[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 13, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S670-S672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION POLICY

  Mr. VITTER. Madam President, Senator Sessions and I take to the floor 
to talk about immigration, which is obviously a very important and very 
hot topic. The first point I would like to make is just a simple 
statement and suggestion. There has been a lot of activity and a lot of 
discussion about immigration in the Senate and in the Congress and 
Washington, DC. If we merely listen to a lot of beltway, so-called 
mainstream reporting about this, they would give the impression that 
there is near universal consensus around a model we have tried before, 
which is a so-called comprehensive approach.
  First, I don't think there is anything near universal agreement. I 
don't think there is consensus. I think there are real questions and 
concerns among many of us in the Senate and in Congress but, much more 
importantly, in America and the real world.
  I think those fundamental concerns come down to one thing; that is, 
we have tried this so-called comprehensive approach before. We have 
tried proposals that marry an immediate amnesty with promises of 
enforcement. That model has not worked before. In fact, it has failed 
miserably.
  The most notable example was major immigration legislation in 1986. 
It was the same model. It had comprehensive and immediate amnesty with 
promises of enforcement. There were promises that we will have to do 
this just once, never have to look back, and the problem will be 
solved. Of course, the problem was not solved. It didn't even just 
continue. The problem has quadrupled.
  The amnesty did happen immediately. As soon as the bill passed, that 
virtually and immediately kicked in. The promises of enforcement were 
just that, promises. Those promises were not kept, and as a result what 
happened with that model? The problem of 3 million illegal aliens 
didn't go away and was not solved once and for all. It quadrupled and 
became the present problem of 11 or 12 million--or more--illegal 
aliens. That is the fundamental concern I have with most of the so-
called comprehensive proposals being put forward. That is the 
fundamental concern of Louisianans I talk to every day.
  We want to solve the problem. We don't want to perpetuate it, much 
less quadruple it. I think it is important to discuss alternative, more 
effective, more workable approaches. I have several ideas about what 
those approaches might look like, and, in fact, I am introducing a 
package of immigration bills today. I will talk about that further, but 
I certainly want to recognize and thank my good friend and colleague, 
Senator Sessions from Alabama, for joining me on the Senate floor 
today.
  Mr. SESSIONS. I thank the Senator for his leadership and in-depth 
study and knowledge about how these laws are working--and really not 
working--in America today.
  I just left a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. The chairman of 
that committee, Senator Leahy, basically said--referring perhaps to 
me--they want enforcement first, but it seems they don't have any 
interest in amnesty--or words to that effect. I would say the American 
people's view is exactly the opposite. What the American people have 
been asking for and what they are afraid of is that we will have a deal 
like 1986 where the amnesty provisions become law and were immediately 
applied, but the promises of enforcement never occurs. So I believe 
that is a danger again.
  It feels to me so much like 2007 when I, Senator Vitter, and others 
engaged and asked tough questions about the legislation which really 
resulted in its failure because it would not have done what the authors 
of it said it would do. So for 30 or 40 years the American people have 
said: End the lawlessness. That is what they have asked of us first. 
They will work a way to be compassionate if the lawlessness has ended, 
but that has not happened.
  In fact, in a number of ways we have gone in the opposite direction. 
Improvement has occurred at the border in real numbers because over the 
last several years--before President Obama took office--we agreed to 
increase the number of Border Patrol agents. With the help of Senator 
Vitter, I forced through legislation to build a fence. I am sure 
Senator Vitter remembers that debate.
  Now everybody talks about how we have a fence, and they are bragging 
about it. It is only 36 miles of the real fence we asked for. I am sure 
the Senator from Louisiana remembers how they opposed every foot of it 
and how they resisted it in every way possible. They didn't favor 
adding border agents. There was a vote for border agents--and I 
remember speaking about it--but they never produced the money. So we 
authorized border agents. People said they were for border agents, but 
they would not vote for the money to support that. We had a big 
discussion and debate about that, and eventually we added some border 
agents. That has helped, but the problem is not fixed.
  Internally, this administration has systematically dismantled 
enforcement inside the United States. Chris Crane, who is head of the 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Union, is a marine and a great guy. 
