[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 29, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H1299-H1300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND BORDER SECURITY

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim the 
time of the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Tennessee?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, you know, as we have heard on this floor 
tonight, Americans are paying attention to the illegal immigration 
issue and all of us here have received call after call after call from 
our constituents. And, you know, they are not asking much. They simply 
want us to enforce our border security. And, Mr. Speaker, I agree with 
this. This is not some earth-shattering policy change, it is a matter 
of enforcing the laws that are on our books.
  Republicans passed legislation to strengthen the border late last 
year, and we did it with very little Democratic support. That has to 
change. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe the lawlessness 
and the disregard for our laws inherent in illegal immigration is 
damaging to our society and a serious, serious risk to our national 
security.
  We have watched some try to equate legal immigration and legal 
immigrants with those whose first act, their very first act coming into 
this country is breaking a law.

                              {time}  1945

  It is breaking our law by running across the border. That is an 
insult to every individual who complied with our policies and followed 
the appropriate process to get here. For too long we have overlooked or 
even rewarded those who broke the law, and it is time for that to stop. 
It has to stop.
  I want to share with you something one of my constituents asked me in 
a meeting while we were on our break. He said ``Marsha, I hear that 
some of the people in Washington want to provide amnesty to those who 
are breaking our immigration laws, to those who are illegally entering 
our country.'' He said, if you are going to let people pick and choose 
and decide which laws they want to have amnesty from, then I

[[Page H1300]]

want amnesty from the IRS. And he said that I have a friend who runs a 
small manufacturing plant, he wants to have amnesty from OSHA.
  You know, you cannot disagree with comments like that.
  Mr. Speaker, this debate is that simple. We are either going to be a 
nation of laws or we are not. Border security is a necessity. The 
Republican Party is the party pushing to strengthen those borders. 
Americans need to let those opposed to our efforts hear their voices. 
And I thank all of my constituents who are speaking out loud and clear 
on this issue.

                          ____________________