    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
    [April 9, 2007]
    [Pages 396-401]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Yuma
    April 9, 2007

        The President. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. Please be
    seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for the warm weather.
    [Laughter]
        Audience member. Twenty-eight degrees in Washington.
        The President. Yes, 28 degrees in Washington; that's right. I
    appreciate you sharing that with me. [Laughter] Sometimes it's a little
    hotter than that in Washington. [Laughter] But I'm glad to be back here
    in Yuma. Thank you so very much for your hospitality. Thanks for your
    service to the country. I appreciate so very much the work you're doing
    day and night to protect these borders. And the American people owe you
    a great debt of gratitude.
        The Border Patrol is really an important agency. I know some people
    are wondering whether or not it makes sense to join the Border Patrol.
    My answer is, I've gotten to know the Border Patrol; I know the people
    serving in this fine agency; I would strongly urge our fellow citizens
    to take a look at this profession. You're outdoors; you're working with
    good people; and you're making a solid contribution to the United States
    of America. And I want to thank you all for wearing the uniform and
    doing the tough work necessary, the work that the American people expect
    you to do.
        Last May, I visited this section of the border, and it was then that
    I talked about the need for our Government to give you the manpower and
    resources you need to do your job. We were understaffed here. We weren't
    using enough technology to enable those who work here to be able to do
    the job the American people expect. I returned to check on the progress,
    to make sure that the check wasn't in the mail; it, in fact, had been
    delivered.
        I went to a neighborhood that abuts up against the border when I was
    here in May. It's the place where a lot of people came charging across.
    One or two agents would be trying to do their job and stopping a flood
    of folks charging into Arizona, and they couldn't do the job--just
    physically impossible. Back at this site, there's now infrastructure;
    there's fencing. And the amount of people trying to cross the border at
    that spot is down significantly.
        I appreciate very much Ron Colburn and
    Ulay Littleton. They gave me the
    tour. Colburn, as you know, is heading up north. He's going to miss the
    weather. [Laughter] More importantly, he's going to miss the folks he
    worked with down here. I appreciate both of their service; I appreciate
    the tour. The efforts are working. This border is more secure, and
    America is safer as a result.

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        Securing the border is a critical part of a strategy for
    comprehensive immigration reform. It is a important part of a reform
    that is necessary so that the Border Patrol agents down here can do
    their job more effectively. Congress is going to take up the legislation
    on immigration. It is a matter of national interest, and it's a matter
    of deep conviction for me. I've been working to bring Republicans and
    Democrats together to resolve outstanding issues so that Congress can
    pass a comprehensive bill and I can sign it into law this year.
        I appreciate the hard work of Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
    I appreciate Commissioner Ralph Basham. He's
    the main man in charge of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. David
    Aguilar, Chief of the Border Patrol, is
    with us. David, thank you for the job you're doing. Lieutenant General
    Steven Blum, Chief of the National Guard
    Bureau--I want to thank the Governor of the State of Arizona, Janet
    Napolitano. I appreciate you being here,
    Governor. Thank you for taking time from the session to be down here.
    And it means a lot when the Governors take a active interest in what's
    going on in the borders of their respective States.
        I appreciate so very much Senator Jon Kyl.
    Kyl is one of the most respected United States Senators, and I'm proud
    to be with him today and glad to give him a ride back to Washington, I
    might add. [Laughter]
        I appreciate members of the congressional delegation who have joined
    us: John Shadegg; Jeff Flake, from Snowflake, Arizona; I want you to know--
    [laughter]--and I appreciate you working on this immigration issue,
    Congressman Trent Franks and Congressman Harry
    Mitchell. I appreciate you all taking time
    for being here with me today. It means a lot that you've come.
        I want to thank Senator Tim Bee--he's the
    president of the Arizona State Senate--for being here. Mr.
    Mayor, thank you for coming.
    Larry Nelson, the mayor of Yuma, Arizona, I appreciate you being here,
    Mr. Mayor.
        I do want to thank Major General David Rataczak. He's the Adjutant General of the State of Arizona. Thank
    all the local and State officials. Most importantly, I want to thank the
    Border Patrol agents, and I want to thank the National Guard folks for
    wearing the uniform. I am proud to be the Commander in Chief of all
    these units here today, and I appreciate your service to the United
    States of America.
