to you. Only now, the feds just don't show up at all to take the illegals...
So we worked with Congress and expanded the number of beds on our border, and we've effectively ended -- effectively ended catch and release.HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'd laugh some more if it weren't such a serious issue...
I want -- I want to tell you a statistic that may surprise you. Last year, we apprehended and sent home more than about 1.1 million people entering our country illegally. Now think about that. In one year alone, our Border Patrol agents and law enforcement agents found 1.1 million people coming into our country illegally, and sent them home. They're working hard down there, and they're making progress. People are doing the jobs we expect them to do, and now we're going to build on this progress.And just what is the statistic for the number of people who did make it through, Mr. President? I suspect that number will tell you why we need enforcement first.
So this bill sets clear benchmarks for border security that must be met before other elements of this legislation are triggered. We make a priority of securing the border. These benchmarks include further increasing Border Patrol agents, building miles of fencing and modernizing the border. You can't fence the whole border, but you can use fencing in a way to help known -- to help stop people at known crossing points. It's a smart part of making sure the border is secure, along with other ways to modernize the border -- berms, and electronics, and UAVs. We're going to improve our surveillance capability. We're modernizing the border. It hadn't been that way. We're making progress to modernize that border.You CAN fence the whole border...and we should. We should also install a very large Gate on that Fence as well...
As for benchmarks...none of these benchmarks actually measure a useful statistic... The number of illegal aliens in this country must be significantly reduced to a manageble number, Mr. President. We have to know who is here...and THAT is the only benchmark that matters. It's called enforcement first.
It also includes benchmarks for giving honest employers the tools to verify that they're hiring legal workers. Most people want to comply with the law. I know you do. Yet, it's awfully hard for you to be a document verifier. (Applause.) It's a burden to place on small business owners, to say, okay, you've got to make sure that the documents that look real are real. The document forgers are good, they know what they're doing. They're preying on innocent people who want to simply find work, to put food on the table back at home.Banks seem to be able to do this...the IRS seems to be able to do this... What is the problem? The problem is that you don't want to fine business and punish their leaders for breaking the law. And that is the real problem here, Mr. President.
And so the bill we're talking about says, okay, enough is enough when it comes to document forgery; we'll create a tamper-resistant identity card for foreign workers, and a mandatory electronic system for verifying employment eligibility. This will make sure that you're complying with the law, that you don't have to guess, that you don't hope you're dealing with some forged document. It will make it easier for you to do your -- run your businesses, and at the same time, it will make it easier for the government to punish those who hire illegal immigrants -- knowingly hire illegal immigrants. In other words, it gives us a chance to enforce the law. And that's what the American people want.We want enforcement first, Mr. President.
It's important for the people to know that their government is serious about meeting these benchmarks. One common concern is whether the government will provide the resources to meet the goals in the bill. They say, it's fine to talk about it, are you actually going to do something? To answer these concerns I support an amendment that will provide $4.4 billion in immediate additional funding for securing our borders and enforcing our laws at the work site. This funding will come from the fines and penalties that we collect from those who have come to our country illegally.Well, Mr. President, how about setting benchmarks that are consistent with the concept known as Enforcement First? I might take you seriously on this issue if you would advocate enforcement first...
By matching our benchmarks with these critical funds, we're going to show the American people that the promises in this bill will be kept. And so I call on the senators to pass this amendment and show the American people that we're going to do our jobs of securing this border once and for all.$4.4 million of pork is not enforcement first, Mr. President. It is yet another attempt by your administration to throw money at a situation that requires action...
Enforcement first, Mr. President, is what we need before we can consider shamnesty.
