[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 121 (Monday, September 25, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10062-S10063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor of the Senate today 
to talk about the importance of immigration reform in a comprehensive 
manner. We are in the last week of this legislative session before the 
November elections. It is obvious to me, in terms of what is going on 
in the country, that the leadership of the Senate, the Congress, and 
the White House has decided to allow politics to triumph over the very 
fundamental national purposes for which we have tried to work together 
with respect to comprehensive immigration reform.
  It is my hope that those speaking for principled immigration reform 
stand up and say that we are not going to let politics triumph over 
national security, that we are not going to let politics triumph over 
the rule of law, which is a central tenet of our Nation, basic to the 
stability of our Nation, and that we are not going to let politics 
triumph over the economic and human and moral realities with which we 
deal in immigration.
  As we move forward in the days ahead, dealing with this fence 
legislation, legislation that would create a fence across Arizona and 
Texas and Mexico and the possibility of a fence between the United 
States and Canada, I hope the voices of reason that brought Republicans 
and Democrats together on the floor of this Senate to say we needed 
comprehensive immigration reform, once again will say we reject 
piecemeal legislation that deals with creating a fence only because we 
know that will not be the answer for the comprehensive immigration 
reform we need.
  When I look at the map which has come out of the House of 
Representatives which would create a fence which would essentially 
follow the entire border of Arizona and large pieces of the Texas 
border, it seems to me what we are doing here in Washington is we are 
telling those States that we know better here in Washington where the 
fence ought to be located and we will authorize this fence to be built 
only in these particulars locations. We are, in fact, not listening to 
the Department of Homeland Security and to our Border Patrol officers 
who know there are places where it is appropriate for us to put a 
fence. Indeed, in our legislation here in the Senate, what we did is we 
authorized the construction of a fence, but we also recognized there 
was latitude to be given to those experts who are in charge of making 
sure we create a secure border.
  When I look at what we are trying to do in this debate which will 
take place with respect to the Secure Fence Act on the floor this year, 
I would like us to look back and see what was being said around the 
country with respect to immigration reform just a few months ago when 
we were debating immigration reform here on the floor of the Senate.
  Our Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary Chertoff, said this 
about the fence:

       Fencing has its place in some areas, but as a total 
     solution, I don't think it's a good solution.

  Secretary Chertoff, on February 9, 2006, also said the following:

       When you're dealing with the desert, for example, we don't 
     advocate putting a fence in the desert because it's more 
     efficient for us to intercept people when they're in the 
     desert at a place of our own choosing as opposed to being 
     forced to guard the entire fence, right up against the fence.

  From our friend, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, speaking about 
the fence, back in those days: ``I think that's contrary to our 
traditions,'' he said, noting that ``99.9 percent'' of illegal 
immigrants ``come across to seek a better life for their families. . . 
.'' This is from Attorney General Gonzales.
  He continued and said:

       I don't know if that would make much sense. We've got a 
     2,000-mile border. Because of natural geography, we don't 
     need a fence . . . along certain portions of that border. 
     Obviously, we believe it does make sense to have fencing 
     along certain areas of our border. We do have several hundred 
     miles of fencing currently, but the objective here is to make 
     sure we're being smart in securing our border.

