[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 29, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S342-S344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, let me begin by thanking the senior 
Senator from the State of Florida, who a few moments ago made some very 
kind remarks about me, and I appreciate that very much. Let me just say 
he is the best python hunter in the Senate. For those who don't know 
what I am talking about, they can look it up in the newspaper accounts 
of Senator Nelson's endeavors of a few weeks ago in the Everglades. So 
I look forward to working with him, and I thank him for his friendship 
and his kind words.
  Madam President, I wish to take a few moments. I have heard a lot of 
discussion here on the floor today. A moment ago, we were talking about 
the STEM visas and the need to reform that process. I would like to 
take a step back and talk a little about the immigration issue in 
general. There has been a lot of conversation about that here in the 
Senate, certainly out in the public. This is a contentious issue, and 
it is clearly important to understand where we stand today, what it is 
that is happening, what is not happening, and the way forward in that 
regard. I hope I can do that in under 10 minutes here this afternoon.
  Let me begin by saying something that I think unifies all of us, and 
that is the belief that legal immigration is good for America. Legal 
immigration is a good thing for our country. The vast majority of 
Americans would agree with that. Legal immigration has been a critical 
part of our heritage, and it is a critical part of our future. We just 
discussed one aspect of legal immigration that is critical to our 
future, and that is in the technology field. I guarantee that if you go 
to the agricultural industry, they will tell you the same thing. Legal 
immigration is good and important for our country.
  The second thing people will tell you is that illegal immigration is 
not good for America. I know both sides of this coin firsthand. I 
didn't read about this in a book. I didn't watch some movie last week 
about immigration. I live this issue on a daily basis. I live in a 
family of immigrants, married into a family of immigrants, in a 
neighborhood of immigrants, in a community of immigrants.
  I see all the good things legal immigration has done for America, and 
I see the strain illegal immigration places on our country.
  We have a fundamental problem in our country today; that is, we have 
a broken legal immigration system and we have a very serious illegal 
immigration problem. That is what we are trying to address in a 
commonsense way that is good for America.
  What we saw yesterday was the release of some principles. It is not a 
bill,

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it is some principles. It is basically the architecture of the work we 
hope to undertake in conjunction with every one of my colleagues here. 
It is not a secret group who will meet and force some issue upon us to 
take or leave. It is the beginning of a process we hope will lead to a 
real solution.
  Part 1 of that process is that we need a legal immigration system 
that works. In fact, our broken legal immigration system is a 
significant contributor to illegal immigration. It is so expensive, it 
is so complicated sometimes to legally immigrate to the United States 
or to renew a visa that it is encouraging people to do it the wrong 
way. We have a system that doesn't reflect the reality of the 21st 
century, and that needs to be addressed. That is one of the top 
priorities of this system.
  The second priority is this: This is a sovereign country. As a 
sovereign nation, the United States of America has a right to have 
immigration laws, and it has a right to enforce our immigration laws. 
That is important to point out. Sometimes we lose sight of this. We 
have 1 million people a year who immigrate legally to the United States 
permanently. No other country in the world is nearly as generous. There 
isn't even a close second. A million people a year wait in line and pay 
the fees and come here the right way, and if we don't enforce our 
immigration laws, we are undermining that effort. In fact, we are 
discouraging it, and we are being unfair to it. So we need to have 
immigration laws that work and that are enforced.
  But we have a third problem; that is, right now, in this country at 
this very moment, estimates say that as many as 11 million human beings 
are in the United States without proper immigration documentation. Now, 
let me be clear: On the one hand, the vast majority of these folks are 
not victims. They knew what they were doing, and what they did was 
wrong. They do not have a right to illegally immigrate to the United 
States. There is no such thing as a legal right to illegally immigrate 
to the United States. On the other hand, these are 11 million human 
beings, 11 million people who, irrespective of how they did it, came 
here, and the vast majority of them in pursuit of what every one of us 
would recognize as the American dream.
  As a policymaker, as someone who passionately loves this country, as 
do all my colleagues and everyone watching, I realize we have 11 
million people here who are undocumented. What they did was wrong, but 
they will probably be here--almost all of them--for the rest of their 
lives with or without documents. So I want to deal with this. We need 
to modernize our legal immigration system. We have to deal with the 11 
million people who are here now in a way that makes sense, not in a 
talking-point way. We have to make sure that this never happens again, 
that we never find ourselves back where we are now. I hope I never 
again in the future have to come back here and say: Guess what, folks. 
We have another 5 million people who are here undocumented. And let me 
be clear. I will not support--I personally will not support any 
immigration bill that does not prevent that from happening. But it all 
starts with dealing with the reality that we have 11 million human 
beings who will be here for the rest of their lives with or without 
documents. We have to deal with that.

