[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 49 (Monday, December 12, 2005)]
[Pages 1811-1812]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

December 3, 2005

    Good morning. Earlier this week, I visited Arizona and Texas to 
observe firsthand our efforts to protect our Southwest border. And I met 
with customs and border protection agents who are working tirelessly to 
enforce our laws and keep our borders secure.
    Illegal immigration and border security are issues that concern 
Americans. We're a nation built on the rule of law, and those who enter 
the country illegally break the law. In communities near our border, 
illegal immigration strains the resources of schools, hospitals, and law 
enforcement. And it involves smugglers and gangs that bring crime to our 
neighborhoods. Faced with this serious challenge, our Government's 
responsibility is clear: We're going to protect our borders.
    Since I took office, we've increased funding for border security by 
60 percent, and our border agents have caught and sent home more than 
4.5 million illegal immigrants, including more than 350,000 with 
criminal records. Yet we must do more to build on this progress.
    This week I outlined my comprehensive strategy to reform our 
immigration system. The strategy begins with a three-part plan to 
protect our borders. First, we will promptly return every illegal 
entrant we catch at our border with no exceptions. For illegal 
immigrants from Mexico, we are working to expand an innovative program 
called interior repatriation, in which those caught at the border are 
returned to their hometowns far from the border, making it more 
difficult for them to attempt another crossing. For non-Mexican illegal 
immigrants, we're changing the unwise policy of catch-and-release to a 
policy of catch-and-return, and we're speeding up the removal process.
    Second, we must fix weak and unnecessary provisions in our 
immigration laws, including senseless rules that require us to release 
illegal immigrants if their home countries do not take them back in a 
set period of time.
    Third, we must stop people from crossing the border illegally in the 
first place. So we're hiring thousands more Border Patrol agents. We're 
deploying new technology to expand their reach and effectiveness, and 
we're constructing physical barriers to entry.
    Comprehensive immigration reform also requires us to improve 
enforcement of our laws in the interior of our country, because border 
security and interior enforcement go hand in hand. In October, I signed 
legislation that more than doubled the resources for interior 
enforcement, so we'll increase the number of immigration enforcement 
agents and criminal investigators, enhance worksite enforcement, and 
continue to go after smugglers, gang members, and human traffickers. Our 
immigration laws apply across all of America, and we will enforce those 
laws throughout our land.
    Finally, comprehensive immigration reform requires us to create a 
new temporary-worker program that relieves pressure on the border but 
rejects amnesty. By creating a legal channel for willing employers to 
hire willing workers, we will reduce the number of workers trying to 
sneak across the border, and that would free up law enforcement officers 
to focus on criminals, drug dealers, terrorists, and others who mean us 
harm.
    This program would not create an automatic path to citizenship, and 
it would not provide amnesty. I oppose amnesty. Rewarding lawbreakers 
would encourage others to break the law and keep pressure on our border. 
A temporary-worker program will relieve pressure on the border and help 
us more effectively enforce our immigration laws.
    Our Nation has been strengthened by generations of immigrants who 
became Americans through patience, hard work, and assimilation. In this 
new century, we must continue to welcome legal immigrants and help

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them learn the customs and values that unite all Americans, including 
liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, tolerance for 
others, and the English language. In the coming months, I look forward 
to working with Congress on comprehensive immigration reform that will 
enforce our laws, secure our border, and uphold our deepest values.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 7:03 a.m. on December 2 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on December 3. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
December 2 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office 
of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of 
this address.