[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 20 (Monday, May 21, 2007)]
[Pages 637-638]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Discussion on the Employment Eligibility 
Verification System

May 16, 2007

    I appreciate the discussion we just had on immigration. With us are 
people who are employers, people who provide work for citizens who are 
in our country legally. They know full well it's against the law to hire 
somebody who is here illegally. They need help from the Government to 
make sure the person they hire is here legally, that they're not dealing 
with forged documents.
    And so we've been reviewing the upgrading of the Basic Pilot 
program, which is the Government's attempt to help small-business owners 
and larger business owners make sure that the people they're finding 
work for are not breaking the law. In other words, we can't ask our 
employers to verify somebody here unless we help them. And the reason 
why we're talking about this subject is that holding employers to 
account for violating the law is an integral part of a comprehensive 
immigration reform package.
    I thank members of my Cabinet, Secretaries Gutierrez and Chertoff, 
for taking the White House lead in working with Members of the United 
States Senate to get a comprehensive immigration bill to the floor as 
quickly as possible, that can pass the Senate. And it's been hard work. 
This is a very emotional issue. I firmly believe that the bill needs to 
be comprehensive. In other words, you can't have one aspect of 
immigration reform pass and not other aspects, otherwise we'll be back 
to where we were in the past, and that is reform efforts have failed 
because it hadn't been comprehensive enough.
    The best way and, frankly, only way to get a comprehensive bill done 
that will matter and deal with this issue once and for all is for the 
bipartisan approach that we're now

[[Page 638]]

working on come to fruition, that it's got to be a bipartisan bill that 
is--is that bill our Secretaries are working on with members from both 
parties in the Senate. Hopefully, that bill can get to the floor as 
quickly as possible, and hopefully we can get a positive vote so we can 
get the bill over to the House of Representatives.
    But there is a good chance. I'm optimistic that we can get 
comprehensive immigration reform, one, that enforces our borders; two, 
holds employers to account; three, recognizes we've got workers here who 
are doing jobs Americans aren't doing, and they ought to have a--there 
ought to be a temporary-worker permit to do so; four, to make sure that 
we treat people who are here already with respect and dignity, without 
amnesty, without animosity; and, five, to continue the assimilation 
program so necessary to make sure our country continues to move forward 
in an optimistic way.
    And so I want to thank you all for sharing with me your stories. I 
appreciate the fact that you're deeply concerned about upholding the 
law. I thank you for sharing with me your desires to see that Congress 
get a comprehensive immigration bill done soon. And I assure you that 
the White House, along with decent, honorable Members of the Senate, are 
working very hard to bring that bill to conclusion.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:35 a.m. at the Embassy Suites Washington 
D.C.-Convention Center. The Office of the Press Secretary also released 
a Spanish language transcript of these remarks. A portion of these 
remarks could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.