Friday, July 14, 2006

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on Emergency Supplemental to Secure U.S. Border
Remarks as Delivered on the Senate Floor

For a moment I want to address the issue of immigration before we leave for the weekend. About two months ago, I offered an amendment to the Senate immigration bill which at the time was referred to as a deal-breaker. I want to suggest today that it's now being referred to as a deal maker. And I want to offer some suggestions constructively for us in the Senate to consider, and others involved in this debate. But the foundation is, I want to repeat just for the benefit of everyone, what the amendment that I offered and the distinguished presiding officer supported as well as many, many other members of the Senate -- not enough, I might add, but almost enough.  

The amendment very simply said that no program contained in the act that granted legal status to someone who is in America illegally could take effect until the secretary of homeland security certified that all of the border security measures proposed in the Act in Title 1 and in Section 233 of Title 2 were in force, funded and operational. It's become known as a trigger because it said that any guest worker program or any other reform that took place could only take place after we had done the job the American people suggested we should do.

A lot of people say we can't secure our borders. Well, we can transplant hearts and we can fly to the moon. We can secure our border. What we needed is a resolve. I have been very pleased to see just this week countless articles in countless newspapers where all of the players in this debate, from the White House to the Senate, to the U.S. House of Representatives have now opened themselves to discuss a trigger in the immigration reform bill to ensure that when we have immigration reform it is truly comprehensive.

Because I would suggest, Mr. President, that in the absence of border security, there can be no comprehensive reform. Only when people know that the door is closed will they cooperate with not only the spirit but the letter of the law and the reforms that we make.

Just to remind us in the Senate, we were very specific in Title I. The specifics of Title I said we’ll put the 6,000 border patrol agents, train them and put them online. That takes two years to do. It said we’ll build the barriers where necessary geographically and the roads where essential. That’s doable within two years. We’ll deploy the 27 UAVs, the eyes in the sky, to survey the entire 2,000-mile southwestern border. That's doable within a year. We'll build the detention facilities to end the catch-and-release practice and begin to have true enforcement on the border. And we'll have a verification program for guest workers and immigrants that is verifiable and not forgeable. That takes two years. So as a practical matter, as people have backed up from the original debate, they have looked forward, they now are seeing through the forest to look at the trees and they say, yes, if we secure the border, it takes two years but it's going to take two years to implement whatever else we would do on worker reform as well.

And so folks are coming to together. People are beginning to talk. And I’m pleased with that. Pleased with that because I’m the grandson of an immigrant who came to this country, became a naturalized citizen and I honor our immigration process. I'm glad to see that because we depend on a work force that is vibrant and dependable. And I’m pleased to hear that because I believe the American people consider our border an emergency, and now that all the players are beginning to talk, hopefully we can close the deal.

Mr. President, yesterday the distinguished Senator from Alabama, Senator Sessions, offered two amendments to the Homeland Security Bill. Although they failed, they laid the groundwork for what I think is an important step for us to take. And that is to go ahead and move forward with what all of us agree with are the necessary steps for border security. That's the foundation upon which we can reach the final agreements on guest worker, on green cards, on quotas and on citizenship. But only after the American people are convinced that we have made the commitment to secure our border will the American people want us to go and make any deal on reform of immigration.

You know, we pass emergency supplementals for various things in this body. We've done it in response to Katrina. We've done it in response to Iraq. I would submit the American people would tell you there's no greater emergency than securing our border. If the White House sent an emergency supplemental to this Senate for the money necessary to fund the U.A.V.'s, the 6,000 border patrol agents and the funding of Title 1, I doubt you'd see dissenters. Everybody knows it is an emergency and needs to be done. If it is in fact correct that border security first is the trigger for comprehensive reform, which is necessary, then let's declare it an emergency. Let's have the proposal come to the floor, let's debate it and let's fund it so as the year progresses as the hearings are done as we come back in September, we in this Congress can deal with comprehensive reform built on the foundation of border security first.

Mr. President, I appreciate your cooperation and that of all the colleagues in this body as we work to deal with a very difficult and complicated but a very doable reform of our immigration laws. I appreciate the commitment of those in here so far to border security first and I think in the end all of us together, the Executive and the Legislative branch, can come together on a comprehensive reform that is built on securing our border to ensure the reforms we make are lasting and agreed to.