The United States Senate and the House of Representatives have passed two very different plans to address illegal immigration.  Congress has spent a tremendous amount of time and energy trying to find common ground that could result in a compromise bill supported by both the House and Senate.  Such a resolution is becoming more and more unlikely as the Senate continues to advocate for their “guest-worker� amnesty programs.

Our goal in Congress is not to obstruct illegal immigration legislation, but rather focus on initiatives that will secure our borders, add resources to the Border Patrol, increase interior enforcement and enforce the law on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.  You simply cannot reward the behavior of illegal immigrants with jobs or citizenship.
The truth is the Reid-Kennedy Senate bill does more to invite illegal immigration than prevent it.  The Senate’s proposal guarantees Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants retroactive to the time they were in the country illegal.  It allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities.  It also fails to adequately address employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Instead of spending time trying to broker a compromise between the House and Senate, we should instead focus on a viable alternative that will make an immediate impact on illegal immigration.  By passing H.R. 98, the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act, Congress can put into place the policies needed to eliminate the financial incentive for illegal immigration by stopping illegal employers from hiring illegal immigrants.
Authored by Congressman David Dreier (R-San Dimas) and former border patrol agent and member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), H.R. 98 seeks to end the insane practice of rewarding illegal immigrants with jobs.  The bill would provide employers with the tools they need to enforce the law by creating a tamper-proof Social Security card that every new worker would need to gain employment.

Before we address the 12 million illegal immigrants who are currently living in our country, we must concentrate on eliminating the reasons why they are coming here in the first place.  We must match our tough talk on illegal immigration with action.  That begins with eliminating the incentive for illegal immigration by holding employers who hire illegal aliens accountable.

Another reality is that we are not equipped to handle the fallout produced from the Senate’s amnesty plan.  Our border resources are already stretched too thin as illegal immigrants are consistently caught and released on a daily basis.  Just imagine the influx of illegal immigrants we can expect if amnesty provisions are adopted.  The effect such a policy would have on our public safety community would be significant.

Consider that on a typical day, the men and women of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection process more than one million passengers and pedestrians and nearly 70,000 truck, rail, and sea containers.  They seize more than 5,000 pounds of narcotics, intercept 206 fraudulent documents, safeguard more than 100,000 miles of border and shoreline, and manage 317 ports of entry with only 11,300 Border Patrol agents.

Their already difficult job will not be made any easier if we reward more than 12 million illegal immigrants with citizenship.  Congress has supported a similar remedy before with disastrous results.  In 1986, the Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Reform Control Act granted amnesty to more than 3 million illegal immigrants.  A decade later, the illegal immigration rate in the United States had tripled and has resulted in the problems we have today.

The solution to illegal immigration is not amnesty.  It is not so-called earned citizenship proposals supported by the Senate or an amnesty proposal dressed-up as a “guest-worker� program.  Rewarding illegal behavior is unacceptable.  Creating incentives for illegal activity is intolerable.  If the past has taught us anything, it’s that amnesty is not an option.  If voters have told us anything, it’s that they want secure borders and do not want citizenship sold to illegal immigrants.

At the end of the day, there are two choices we can make.  One choice leads to amnesty and the re-living of past mistakes.  The other will eliminate illegal immigration incentives; strengthen border security and use 21st century technology to create a tamper-proof Social Security card so that employers have the tools they need to verify worker eligibility.  The growing illegal immigration problem demands a new approach.  We must enforce our existing laws, strengthen document security, secure our borders and finally, punish illegal employers who hire illegal immigrants.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Campaign, Civil Rights, Homeland Security, Lawmaker News, Politics .