The ICE union has unanimously voted no confidence in John Morton, the 
head of the ICE Department. They have sued the ICE Department because 
Morton blocked them from doing their sworn duty to enforce the law.
  Today I asked Crane if he had ever met with Secretary Napolitano. 
Chris testified about the bad morale that ICE agents have. A little 
over a year ago I asked Secretary Napolitano about the bad morale that 
ICE agents have. Crane said he had never met her and has never shaken 
hands with her. At this point, we don't have the kind of commitment in 
law enforcement that I think gives the American people confidence that 
we are moving forward on the right path.
  Finally, I would just share with the Senator that I do think that 
means this is no sure thing. People are awfully confident that as long 
as some big names are on the bill, it is just going to pass. I am not 
confident that is so.
  Mr. VITTER. I thank the Senator, and I certainly agree. Again, the 
fundamental issue is, Is the model that has been tried before really 
going to work--an immediate amnesty with promises of enforcement? 
Unfortunately, history is littered with examples of that exact model 
failing and those promises of enforcement never being kept.
  What do I mean by that? I mentioned 1986, which is the biggest 
historical example: An immediate amnesty where we are going to get 
serious about enforcement, we will never have to look back, and we will 
have to do this once. We will solve the problem.
  Of course, it didn't solve the problem; it quadrupled the problem. 
There were 3 million illegal aliens back then. There are 11 to 12 
million illegal aliens now. There have been promises of a U.S.-VISIT 
Program with an entry-and-exit system to track everyone entering the 
country and making sure they exit in time. That was first promised back 
in 1986. Ten years later, in 1996, Congress passed another act to 
require a fully integrated entry-exit system with full implementation 
by 2005. Guess what. 2005 has come and gone. It has been 30 years since 
that initial promise was made. We still don't have an operational and 
effective U.S.-VISIT system.
  My colleague from Alabama mentioned another glaring example: the

[[Page S671]]

Secure Fence Act of 2006, which we actually passed in legislation. The 
Secure Fence Act of 2006 promises to achieve operational control for 
the entire border. It defined ``operational control'' as ``the 
prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including 
entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, 
narcotics, and other contraband.'' We have not achieved that.
  In fact, we are so far from that goal, DHS has had to weaken the 
definition so it only now talks about effective operational control. 
They had to stick the word ``effective'' in there because we never had 
operational control. Who knows exactly what that means, but GAO tried 
to define and tried to measure it in a recent report.
  In their recent report they found that only 44 percent of the 
southern border was under any sort of operational control. Only 15 
percent of that is under full operational control. Even if we use the 
loosey-goosey word ``effective,'' we have less than one-half of the 
border under that control. More than one-half of the border is under 
what they call managed control, which often means no control. It means 
a lot of almost fully unfettered, illegal crosses.
  Now we come to today with this debate, and the new promise: If you 
just give us immediate amnesty, we are going to have this enforcement. 
We promise, we promise, we promise. Again, we are concerned that we are 
reliving history in a negative way.
  For instance, when the Gang of 8 declares they ``will ensure . . . a 
successful permanent reform to our immigration system that will not 
need to be revisited,'' that sure sounds like 1986, with this one fix 
that we will never have to look back. But, of course, we are looking 
back because the problem has grown. It is interesting to note that the 
very day after the Gang of 8 announcement, there was even disagreement 
between some of the gang members regarding what they announced and what 
they promised.
  Many of the Republican members of that Gang of 8 emphasized that 
enforcement has to happen; otherwise, nothing else is triggered. Yet on 
the other side of the political spectrum, Senator Schumer--also a 
member of that Gang of 8--walked back any commitment to fully secure 
enforcement before citizenship happened. He said: ``We're not using 
border security as an excuse or a block to the path to citizenship.''
  So there we have it. After the announcement, there is apparent 
inconsistency about how serious they are about ensuring enforcement, 
and that is the fundamental question. I think that is a very legitimate 
concern given the past history.
  We have proposed a different path forward with a targeted, step-by-
step approach to prove to ourselves and the American people that we are 
serious about these enforcement and related reforms, to do those, and 
to have them working before we move on anything else.