        I hope by now the American people understand the need for
    comprehensive immigration reform is a clear need. Illegal immigration is
    a serious problem--you know it better than anybody. It puts pressure on
    the public schools and the hospitals, not only here in our border States
    but States around the country. It drains the State and local budgets. I
    was talking to the Governor about how it
    strained the budgets. Incarceration of criminals who are here illegally
    strains the Arizona budget. But there's a lot of other ways it strains
    the local and State budgets. It brings crime to our communities.
        It's a problem, and we need to address it aggressively. This problem
    has been growing for decades, and past efforts to address it have
    failed. These failures helped create a perception that America was not
    serious about enforcing our immigration laws and that they could be
    broken without consequence. Past efforts at reform did not do enough to
    secure our Nation's borders. As a result, many people have been able to
    sneak into this country.
        If you don't man your borders and don't protect your borders, people
    are going to sneak in, and that's what's been happening for a long time.
    Past efforts at reform failed to address the underlying economic reasons
    behind illegal immigration. People will make great sacrifices to get
    into this country to find jobs and provide for their families.
        When I was the Governor of Texas, I used to say, family values did
    not stop at

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    the Rio Grande River. People are coming here to put food on the table,
    and they're doing jobs Americans are not doing. And the farmers in this
    part of the world understand exactly what I'm saying. But so do a lot of
    other folks around the country. People are coming to work, and many of
    them have no lawful way to come to America, and so they're sneaking in.
        Past efforts at reform also failed to provide sensible ways for
    employers to verify the legal status of the workers they hire. It's
    against the law to knowingly hire an illegal alien. And as a result,
    because they couldn't verify the legal status, it was difficult for
    employers to comply. It was difficult for the government to enforce the
    laws at the worksite, and yet it is a necessary part of a comprehensive
    plan. You see, the lessons of all these experiences--the lesson of these
    experiences is clear: All elements of the issue must be addressed
    together. You can't address just one aspect and not be able to say to
    the American people that we're securing our borders.
        We need a comprehensive bill, and that's what I'm working with
    Members of Congress on, a comprehensive immigration bill. And now is the
    year to get it done. The first element, of course, is to secure this
    border. That's what I'm down here for, to remind the American people
    that we're spending their taxpayer--their money, taxpayers' money, on
    securing the border. And we're making progress. This border should be
    open to trade and lawful immigration and shut down to criminals and drug
    dealers and terrorists and coyotes and smugglers, people who prey on
    innocent life.
        We more than doubled the funding for border security since I've been
    the President. In other words, it's one thing to hear people come down
    here and talk; it's another thing for people to come down and do what
    they say they're going to do. And I want to thank Congress for working
    on this issue. The funding is increasing manpower. The additional
    funding is increasing infrastructure, and it's increasing technology.
        When I landed here at the airport, the first thing I saw was an
    unmanned aerial vehicle. It's a sophisticated piece of equipment. You
    can fly it from inside a truck, and you can look at people moving at
    night. It's the most sophisticated technology we have, and it's down
    here on the border to help the Border Patrol agents do their job. We've
    expanded the number of Border Patrol agents from about 9,000 to 13,000,
    and by the end of 2008, we're going to have a total of more than 18,000
    agents.
        I had the privilege of going to Artesia, New Mexico, to the training
    center. It was a fantastic experience to see the young cadets getting
    ready to come and to wear the green of the Border Patrol. By the time
    we're through, we will have doubled the size of the Border Patrol. In
    other words, you can't do the job the American people expect unless you
    got enough manpower, and we're increasing the manpower down here.
        This new technology is really important to, basically, leverage the
    manpower. Whether it be the technology of surveillance and
    communication, we're going to make sure the agents have got what is
    necessary to be able to establish a common picture and get information
    out to the field as quickly as possible so that those 18,000 agents,
    when they're finally on station, can do the job the American people
    expect.
        But manpower can't do it alone. In other words, there has to be some
    infrastructure along the border to be able to let these agents do their
    job. And so I appreciate the fact that we've got double fencing, all-
    weather roads, new lighting, mobile cameras. The American people have no
    earthly idea what's going on down here. One of the reasons I've come is
    to let you know--let the taxpayers know--the good folks down here are
    making progress.