  What these principles say is, No. 1, let's modernize our legal 
immigration system. Let's have an agricultural program that works. 
Let's have a high-tech visa program that works. We have to have a 21st-
century immigration system, which means we can no longer afford to have 
less than 10 percent of the people who come here based on skills. We 
need to change that, and not by undermining family-based immigration 
but by reforming the programs we use for skill-based immigration. We 
need to modernize it.
  Secondly, we need real enforcement mechanisms. There are three things 
that work. No. 1 is securing and getting operational control of the 
border. And by the way, this is not just an immigration issue. The 
border is not just an immigration issue. I am not in favor of a 
housekeeper or a landscaper coming across the border illegally. I am 
not in favor of that. But what keeps me up at night are the terrorists 
coming across the border, and a porous border at the north or south 
leads to that possibility. So the border is as much about our 
sovereignty and national security as it is about immigration.
  Third is a workplace enforcement mechanism. In the 21st century, we 
can't come up with a reliable way to verify whether the people being 
hired are here legally?
  Fourth is visa tracking. We have all these people coming to the 
United States on visas. We track when they come in but not when they 
leave--or not successfully enough. So we don't know where they are or 
whether they are here. We have no idea. As much as 40 percent of our 
illegal immigrants, 40 percent of our undocumented folks are here on 
visa overstays. They didn't sneak across the border.
  We have to deal with those four things as well. Then we have to deal 
with the 11 million, and the way to deal with it is not blanket 
amnesty. What my principles outline, what the group's principles 
outline is a process that works this way: If you are here undocumented, 
you must come forward. There will be a background check on you. If you 
have ever committed serious crimes in the United States, you will be 
deported. If you have not committed serious crimes in the United 
States, you will then have to pay back taxes and you will have to pay a 
fine. What you will then get is basically the equivalent of a 
nonresident visa that allows you to work here. You do not qualify for 
Federal financial benefits, so you are not a strain.
  I have heard that concern raised--this is going to place a strain on 
our social services. As nonimmigrant visa holders, they do not qualify, 
under existing law right now, for Federal benefits.
  What you get is a work permit, the ability to be here legally. We 
know where you are, we know where you live, we know where you work, you 
pay taxes, you have paid a fine--this is not amnesty--and you have a 
nonimmigrant visa. And there is nothing you can do with that 
nonimmigrant visa but stay here, work, and travel to visit relatives. 
But you can't turn that into citizenship. It is a nonimmigrant visa.
  They will have to remain in this probationary phase for a significant 
period of time--not an unreasonable period of time but a significant 
period of time. After that period of time has elapsed and if they have 
complied with all the requirements of that probationary period and if 
it is certified that the enforcement mechanisms are in place and have 
happened--that is critical--then and only then do we then move to phase 
2.
  This is what phase 2 is, and it is very simple. Phase 2 is that we go 
to these folks and say: OK, you will now be given the opportunity to 
apply for a green card using the same process as anybody else anywhere 
in the world would use to apply--the same process.
  In essence, all we are going to give them is a chance to do what they 
should have done in the beginning, to apply the way they should have 
applied in the beginning. Here is what is important: They have to get 
in line. People say: What is the big deal about the line? The big deal 
about the line is that all those people who have done it the right way, 
it is not fair to them to allow someone who didn't do it the right way 
to leapfrog them. In essence, we can't make it cheaper and faster to 
immigrate here illegally than it is to immigrate here legally. 
Ultimately, they will have to get in line, they will have to qualify 
for the visa they have applied for, and if all that works out, then 
they will get a green card. Once they get a green card, depending on 
how they got it, they will have to wait about 5 years before they can 
even apply for citizenship.
  This is the process and these are the principles we have outlined. I 
have heard concerns, and they are all legitimate concerns. Just because 
someone raises concerns about our principles, that doesn't mean they 
will ultimately be against them. It means they have legitimate 
concerns. People say it is wrong to reward people who have done this 
the wrong way. We agree, and that is why we can't allow them to 
leapfrog anyone. That is why the line is important and the waiting 
period is important.
  I heard Senator Sessions earlier say that we are not even enforcing 
our current laws. That is true. And one of the reasons they are not 
being enforced is

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because the current system doesn't exist. It doesn't work. What we have 
now is de facto amnesty. If we do nothing, what we have is de facto 
amnesty because we don't know who the undocumented are. We couldn't 
enforce it even if we wanted to. That is why we have to deal with this 
issue.
  We talk about the cost of social programs. If you are on a 
nonimmigrant visa, you don't qualify for the social programs by current 
law.
  Look, there is a lot of work to be done. What we announced yesterday 
is not a plan, it is a framework. And that framework has to now be 
turned into legislative language. That is a lot of hard work, but I 
hope people will take this as an opportunity to come up with a solution 
to an issue that is solvable, that we can address and bring to a 
conclusion. It will have to be done the right way, and it will not be 
easy.
  In a few hours the President will give a speech in Nevada, and early 
press accounts concern me. I don't want to turn this into a partisan 
thing, though, so let me just say this: If this endeavor becomes a 
bidding war to see who can come up with the easiest, quickest, and 
cheapest pathway to a green card possible, this will not go well. We 
now have a commonsense and reasonable set of principles. And I hope 
what the President will say today is he hopes that process succeeds. 
But if his intentions are to trigger a bidding war to see who can come 
up with the easiest process, this is not a good start. But let's give 
him the benefit of the doubt. I hope my colleagues will do the same.
  I am deeply committed to the rule of law and to having an immigration 
system that works. I hope we can work together to accomplish that.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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