[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3505-3506]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, our Republican friends are at it again--
offering simplistic and unworkable proposals in response to complex 
immigration issues. Our immigration policies should not only be about 
security and our economy, but they should reflect our humanity, 
decency, and morality. We are a Nation of immigrants. Immigrants are 
devoted to hard work, their families, their faith, and to America.
  Mr. President, 70,000 immigrants served honorably in our Armed 
Forces, and many have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those 
are the values that have built America and we should welcome them.
  But you would never know it from the misplaced immigration priorities 
of my Republican colleagues. Rather than tackle the Nation's 
priorities, they continue to cater to the basest instincts of the far 
right fringe. For 7 years, Republicans have failed to fix the broken 
immigration system, offering only divisive measures and empty rhetoric 
that subvert our values as a Nation of immigrants, undermine our 
national security, and leave American jobs unprotected.
  It is time to get real. Approximately 12 million people are living in 
our country outside the system. That is more than the population of New 
York City. Illegal immigrants are here because there are jobs, and 
there are jobs because employers know they can get away with breaking 
the law and abusing illegal workers. The past 7 years should have 
taught the Republicans that deportation alone doesn't work.
  Don't the Republicans get it? Deportation-only policies have failed 
spectacularly. Existing control efforts are unacceptably costly. We now 
spend over $10 billion on border and interior enforcement, and the 
system is more dysfunctional and lawless than ever.
  These expenditures barely scratch the surface of the true costs 
enacted by our current policies. Heavy-handed enforcement hurts U.S. 
citizens living in the border region. These communities bear the brunt 
of environmental degradation, noise and light pollution and surging 
border-area violence. In spite of these escalating costs, illegal 
immigration continues unchecked.
  Even when Republicans are given the tools, they don't use them. Last 
year, the Bush administration prosecuted only four employers for hiring 
illegal immigrants. It is time to stop coddling employers who break our 
laws and undercut American workers. It is time to force bad actor 
employers to respect our immigration and labor laws, to provide fair 
wages, to offer decent working conditions, to value the rights and 
contributions of the workers they employ, including American workers. 
And it is time to punish those employers who don't.
  Let it be known the Republican agenda isn't based on real solutions. 
Instead, they have been cynically using the immigration problem to stir 
up local resentment and fear. They have vilified and attacked 
immigrants, especially Latinos. First, they proposed to criminalize 
priests and those who help immigrants. Remember the bill that passed 
the House of Representatives under the Republican leadership that said 
you have situations where we have several million children who are 
American citizens; they have mothers who

[[Page 3506]]

may be undocumented. Under their law, the mothers had to be deported. 
If a mother went and talked to a priest and asked: Where is my 
responsibility, to comply with the law or look after my child, if that 
priest were to suggest that her first responsibility was to look after 
that child, under the Republican law, that priest could have been 
indicted as an accessory after the fact. That was Cardinal Mahoney, the 
great cardinal from Los Angeles, who spoke out on this issue with such 
credibility and outrage. Then they opposed comprehensive immigration 
reform that we had on the floor of the Senate. Two-thirds of the 
Democrats said yes; two-thirds of the Republicans said no. Now we have 
their proposal as introduced this week.
  What do the Republicans have against immigrants?
  When immigrants are abused, all Americans suffer. Employers can get 
away with depressing our wages, neglecting working conditions for all 
workers, immigrants, and citizens.
  This isn't leadership and, sadly, it is not new. It is a continuation 
of a decades-old Republican strategy to scapegoat and marginalize 
vulnerable minority communities, to fan the flames of fear and divert 
attention away from their own inaction and failures.
  The Republican leadership may not get it, but the American public 
does. Americans understand that reforming our immigration system is a 
complex challenge and requires a tough, fair and, above all, realistic 
solution. They know it is time for change and time to find a way 
forward.
  We need to require the 12 million undocumented immigrants in this 
country to register with the Government and get legal. This includes 
payment of appropriate fees and fines, submitting to extensive security 
and background checks, learning English, and paying any U.S. taxes they 
owe. We need to deport those who have committed serious crimes or 
represent a threat to our national security; to implement border 
control that is well resourced, utilizes modern technology and is 
effective and humane at the same time; target and punish employers who 
flaunt the law by hiring those who are not authorized to work; assist 
States and local communities that are affected by high rates of 
immigration by helping to defray health, education, and criminal costs; 
and ensure that American workers are helped, not harmed, by U.S. 
immigration policy.
  Instead of embracing these goals, the Republicans want to deny local 
communities funding for community policing because such communities 
recognize that earning the trust of immigrant communities helps to 
combat crime. They would condemn victims of domestic and sexual 
violence to a life of abuse, unable to come forward to report such 
crimes.
  They want to force all American workers to prove their eligibility to 
work based on a database that is so flawed it will result in the denial 
of employment to millions of authorized workers, including American 
workers and American citizens. This in a time when workers are 
struggling to put food on the table, pay their bills, and hold onto 
their homes.
  They want to subsidize sweetheart Government contracts with 
taxpayers' money to build exorbitantly expensive fences that have shown 
little promise in stopping illegal immigration, and they want to take 
property away from American landowners to build these fences. These 
ideas don't just hurt immigrants, they hurt Americans.
  Senate Democrats have led an effort to fix our broken immigration 
system not once but twice. That legislation was pragmatic, recognizing 
it is impractical to deport 12 million illegal immigrants. That 
legislation recognized the Government must seize control of our 
immigration system and implement border enforcement that is both 
effective and humane, while aggressively going after and penalizing 
employers that knowingly break the law and profit off illegal 
immigrants. It also included a roadmap for future orderly immigration 
that would uphold American values, support the American economy, and 
ensure that immigration, first and foremost, serves the interests of 
Americans.
  The majority of Republicans turned their backs on workable solutions. 
They chose instead to grandstand the issue and push a delusional 
``round 'em up and kick 'em out'' agenda. And here they are again in 
this new political season playing the same old tired tune. This country 
deserves better.
  I challenge my Republican colleagues to demonstrate the courage and 
fortitude it will take to pass legislation that is tough, effective, 
workable, and gives the American public what it deserves: an 
immigration system that serves the economic, social, and security needs 
of 21st century America. Anything less is a disgraceful insult to the 
American people.

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