[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 83 (Friday, May 28, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4567-S4568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ILLEGALITY AT THE BORDER

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, we had a number of votes this week, 
including one last night in the Armed Services Committee concerning 
whether to utilize the National Guard to confront the raging illegality 
that is occurring particularly in the Tucson sector of Arizona. It is a 
national crisis. The American people fully understand that.
  President Obama announced, with some fanfare, that he would send 
1,200 National Guard troops to the border. To some, that may have 
sounded like a good thing. It is certainly not a bad thing. But the 
truth is, President Bush, under Operation Jumpstart, had 6,000 National 
Guard at the border at one point, and they made a positive difference. 
The immigration and Border Patrol people were very complimentary of the 
National Guard. They repeatedly stated how much it helped them do their 
job. Since that period, a lot of developments have occurred on the 
border that have put us in a much better position to be effective in 
ending this massive illegality than had been the case previously. For 
example, we have completed close to 350 miles of pedestrian fencing and 
almost 300 miles of vehicle fencing along the Southern border. Though 
this only half of the 700 miles of reinforced pedestrian fencing 
mandated by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, it is a good start. President 
Bush reluctantly signed that bill into law, and started the process of 
building fencing and vehicle barriers. Much of it is has been completed 
now, but we still need to finish what Congress mandated. The fence has 
multiplied the capabilities of law enforcement officers in many sectors 
along the border. In addition, the Operation Streamline concept that 
had begun under the Bush administration in certain sectors of the 
border is working superbly and is a valuable tool. Other steps have 
been taken, including increasing the number of Border Patrol agents we 
authorized several years ago. They are just now coming on line and have 
been trained. So we have a lot more agents at the border.
  The number of people being arrested at the border remains 
unacceptable, but it is better than it has been. The numbers are down 
and, in some sectors, down dramatically. For example, in the Yuma 
sector of Arizona, about 6,900 people were arrested at the border 
trying to enter the country illegally in 2009. That may sound like a 
lot--and it is--but it is much less than the over 118,000 apprehended 
in 2006. In fact, that is a 94 percent decrease in just three years. 
But in the Tucson sector, where we have old fencing and limited 
Operation Streamline in effect, over 240,000 were arrested last year--a 
stunning number. Over a million pounds of marijuana were seized as part 
of that enforcement effort in the Tucson sector. That is what has 
caused such a pushback by the people of Arizona.
  The President and Washington say: It is our job to end illegality at 
the border. You can't do anything. You have no jurisdiction. We don't 
want you to do anything.
  That is not correct legally. I have done research on that point. A 
local law enforcement officer can stop and detain a person whom he 
identifies as being in the country illegally and turn them over to the 
Federal Government for the crime of entering the country illegally and 
for the crime of any other Federal offense they ascertain. This is 
classical law. It is well recognized. There is no dispute about it.
  The people of Arizona rightly have gotten a bellyful. Their hospitals 
are being overrun. Crime is up. Phoenix is now the second leading 
kidnapping center in the world, second only to Mexico City in 
kidnappings, apparently.
  It is not acceptable. It is a Federal responsibility. It is the 
President's responsibility. The President is the chief law enforcement 
officer. The ICE agents, the Border Patrol agents, Homeland Security, 
and the Defense Department are under the executive branch, of which the 
President is the head. I have been through this. We have talked about 
this. I made a speech before the last election and went into detail 
about what it would take to end the illegality at the border. It is not 
hard. It can be done. But we have to have the President committed.
  Congress can pass laws. We can send money and force it on the 
departments. But if they are not willing to utilize it and apply it in 
an effective way, then we have problems.
  Someone came up with the idea of having a virtual fence. They were 
going to apply that concept. We have now spent over $1.1 billion to 
create this virtual fence and it didn't work. In fact, Secretary 
Napolitano has suspended work on the project. But if we build a fence 
with a good response time from Border Patrol agents, it makes a big 
difference. Go to Yuma or El Passo to see what that means. The 
President needs to lead.
  What would we expect to happen? I have always believed the normal, 
natural thing is that the President would come to Congress and say: The 
borders are wide open. We have had 240,000 people arrested in the 
Tucson sector. This is unacceptable. I need A, B, C, and D, Congress. 
Give it to me. We will end this.
  He should be telling us what he needs--unless, of course, we have no 
real desire to end the illegality, which is the case. Why? Because of 
politics, apparently, and some promise that must have been made in the 
last campaign that, we are not going to do anything significant at the 
border until those people in Congress give us amnesty. That is what 
comprehensive immigration reform is, in the minds of the pro-
immigration crowd. They say: We won't fix the border until you agree to 
give us amnesty.
  The American people have seen that before. It doesn't work. We did it 
in 1986. If we don't end the illegality and we grant amnesty, it sends 
a message to the world. And what message is that? If someone can get 
into the United States illegally, if they can burrow in a little bit 
and hold on, pretty soon they will get amnesty, too. They come in. They 
get work. Nobody complains if they are working. They hang on and hang 
on, and they get amnesty.
  This eviscerates the American legal system. It makes a mockery of the 
law. It sends a message to the world: Come on down. Come on into our 
country in violation of our laws. We will welcome you and eventually 
make you a citizen. And those of you who want to come lawfully, you 
have to fill out paperwork, and you have to wait. And if you have a 
relative to the right degree, you can get in. But if you graduated at 
the top of your high school class in Honduras and you learned English 
and you have a year of college, you don't have a relative or whatever, 
you have to wait in line, unless, of course, you come in and enter 
illegally.
  This is a dysfunctional legal system. We continue to see things 
develop that indicate to me that the views of the American people, 
which are sound and reasonable--they just want a lawful system of 
immigration; they are not against immigration; they are not against 
immigrants, but they are tired of this massive illegality--are not 
being listened to by the politicians. The politicians are saying things 
that are incorrect.
  President Obama said he cares about workplace enforcement. What 
happened right after he took office? Apparently a raid--planned maybe 
even before he took office--in the State of Washington at a company 
that had a large number of illegal workers occurred. What happened? The 
pro-illegal immigration crowd, La Raza, the activists, they were all up 
in arms. Basically, they said: You promised us you wouldn't do this, 
Mr. President.
  Wait a minute. I thought we had all the candidates saying we need to 
do better enforcement in the workplace. The jobs magnet does attract 
people

