[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H373-H374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE REAL ID ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. Speaker, the House is scheduled tomorrow to take up 
the REAL ID Act which, among other things, will prevent illegal 
immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses. It will require States to 
issue driver's licenses to foreign nationals that expire no later than 
their visas expire, and it will expedite the completion of a fence 
along the U.S.-Mexico border along California.
  Last year the bill's author, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Chairman 
Sensenbrenner), took a lot of grief for holding up passage on the 
intelligence reform bill over many of these provisions. The press and 
others lambasted the gentleman from Wisconsin (Chairman Sensenbrenner) 
for holding up an important piece of legislation over what they called 
``unrelated immigration provisions.'' I want to commend the chairman 
for hanging tough.
  This debate has, unfortunately, been cast as one that pits those who 
support the President's temporary worker plan with those who support 
the provisions in the REAL ID Act. Nothing could be further from the 
truth.

[[Page H374]]

  There is no greater supporter of President Bush's proposals to reform 
our immigration laws in this body than I am. I believe that a 
comprehensive temporary worker plan is the best way to enhance national 
security at the border. Support for a temporary worker plan is 
consistent with support for the gentleman from Wisconsin's (Chairman 
Sensenbrenner) bill. In fact, I voted against the intelligence reform 
bill last year precisely because the gentleman from Wisconsin's 
(Chairman Sensenbrenner) provisions were not included. Further, the 
provision on driver's licenses in the Sensenbrenner bill largely mirror 
provisions that I introduced in a bill in 2002.
  Critics of the President's immigration reform bill use words like 
``unsafe,'' ``insecure,'' and ``dangerous'' when talking about a 
temporary worker plan. But those of us who advocate such a program are 
no less concerned about national security than our counterparts. In 
fact, national security is probably the best case that can be made for 
a meaningful temporary worker program.
  Right now we have somewhere between 8 and 15 million illegal 
immigrants in this country. The vast majority of these people came here 
simply to work, but we can be sure that a small number are here with 
more sinister intentions. But given the number of illegal immigrants 
who are here in the country, trying to find the terrorists, the drug 
smugglers, the human traffickers amounts to trying to find a needle in 
a haystack. But if we can offer a framework under which workers can 
register to legally come to this country and work, we can drastically 
reduce the size of that haystack and focus our resources on finding the 
needles.
  Some will say that rather than implementing a temporary worker 
program, we simply need to enforce the laws against illegal immigration 
that are on the books. That is all well and good, Mr. Speaker, but 
enforcing the current law would require that we round up everyone who 
is here illegally and ship them home. Remember, there are as many as 10 
million illegal workers here right now. I have not heard one of my 
colleague seriously recommend that we round all of them up and send 
them home, yet that is what enforcing the law means.
  That said, it seems to me that we have just two choices. We can put 
in place a temporary worker program and register those who are working 
here illegally, or we can continue to pretend they do not exist, thus 
forcing them to work in the shadows, as they have been doing for years 
now. The latter course is obviously not in the best interest of our 
Nation's security.
  This brings me back to the debate on tomorrow's REAL ID Act. I 
suspect that in the debate tomorrow on this House floor, there will be 
talk about how these measures cut down and crack down on illegal 
immigration. As important as this legislation is, it will do little to 
deal with the problem of illegal immigration. These provisions will 
help red-flag those who are currently in the country illegally, we all 
remember that many of the hijackers were issued valid driver's licenses 
that expired long after their visas did, but they will not do much to 
keep more illegal aliens from coming here and working in the shadows.
  There is much more we need to do, Mr. Speaker, and it must start with 
an honest discussion about how we deal with this country's labor needs 
as well as our national security needs. I look forward to beginning 
that discussion as soon as we pass this legislation.

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