        We've worked with our Nation's Governors to deploy 6,000 National
    Guard members to provide the Border Patrol with

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    immediate reinforcements. In other words, it takes time to train the
    Border Patrol, and until they're fully trained, we've asked the Guard to
    come down. It's called Operation Jump Start, and the Guard down here is
    serving nobly.
        I had the chance to visit with some of the Guard, and, Mr.
    Mayor, you'll be pleased to
    hear, they like being down here in Yuma, Arizona. [Laughter] They like
    the people, and they like the mission. More than 600 members of the
    Guard are serving here in the Yuma Sector. And I thank the Guard, and
    equally importantly, I thank their families for standing by the men and
    women who wear the uniform during this particular mission. And you e-
    mail them back home and tell them how much I appreciate the fact they're
    standing by you.
        I appreciate very much the fact that illegal border crossings in
    this area are down. In the months before Operation Jump Start, an
    average of more than 400 people a day were apprehended trying to cross
    here. The number has dropped to fewer than 140 a day. In other words,
    one way that the Border Patrol can tell whether or not we're making
    progress is the number of apprehensions. When you're apprehending fewer
    people, it means fewer are trying to come across. And fewer are trying
    to come across because we're deterring people from attempting illegal
    border crossings in the first place.
        I appreciate what Colburn says. He
    puts it this way: ``They're watching. They see us watching them''--
    that's what he said--``and they have decided they just can't get
    across.'' And that's part of the effort we're doing. We're saying, we're
    going to make it harder for you, so don't try in the first place.
        We're seeing similar results all across the southern border. The
    number of people apprehended for illegally crossing our southern border
    is down by nearly 30 percent this year. We're making progress. And
    thanks for your hard work. It's hard work but necessary work.
        Another important deterrent to illegal immigration is to end what
    was called catch-and-release. I know how this discouraged some of our
    Border Patrol agents; I talked to them personally. They worked hard to
    find somebody sneaking in the country; they apprehended them. The next
    thing they know, they're back in society on our side of the border.
        There's nothing more discouraging than have somebody risk their life
    or work hard and have the fruits of their labor undermined. And that's
    what was happening with catch-and-release. In other words, we'd catch
    people, and we'd say: ``Show up for your court date,'' and they wouldn't
    show up for their court date. That shouldn't surprise anybody, but
    that's what was happening. And the reason why that was happening is
    because we didn't have enough beds to detain people.
        Now, most of the people we apprehend down here are from Mexico.
    About 85 percent of the illegal immigrants caught crossing into--
    crossing this border are Mexicans--crossing the southern border are
    Mexicans. And they're sent home within 24 hours. It's the illegal
    immigrants from other countries that are not that easy to send home.
        For many years, the government didn't have enough space, and so
    Michael and I worked with Congress to
    increase the number of beds available. So that excuse was eliminated.
    The practice has been effectively ended. Catch-and-release for every
    non-Mexican has been effectively ended. And I want to thank the Border
    Patrol and the leaders of the Border Patrol for allowing me to stand up
    and say that's the case.
        And the reason why is, not only do we have beds; we've expedited the
    legal process to cut the average deportation time. Now, these are non-
    Mexican, illegal aliens that we've caught trying to sneak into our
    country. We're making it clear to foreign governments that they must
    accept back their citizens who violate our immigration laws. I said
    we're going to effectively end

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    catch-and-release, and we have. And I appreciate your hard work in doing
    that.
        The second element of a comprehensive immigration reform is a
    temporary-worker program. You cannot fully secure the border until we
    take pressure off the border. And that requires a temporary-worker
    program. It seems to make sense to me that if you've got people coming
    here to do jobs Americans aren't doing, we need to figure out a way that
    they can do so in a legal basis for a temporary period of time. And that
    way our Border Patrol can chase the criminals and the drug runners,
    potential terrorists, and not have to try to chase people who are coming
    here to do work Americans are not doing.
        If you want to take the pressure off your border, have a temporary-
    worker program. It will help not only reduce the number of people coming
    across the border, but it will do something about the inhumane treatment
    that these people are subjected to. There's a whole smuggling operation;
    you know this better than I do. There's a bunch of smugglers that use
    the individual as a piece of--as a commodity. And they make money off
    these poor people, and they stuff them in the back of 18-wheelers, and
    they find hovels for them to hide in. And there's a whole industry that
    has sprung up. And it seems like to me that since this country respects
    human rights and the human condition, that it be a great contribution to
    eliminate this thuggery, to free these people from this kind of
    extortion that they go through. And one way to do so is to say: ``You
    can come and work in our country for jobs Americans aren't doing, for a
    temporary period of time.''