[[Page S4568]]

into the country. But did they have a secret agreement somewhere?
  What happened? Secretary Napolitano said she was going to have an 
investigation and get to the bottom of it. Was she investigating the 
company that had hired people illegally? No. She was investigating the 
ICE agents who conducted the raid. Do my colleagues think that didn't 
send a message throughout the entire United States about this 
administration's policy of aggressive worksite enforcement--that was 
the policy of the United States at that point--that we are not going to 
do it in any effective way? That is indisputable. That is what 
happened.
  This kind of duplicity is going to come home to roost. The American 
people are not going to continue to put up with it. Members of Congress 
who voted against the McCain amendment to put 6,000 National Guard on 
the border to end this violence and illegality that is occurring and 
threatening the very viability of the State of Arizona are going to 
have to answer for their votes. This is what democracy is all about.
  This all leads me to an article from, I guess, yesterday, a report 
from Washington. This is what the news article says:

       U.S. National Guard troops being sent to the Mexican border 
     will be used to stem the flow of guns and drugs across the 
     frontier and not to enforce U.S. immigration laws, the State 
     Department said Wednesday.

  Well, you know: You fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame 
on me.
  So I thought the President was saying he was sending 1,200 troops to 
the border to help end illegality at the border. But, oh, no, they are 
not doing that. We want to be sure everybody understands, it is only 
going to be for guns and drugs.
  Who do they want to understand this? Do they want the American people 
to understand it? I do not think so.
  The next sentence in the article:

       The clarification came after the Mexican government urged 
     Washington not to use the additional troops to go after 
     illegal immigrants.