  Commissioner W. Ralph Basham from Customs and Border Protection said:
  It doesn't make sense, it's not practical.
  We are in the last week of the legislative session, doing our 
business prior to the time we go out for elections. So what has 
happened here? What has happened here is people have decided to ride 
this horse of immigration reform, with all the divisiveness it has 
created around the country, to try to gain a political advantage in 
these November elections. It would be my hope that Democrats and 
Republicans of this body, who stood with the President in calling for 
comprehensive immigration reform, would stand by those principles and 
say: We are going to push forward for immigration reform that really 
works for our country because it addresses all aspects of the 
immigration issue we face in America.
  We as a Senate did that several months ago. I was very proud to have 
worked with people such as Senator McCain, Senator Graham, Senator 
Durbin, Senator Kennedy, and a whole host of other people who were 
involved in putting together what became a comprehensive immigration 
reform package. It was a law-and-order bill that we debated here on the 
floor for weeks and was ultimately adopted by a significant bipartisan 
group of Senators. It was a law-and-order bill because it dealt in a 
comprehensive way with the issue of immigration. It dealt in a 
comprehensive way with the recognition that we have a national security 
crisis on our hands that requires us to deal with immigration reform in 
a comprehensive way.
  The components of the legislative which we subsequently shepherded 
through the Senate included border security, strengthening our border. 
It included immigration law enforcement so we make sure that we as a 
nation uphold our tradition of being a nation of laws; that we enforce 
our immigration laws here in our country.
  It also includes huge registration penalties applying against those 
who have broken the law and have come to this country illegally.
  The law and order bill deserves the support of the Senate. It is my 
hope as we move forward in the debate on immigration this week that we 
return to that legislation and move that legislation as an amendment to 
the legislation which has been introduced in this body.
  Let me again quickly walk through to refresh my colleagues' memory 
about the components of this legislation which we felt so urgently was 
needed to deal with national security and the economic and human 
reality relating to the immigration issue.
  First, we all want our borders secure. We recognize we can't have a 
secure nation if we can't deal with the threats we face with homeland 
security unless we secure the border. We recognize the United States of 
America as a sovereign nation has a sovereign right to protect its 
borders. We need to make sure we are protecting our borders.
  We included in our legislation many aspects of a cross-border 
security solution. They included 12,000 new Border Patrol agents which 
we would add to our Border Patrol effort to make sure we have the right 
manpower to address the border security issue.
  In that legislation through an amendment that was sponsored by our 
friend from Alabama, we created additional fences that would be 
established along the border, some 370 miles of

[[Page S10063]]

fences that had been established and constructed in critical locations 
along the border.
  We provided new criminal penalties for construction of border tunnels 
to address what has happened in places where there are currently fences 
across borders; where people have created tunnels to dig under those 
fences to come to the United States. We added new checkpoints and 
points of entry throughout the entire border. We expanded the exit-
entry security system at all land borders and airports.
  Our legislation dealt in a comprehensive way moving forward to make 
sure we were creating a secure border. That was a key component of 
legislation we are dealing with.
  Beyond securing our borders, which is very essential as we put 
together this effort on comprehensive immigration reform, we also 
recognized that we as a nation must enforce our immigration laws. So we 
included in our legislation significant provisions to ensure we are 
enforcing those laws.
  We added 5,000 new investigators to help us enforce our laws. We 
established in that legislation 20 new detention facilities so we can 
effectively process those who are caught here in our country illegally. 
We included provisions in our legislation that would reimburse States 
for detaining and imprisoning criminal aliens. That is an issue which 
has affected local and State governments throughout our country.
  We included in our legislation requirements for a faster deportation 
process. We increased penalties for gang members, for money laundering, 
and human trafficking. We increased document fraud detection, and we 
created new fraudproof immigration documents for people who are here in 
this country with biometric identifiers.
  Finally, we expanded authority to remove suspected terrorists from 
our country.
  Looking at what we did in coming up with an immigration enforcement 
package in our country, we said we were going to ensure that we as a 
nation of laws would have a legal system in place that would in fact be 
enforceable and that we would put the resources behind that 
enforcement.
  We also dealt with another issue; that is, an issue that has caused 
so much controversy around this country. Essentially, it had to do with 
the question what do you do with 11 million or 12 million human beings 
currently residing in our country. We felt as a group of Democrats and 
Republicans working on this legislation that we needed to come up with 
a realistic and humane way of approaching the 12 million people who are 
here illegally in our country. These are the people who probably have 
cleaned the hotel rooms and motel rooms where most Americans stay. 
These are the people who are working at construction sites in each one 
of the our States around the country. These are the people who are the 
backbone of the agricultural workforce in places such as Idaho, 
Colorado, and throughout our great Nation.
  So we decided to come up with a program where we would deal with 
these 12 million people in an honest, realistic, and straightforward 
manner. We said we would require them to pay a fine. They have broken 
the law. They will be punished. They have broken the law and they will 
be punished by the requirements that they pay a fine for their illegal 
conduct. We require that they register with the U.S. Government. That 
is not a requirement for any U.S. citizen, but we require these people 
to step forward, to come out of the shadows and to register themselves 
with the U.S. Government.
  We require them to pay additional registration fees. We require them 
to learn English. We require them to learn American history and 
government. We require them to pass medical exams. And we require them 
to be continuously employed with a valid temporary visa.
  We came up with a program that the President himself has talked about 
in positive terms, where essentially we would bring these people to 
come out of the shadows. We require them to go to the back of the line. 
We require them to pay a penalty. We require them to learn English, and 
we require them to learn about American history as a realistic way of 
approaching the reality of 12 million human beings who live here in our 
country today.
  Let me come back and talk a little bit about the piecemeal approach--
this political approach which is being talked about here in the 
Congress today. It is in fact a piecemeal approach because all of those 
who have studied this issue recognize that unless we deal with 
immigration issues in a comprehensive way, it will not work. Many of us 
in this Chamber have had many conversations with the President of the 
United States about the need for comprehensive immigration reform. On 
August 3 of this year, in a public statement, the President said:

       I'm going to talk today about comprehensive immigration 
     reform. I say comprehensive because unless you have all five 
     pieces working together it's not going to work at all.

  This is the President of the United States saying it is not going to 
work at all unless we do this in a comprehensive manner.
  In another statement, he said the following:

       We will fix the problems created by illegal immigration, 
     and we deliver a system that is secure, orderly, and fair. So 
     I support comprehensive immigration reform that will 
     accomplish these five objectives.

  That was the President of our country.
  He said in another statement on May 15 of 2006 the following:

       Some in this country argue that the solution is to deport 
     every illegal immigrant, and that any proposal short of this 
     amounts to amnesty. I disagree. It is neither wise nor 
     realistic to round up millions of people, many with deep 
     roots in the United States, and send them across the border. 
     There is a rational middle ground.

  That is from the President's Presidential address of May 15, 2006.
  On May 15, on that same day, he said the following:

       An immigration reform bill needs to be comprehensive, 
     because all elements of this problem must be addressed 
     together, or none of them will be solved at all. Congress can 
     pass a comprehensive bill for me to sign into law.

  That is what the President of the United States has asked us as a 
Congress to do. That was what Democrats and Republicans in this Chamber 
came together to do several months ago.
  It would be my hope as we consider the legislation which we will be 
debating this week that we take the statements of the President, the 
statements that have been made by members of his administration, and 
statements made here on the floor, and that we address this issue of 
immigration reform in a manner that is truly going to work as opposed 
to addressing it in a piecemeal manner as has been suggested by the 
legislation which we will be considering.
  I conclude by asking my colleagues in the Senate today to make sure 
as we move forward to not let politics triumph over the national 
security issue of the broken borders that we face today; that we as a 
Senate do not let politics triumph over the rule of law which makes us 
have the kind of country we can all be very proud of because we abide 
by the rule of law; that we as a country make sure we stand up for the 
human and moral issues that are very much on stage in this debate over 
immigration reform. Those issues should take precedence over a 
political agenda which is obviously unfolding with this legislation 
that has been brought to the floor of the Senate today.
  Finally, I ask the White House, President Bush, to end the silence on 
this issue. President Bush has been working on this issue for a long 
time. He is a former Governor of a border State. He knows what is at 
stake on this issue. I hope the White House can provide this body and 
the House of Representatives with the kind of guidance they were 
providing us when we were dealing with the issue some months ago.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, how much time is allocated in morning 
business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 37 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. For each speaker, is there a time limitation?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On the Democratic side, 37 minutes remain.

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