        The third element of a comprehensive reform is to hold employers
    accountable for the workers they hire. In other words, if you want to
    make sure that we've got a system in which people are not violating the
    law, then you've got to make sure we hold people to account, like
    employers. Enforcing immigration is a vital part of any successful
    reform. And so Chertoff and his Department
    are cracking down on employers who knowingly violate the law.
        But not only are there coyotes smuggling people in; there are
    document forgers that are making a living off these people. So, in other
    words, people may want to comply with the law, but it's very difficult
    at times to verify the legal status of their employees. And so to make
    the worksite enforcement practical on a larger scale, we have got to
    issue a tamper-proof identification card for illegal--for legal foreign
    workers. And we must create a better system for employers to verify the
    legality of the workers. In other words, we got work to do. And part of
    a comprehensive bill is to make sure worksite enforcement is effective.
        Fourth, we've got to resolve the status of millions of illegal
    immigrants already here in the country. People who entered our country
    illegally should not be given amnesty. Amnesty is the forgiveness of an
    offense without penalty. I oppose amnesty, and I think most people in
    the United States Congress oppose amnesty. People say, ``Why not have
    amnesty?'' Well, the reason why is because you--10 years from now, you
    don't want to have a President having to address the next 11 million
    people who might be here illegally. That's why you don't want amnesty.
    And secondly, we're a nation of law, and we expect people to uphold the
    law.
        And so we're working closely with Republicans and Democrats to find
    a practical answer that lies between granting automatic citizenship to
    every illegal immigrant and deporting every illegal immigrant. It is
    impractical to take the position that, oh, we'll just find the 11
    million or 12 million people and send them home. That's just an
    impractical position; it's not going to work. It may sound good. It may
    make nice sound-bite news. It won't happen.
        And therefore, we need to work together to come up with a practical
    solution to this problem, and I know people in Congress

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    are working hard on this issue. Illegal immigrants who have roots in our
    country and want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for
    breaking the law and pay their taxes and learn the English language and
    show work--show that they've worked in a job for a number of years.
    People who meet a reasonable number of conditions and pay a penalty of
    time and money should be able to apply for citizenship. But approval
    would not be automatic, and they would have to wait in line behind those
    who played by the rules and followed the law. What I've described is a
    way for those who've broken the law to pay their debt to society and
    demonstrate the character that makes a good citizen.
        Finally, we have got to honor the tradition of the melting pot and
    help people assimilate into our society by learning our history, our
    values, and our language. Last June, I created a new task force to look
    for ways to help newcomers assimilate and succeed in our country. Many
    organizations, from churches to businesses to civic associations, are
    working to answer this call, and I'm grateful for their service.
        And so here are the outlines for a comprehensive immigration reform
    bill. It's an emotional issue, as I'm sure you can imagine. People have
    got deep convictions. And my hope is that we can have a serious and
    civil and conclusive debate. And so we'll continue to work with members
    of both political parties. I think the atmosphere up there is good right
    now. I think people generally want to come together and put a good bill
    together, one, by the way, that will make your job a lot easier.
        It's important that we address this issue in good faith. And it's
    important for people to listen to everybody's positions. And it's
    important for people not to give up, no matter how hard it looks from a
    legislative perspective. It's important that we get a bill done. We
    deserve a system that secures our borders and honors our proud history
    as a nation of immigrants.
        And so I can't think of a better place to come and to talk about the
    good work that's being done and the important work that needs to be done
    in Washington, DC, and that's right here in Yuma, Arizona, a place full
    of decent, hard-working, honorable people. May God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:21 a.m. at the Yuma Sector Headquarters,
    U.S. Border Patrol. In his remarks, he referred to Ronald S. Colburn,
    chief patrol agent, Yuma Sector, U.S. Border Patrol; and Brig. Gen. Ulay
    W. Littleton, Jr., USAF, chief of staff, Headquarters, Arizona Air
    National Guard, and Arizona joint task force commander, Operation Jump
    Start. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish
    language transcript of these remarks.