[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 125 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10504-S10505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I would like to move to another topic, 
and that is back to the issue of immigration and the fence bill with 
which we are dealing.
  A lot of people have talked about a variety of implications of this 
legislation. To my mind, one of the principal considerations is the 
issue of national security.
  The 9/11 Commission stated in the preface of its report that:

       It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan 
     and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable 
     to enter the country.

  That is obvious, but it is an important statement to be made that one 
of the things we must do to help secure this country is to make sure we 
have a better immigration policy, whether it is a legal immigration 
policy and people coming here legally, properly screened for legal 
immigration, or people who are coming in.
  One of the things we are hearing is there are a lot more people 
coming across the southern border who are being picked up who are not 
Mexicans, who are not from Latin America. They are coming from other 
countries, other places around the world. This becomes an increasing 
concern with the porous southern border.
  I commend the House for putting forth this bill. This is a very 
important part of an initiative that I have been talking about since 
the Senate passed an immigration bill which I said was, in my opinion, 
a misstep. I offered a package of legislation called the border 
security first approach, which is: Let's focus on the border. Let's 
focus on first things first. If we have a problem with 11 million 
people and growing, people who are in this country illegally, the first 
thing we should do is stop the growth. We should take a problem that 
now looks to be an infinite problem, an ever-growing problem, and make 
it a finite problem with a specific number of people who are here. But 
the idea that we are going to solve the problem of illegal immigrants 
by dealing with this, as the Senate bill did, by legalizing people who 
are here illegally without solving the problem of more and more people 
coming--in fact, being another beacon for more people to come because 
if they do come, and they get here illegally, we are going to legalize 
them at some point--it just, in my mind, is putting the cart before the 
horse. We need to put the horse out there, and the horse is stopping 
the problem from getting worse. That means border security.

  A key element of border security that I think is obvious--certainly 
obvious to the American public; it is an 80-20 issue in my State--is to 
construct more physical barriers. That is what this legislation does.
  It is important not just from the standpoint of the 9/11 Commission 
and terrorists, but what we are seeing in our State--again, we are far 
from the border--is an-ever increasing problem of illegal immigrants in 
illegal activity in our Commonwealth. We had the U.S. attorney for the 
eastern district at a press conference where I announced a $2.5 million 
grant to deal with the 222 corridor from Lancaster leading up into the 
Lehigh Valley. We have an explosion of gang activity there, much of it 
driven by illegal immigrants and a whole new crop of gangs from south 
of the border that are causing problems in that 222 corridor. We were 
able to get a Justice Department grant to help, but I think it points 
out the problem.
  Hazleton, a sleepy little town, the wonderful little town of Hazleton 
has gotten on the map because of the problems illegal immigrants--
criminal problems, drug problems, gang problems--have brought into that 
community.
  It is a continuing problem. Just last week, Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement arrested 100 criminals who were illegal aliens and other 
folks who were immigrants out of status living throughout Pennsylvania, 
all the way from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.
  Among those arrested were sex offenders, people who have committed 
burglaries, larcenies, robberies, criminal trespass, weapons 
violations, narcotics violations, aggravated assaults, resisting 
arrest, fraud, et cetera. All of

[[Page S10505]]

these people were wanted on these charges. So this is not just a 
national security problem, but it is also a personal security problem 
when we are not regulating the people coming into this country, when we 
are allowing anyone with any record or with any intent to come into 
this country.
  Again, that is the right of every country to do: to make sure our 
citizens are safe, and we have a way to accomplish that. I think this 
fence bill will be a step in the right direction.
  Other ways in which people in this country are violating Americans, 
not just through potential terrorist activity and criminal activity, 
but another criminal activity that we are seeing more and more of--and 
we heard some cases during the debate--is identity theft.
  A woman came to my attention. A constituent contacted us by the name 
of Laurie Beers who had her Social Security number stolen by an illegal 
immigrant. She is a nurse who, as part of her job, is constantly 
traveling. She learned her information had been stolen and misused. She 
did everything she was supposed to do: contacted the FTC, reported it 
to the identity theft hotline, contacted the credit bureaus, on and 
on--obviously, contacted the FBI.
  In response she found out, yes, she was a victim of identity theft. 
She contacted the IRS. She was told that the man using her Social 
Security number is an illegal immigrant. After talking to the FBI and 
Secret Service, they confirmed the person is an illegal immigrant who 
has been working for an employer in New York City and has been filing 
income tax returns under her Social Security number.
  Obviously, she was upset that a man working in New York was using her 
Social Security number to file income taxes for 3 years. She contacted 
the employer of that man who has been anything but cooperative in 
resolving this situation. In fact, she has reported they have been 
downright nasty.
  She is lucky her credit hasn't been destroyed. But this man has, 
unfortunately, with her Social Security number passed some bad checks, 
and now she can't use checks at Wal-Mart and other stores because of 
her Social Security number being linked to the passage of bad checks.
  That is just one example. Is it a big deal in the security of 
America? No, but it is a big deal if you are the person who is a victim 
of identify theft. So we see this as one ``small example,'' but big in 
her life, as well as thousands of other Americans who have been 
affected by the stealing of Social Security numbers.
  This is an issue we need to address. We need to get this bill done 
this year. We need to step away from the bad provisions that the Senate 
passed, which I can go into in great detail, but they have been 
discussed over and over, everything, again, from legalizing people who 
committed illegal activity by first stepping into this country, to the 
Social Security issue, and a lot of others.
  My time has expired. I thank, again, the leadership, Bill Frist, for 
moving and pushing this bill. Let's hope for Senate passage today and a 
start to dealing with the issue of illegal immigration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I believe I have 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.

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