  Today I am introducing a series of bills that fall into that 
targeted, step-by-step approach. I do not use the word 
``comprehensive'' because I think that word is a negative. It is 
targeted, and it is step by step. I will outline those bills in a 
minute.
  Again, I certainly want to thank and recognize the Senator from 
Alabama.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Would the Senator from Mississippi say the enforcement 
of immigration laws is an area--based on the Senator's experience in 
Congress, in the House and in the Senate--where the difference between 
the promises of what is going to happen and what actually happens is 
greater than almost any other issue we have dealt with, where people 
are promising this and only delivering something else?
  Mr. VITTER. Absolutely. Unfortunately, that is the history, tried and 
true: lots of promises. No single major promise has been kept. Whether 
it is the fence, whether it is the US-VISIT Program, whether it is the 
overall promise of enforcement in 1986, none of those promises has been 
kept.
  Mr. SESSIONS. According to some news reports--to follow up on the 
point the Senator made about sending two messages, one promising the 
people one thing and the other telling special-interest groups another 
thing--one report said Democratic Senators have assured immigration 
activists that the so-called enforcement trigger is just a ``talking 
point'' to give Republicans, who are supporting this scheme, this plan, 
as cover and there will not ever be an impediment to the achievement of 
amnesty. Does that make the Senator from Mississippi uneasy, that 
people who are supposed to be speaking in good faith, telling their 
Republican colleagues and the American people they have a plan that is 
going to guarantee enforcement while they are telling, apparently, the 
activists something quite different?
  Mr. VITTER. That makes me very nervous and very uneasy. It is exactly 
what Senator Schumer said the very next day after the announcement: 
``We're not using border security as an excuse or a block to the path 
to citizenship.''
  Mr. SESSIONS. In other words--well, the words Senator Schumer is 
saying are quite plain. I have a great deal of respect for him. I know 
he wants to accomplish something valuable here. But it does seem to me 
he is saying, Well, if enforcement doesn't occur, we promise there will 
be a trigger and there will be no amnesty unless enforcement occurs; 
but if we get there and enforcement doesn't occur, you are still going 
to get your amnesty.
  Mr. VITTER. That is what it sounds like to me. It sounds to me as 
though the trigger is meaningless. The amnesty and even full 
citizenship--to me, amnesty is any legal status, but they are actually 
talking about a path to full citizenship will happen ultimately, no 
matter what on the enforcement side.
  Mr. SESSIONS. I will conclude and yield to my esteemed colleague to 
lay out some ideas he has to actually improve enforcement so that if we 
get to the point where we can achieve a legal system that operates 
effectively in America, we will know it when it happens. We can get 
there. Without some of these provisions Senator Vitter will recommend, 
I am confident we will not get there. If people won't support these 
kinds of provisions, then it raises questions about whether they are 
serious about their promises to end the lawlessness.
  I just left a Judiciary Committee hearing. Mr. Vargas testified, who 
was here apparently illegally, came at the age of 12. I asked him: 
Should a good Nation have a legal system that has clear laws, clear 
policies, and those laws are in force? And he said yes. So there is 
nothing wrong, nothing immoral, nothing unconstitutional for the 
American people to say we should have a lawful system of immigration. 
Everybody is not able to come. You have to wait in line and wait your 
turn and meet the qualifications before you come. And if you try to 
enter illegally, there will be consequences. There is nothing immoral 
about that. It is only common sense. It is only the right thing to do.
  I thank the Senator from Mississippi for his work on this and the 
ideas he will be presenting to us.
  Mr. VITTER. I thank the Senator from Alabama for his leadership on 
this issue and on the Judiciary Committee.
  There is, Madam President, an alternative way forward, a positive, 
productive way forward, a targeted, step-by-step approach that is 
appropriate, particularly given all the broken promises of the past.
  The American people need to be convinced, and who can blame them? 
Again, the landscape of this issue is littered with utterly broken 
promises. We need to rebuild that trust and rebuild that confidence, 
and we can only do that in a targeted, step-by-step way.
  I don't claim to have all the answers, but I am introducing today 
seven bills--actually, six bills, and I am joining Senator Grassley as 
a coauthor of a seventh bill--that would be important parts of this 
targeted, step-by-step approach. Let me briefly mention what those 
seven bills are.
