[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 92 (Friday, July 14, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S7549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, for a moment I wanted to address the 
subject of immigration before we leave for the weekend.
  About 2 months ago, I offered an amendment to the Senate immigration 
bill which at the time was referred to as a deal-breaker. I want to 
suggest that it is now being referred to as a deal-maker. I wish to 
offer some suggestions constructively for the Senate to consider and 
others who are involved in this debate.
  I want to repeat, for the benefit of everyone, what the amendment I 
offered and the distinguished Presiding Officer supported, as well as 
many other Members of the Senate--not enough but almost enough--simply 
said: That no program contained in the act that granted legal status to 
someone who was in America illegally could take effect until the 
Secretary of Homeland Security certified that all of the border 
security measures proposed in the act in title I and section 233 of 
title II were in force, funded, and operational.
  It has become known as a trigger because it said that any guest 
worker program or any other reform that took place could only take 
place after we had done the job the American people suggested we should 
do.
  A lot of people said: We can't secure our border. If we can 
transplant hearts and fly to the Moon, we can secure our border. What 
we have needed is resolve. I have been pleased to see just this week 
countless articles in countless newspapers where all of the players in 
the debate, from the White House to the Senate, the House of 
Representatives, have now opened themselves to discuss a trigger in the 
immigration reform bill to ensure that when we have immigration reform, 
it is truly comprehensive because I would suggest to them that in the 
absence of border security, there can be no comprehensive reform.
  Only when people know that the door is closed will they cooperate 
with not only the spirit but the letter of the law and the reforms that 
we make.
  Just to remind us in the Senate, we were very specific in title I. 
The specifics of title I said we will train the 6,000 Border Patrol 
agents and put them online. That takes 2 years to do. It said we will 
build the barriers where necessary geographically and the roads where 
essential. That is doable in 2 years. We will deploy the 27 UAVs, the 
eyes in the sky, to surveil the entire 2,000-mile southwestern border. 
That is doable, and it is doable within a year. We will build the 
detention facilities to end the catch-and-release practice and to begin 
to have true enforcement on the border. And we will have a verification 
program for guest workers and immigrants that is verifiable and not 
forgeable. That takes 2 years. So as a practical matter, as people have 
backed up from the original debate, they have looked forward. They now 
are seeing through the forest to look at the trees, and they say, yes, 
if we secure the border, it will take 2 years, but it is going to take 
2 years to implement whatever else we would do on worker reform as 
well.
  So folks are coming together. People are beginning to talk, and I am 
pleased with that--pleased with that because I am the grandson of an 
immigrant who came to this country, became a naturalized citizen, and I 
honor our immigration process. I am glad to see that because we depend 
on a workforce that is vibrant and dependable. And I am pleased to hear 
that because I believe the American people consider our border an 
emergency. And now that all the players are beginning to talk, 
hopefully we can close the deal.
  Mr. President, yesterday the distinguished Senator from Alabama, Mr. 
Sessions, offered two amendments to the Homeland Security bill. 
Although they failed, they laid the groundwork for what I think is an 
important step for us to take and that is to go ahead and move forward 
with what all of us agree are the necessary steps for border security. 
That is the foundation upon which we can reach the final agreements on 
guest worker, on green cards, on quotas, and on citizenship, but only 
after the American people are convinced we have made the commitment to 
secure our border will the American people want us to make any deal on 
reform of immigration.
  We pass emergency supplementals for various things in this body. We 
have done it in response to Katrina; we have done it in response to 
Iraq. I submit the American people would tell you there is no greater 
emergency than securing our border. If the White House sent an 
emergency supplemental to this Senate for the money to fund the UAVs, 
the 6,000 Border Patrol agents, and the rest of title I, I doubt we 
would see maybe one or two dissenters because everybody knows it is an 
emergency, they know it needs to be done. And if it is, in fact, 
correct, that border security first is the trigger for comprehensive 
reform which is necessary, then let's declare it an emergency. Let's 
have the proposal come to the floor, let's debate it, and let's fund 
it, so as the year progresses, as the hearings are done, as we come 
back in session in September, we in this Congress can deal with 
comprehensive reform built on the foundation of comprehensive border 
security first.
  Mr. President, I appreciate your cooperation and that of all the 
colleagues in this body as we work dealing with a very difficult and 
complicated but a very doable reform of our immigration laws. I 
appreciate the commitment of those so far in border security first, and 
I think in the end all of us together--the executive and legislative 
branches--can come together on comprehensive reform that is built on 
securing our border to ensure the reforms we make are lasting and 
agreed to.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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