  Philip Crowley, the State Department spokesperson, the flack from the 
State Department, told reporters, ``It's not about immigration.'' He 
said, ``We have explained the president's announcement to the 
government of Mexico, and they fully understand the rationale behind 
it.''
  Quoting the article further:

       Obama's announcement came less than a week after a state 
     visit to Washington by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who 
     asked for greater U.S. backing for a . . . war on drug 
     cartels.

  Well, who are we representing? Mr. Calderon and the Mexican 
Government or the American people? Is this another flimflam view? I am 
afraid it is. I can say it appears quite clearly it is, and it is not 
acceptable. So I think Congress is going to have to act.
  They did not want the fence. President Bush did not want the fence. 
But Congress, after the situation got so bad, appropriated the money 
and directed it be built, and it has had a great and positive benefit 
wherever the fence has been built.
  We know the history in San Diego when there was massive violence, 
massive illegality going on at the border. We know that occurred. We 
built the fence there and violence on both sides of the border went 
down. Economic growth on both sides of the border went up. Drugs and 
prostitution and other kinds of illegalities ended, and solid 
prosperity began to reoccur. You can not operate effectively in an area 
of violence and illegality and drugs.
  So the flow of guns is a Mexican complaint, that too many guns are 
being bought in the United States and taken to Mexico. I do not dispute 
that we should be effective in enforcing those laws. But I would 
suggest, having prosecuted more Federal gun violations than all other 
Members of this Senate put together, that the National Guard is not the 
kind of folks we need to prosecute guns going into Mexico. That should 
be done by ATF and the Border Patrol.
  So what does this say about the decision that the President said he 
is going to deploy 1,200 troops? I say it is just further proof it is 
not a serious commitment in any way. I do not know what they are going 
to be doing. I do not see how they can be helpful, and I am not being 
taken in by what appears to be a ruse. So they are not going to be used 
for immigration; they are going to be used for drugs and guns, which I 
think they will not be that particularly effective about. They are 
talking about guns going from the United States to Mexico. So those are 
the questions I have.
  What Congress needs to do, what the President needs to do, is to make 
a clear statement that illegality at our border will end. We will do 
what it takes to end it. It is within our power to do so. We made some 
progress already. We have about half as many arrests today along the 
whole border as we did just 6 or 7 years ago. It is because enforcement 
is much better than it was, and we are going to continue that. We are 
going to drive down dramatically this illegality, and we are going to 
effectively improve our immigration legal system so people can have 
some certainty about that and create a system that serves our national 
interest in the process.
  We are going to tell everybody in the world: Do not come to the 
border expecting to walk in. You are not going to be successful, and it 
will stop. It will go down dramatically. It already has in certain 
sectors. The word gets out. The word was out that the border was wide 
open and anybody could enter. When the word gets out that the border is 
closed, people will stop trying. So we will have a massive reduction in 
the attempts to enter, leaving fewer people for the Border Patrol to 
have to apprehend, and we will be having a spiral in the right way 
instead of the wrong way.
  So I think we are going to have more votes. I think people who cast a 
vote in opposition to Senator McCain's amendment, Senator Kyl's 
amendment, Senator Cornyn's amendment to take the steps that actually 
work to eliminate illegality at the border need to be answering to 
their constituents.
  I think it is time for Congress to step up. The President is not 
stepping up. Congress was able to make real progress a few years ago 
when we built the fence and did some other things that I worked very 
hard on. I believe we can make progress again. I think the American 
people have a way, eventually, of having their voices heard, and I 
think we are going to hear those voices more loudly, with more clarity, 
in the future.
  Somehow, some way, I believe the government is going to come around 
to affirm the legitimate demands of the American people. They have been 
right from the beginning. Their instincts, their character, should not 
be questioned. They simply want an effective immigration system, a 
lawful immigration system, and they believe it is an embarrassment and 
a disgrace to our country to have massive illegality going on, as it is 
today.
  I thank the Acting President pro tempore and yield the floor.

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