  First of all, the STEM Jobs Act of 2013. This would make up to 55,000 
visas available to qualified immigrants whom we need in this economy--
well educated, qualified. We have jobs here ready for them, and it 
would be an enormous economic boost. They would have a doctorate degree 
in the field of science, engineering, technology, or math from a U.S. 
doctoral institution and would have taken all doctoral courses in the 
STEM field while in the United States. We train, we educate

[[Page S672]]

those superqualified folks all the time and then, all too often, we 
send them back to their native countries and don't allow them to remain 
here to get on a pathway to citizenship and to contribute, as they 
would, to our economy.
  A child tax credit law. This would amend the IRS Code to simply put 
in place significant identification requirements for the child tax 
credit to require taxpayers to provide that valid ID, to cut out what 
is admitted to be rampant fraud in the system. The IRS itself and its 
inspector general office have said there is at least $1.3 billion of 
fraud a year in the child tax credit. These checks from the taxpayer, 
actual checks going out to illegal recipients who do not qualify under 
the law, in some cases, dozens, allegedly, at a single address, a 
single family, are clearly fraud. We must meet some basic requirements 
to cut out that fraud. The IRS itself, under this administration, has 
asked for those tools. We should give them those tools under this child 
tax credit legislation.
  Sanctuary cities reform would prohibit appropriated funds from being 
used in contravention of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant 
Responsibility Act of 1986. I am joined by Senator Grassley and Senator 
Fischer in that legislation.
  Too many jurisdictions in the United States are self-proclaimed 
sanctuary cities. By doing that, they are in contravention of Federal 
immigration law when they say they will not cooperate in the 
enforcement of that law in any way. That is unacceptable, and those 
cities should not get appropriated funds.
  E-Verify I mentioned is an initiative and legislation by Senator 
Grassley. I am proud to join him as a coauthor. I am an original 
cosponsor of that bill. It would take the present E-Verify system and 
make it mandatory and expand it so that is our workforce system of 
enforcement. E-Verify works. The problem is it is a pilot. It is not 
mandatory and it is not broad enough. We need to broaden and make 
mandatory that workable E-Verify system.
  The Voter Integrity Protection Act would amend the INA to make voting 
in a Federal election by an alien who is unlawfully in the United 
States an aggravated felony, which makes it a deportable offense. If 
a person is illegally participating in our elections, that is a serious 
offense to any democracy. That should be a deportable offense.

  The Birthright Citizenship Act would also amend the law to consider a 
person born in the United States ``subject to the jurisdiction'' of the 
United States for citizenship only if the person is born through at 
least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or national or a lawful 
permanent resident alien in the United States or an alien performing 
active service in the U.S. Armed Forces. Right now it is, in my 
opinion, an accident of history and a mistake that any child physically 
born here, even of two parents here illegally and improperly, 
automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. Virtually no other country in the 
world has this rule. This reform would simply amend U.S. law to have 
the same basic rule as virtually every other country in the world I am 
aware of. A person doesn't automatically become a citizen just because 
they are physically born here; at least one parent has to have that 
legal status.
  Finally, US-VISIT reform, finally, after decades of promises, after 
decades of broken promises, to require that the US-VISIT system--the 
biometric border check-in/check-out system first required in 1996 that 
is well past its implementation date of 2005--be finished, be done, be 
fully in place before any of these other triggered aspects of so-called 
comprehensive reform happen. On that reform, I am proud to be joined by 
Senator Sessions and Senator Lee as coauthors.
  Again, I am introducing these six bills today. I am also an original 
cosponsor of Senator Grassley's E-Verify bill, a seventh bill. I think 
this is a targeted, step-by-step approach which is the right 
alternative to so-called comprehensive reform, which historically means 
immediate amnesty married to promises of enforcement that never happen, 
that never fully materialize.
  I urge my colleagues to look hard at these measures and hopefully 
support some or all of them. I urge them even more to go back home and 
listen to their constituents, to listen hard at the neighborhood coffee 
shop and the townhall meetings, because I think these sorts of 
concerns, as Senator Sessions and I have expressed today, are the core 
concerns, the core questions of a great majority of the American 
people.
  Thank you, Madam President. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. COLLINS. 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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