Tuesday, May 22, 2007

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on Immigration Legislation
Remarks as Delivered on the Senate Floor

Thank you, Mr. President. And I thank the distinguished member from North Dakota for his graciousness and allowing me the 10 minutes.

Mr. President, two years and five months ago, I made the first speech as a United States Senator on the floor. It was a speech about immigration, both legal and illegal. A year ago today, I made another speech about immigration on the day that I offered an amendment that’s become known as the “trigger amendment” on immigration. And I rise for the third time in two years and five months to talk about the most significant issue facing the United States of America as far as domestic policy is concerned.

Our borders to the south have been leaking far too long and in too great of numbers. We’ve had an immigration policy that, for the better part of 21 years, has been to look the other way as people float across our southern border and do nothing about it while millions come into this country. It’s got to come to an end. It’s the reason the controversy is so great over this issue today.

I, first of all, want to thank the members that have worked with me over the last six weeks on the concept of putting a trigger in the underlying bill to be the trigger upon which immigration reform either takes place or doesn’t. There’s so much misinformation out there right now about this issue, that I want to spend the remainder of my time talking about what trigger must be pulled in order for immigration to be reformed.

The underlying bill that we’re debating today says the following: no program granting status to anyone who enters the United States of America illegally may be granted until the Secretary of Homeland Security has certified that all the border security measures in Section 1 are completed, funded, and in operation. There is no wiggle room. There’s no presidential waiver, there’s no the secretary saying “well, maybe we’re ok.” Absolute.

And let me tell what you those five are. Number one is 370 new miles of walls. Many of us got this in the mail last year when Congress attempted to debate a flawed immigration bill that called for no border security. They mailed bricks because they wanted barriers. This bill calls for 370 miles.

It calls for 200 miles of obstacles on those areas where vehicles might come across the border. That 200 plus the 370 miles of walls is 570 miles. It calls for four unmanned aerial vehicles, eyes in the sky 24/7, each with a 150-mile radius. That’s 600 miles, which added to the 570 miles is 1,170 miles. Then it calls for 70 ground positioning radar systems with a radius of 12 miles, or 1,680 miles of seamless security. That 1,680 on top of the 1,170 is almost 2,800 miles of seamless security.

There are not 2,800 miles on the border. We have redundancy all along the border. The next trigger is 27,500 detention beds on the border so when somebody is intercepted, they’re held until their court date comes up. No more catch-and-release.

And then importantly, as well, 18,000 border patrol agents have to be trained and in place and functioning. We have 15,000 or 14,500 right now. That’s another 3,500. Those agents by the way are trained ostensibly in Georgia at FLETC, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. They’re trained on border security, on intervention and capture.

And then it requires the seamless border security. It requires the I.D. that is biometric and is secure. It ends the largest growth industry on the southern border and that’s the forged document industry.

And when those five triggers are in place and when the Secretary of Homeland Security has certified them, then and only then is the immigration reform in place because we have stopped the bleeding.

You know, there are a lot of people talking about this issue of immigration from a lot of different stand points, but I know one thing, when you go to the doctor, you don’t want him to treat the symptom, you want him to treat the cause. If you’re cut, you want him to sew up the cut, not just put a band-aid on it. If you’re hurt and you hurt badly, you want him to x-ray it and find out whatever the source is.

We know what the source is in America. The source is we have a 2,000-mile land contiguous border with a country that is less developed than ours and has less opportunity and the United States of America is a magnet without obstacle for them to get in. We have got to stop the source of the problem or we’ll never be able to reform it for the future.

I come to this debate as the second generation American. My grandfather came here in 1903 from Sweden. In 1926, he became a naturalized citizen. It took him 23 years to follow what is the only right pathway to citizenship and that is legal immigration.

I stand before you today to say the American people want border security. I want border security. And if it is the trigger for immigration reform, it ensures that we’ll never have to repeat the mistakes of 1986 and that America once again will restore confidence in its borders, confidence in its immigration policy, and legitimacy with its people.

And I end where I began. There is no wiggle room in this trigger. There is no waiver, there’s no looking the other way. If we, in Congress, don’t fund the money, it doesn’t work. If the President doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do, it doesn’t work. If the Homeland Security Secretary doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do, it does not work.

The American people for the first time have an ironclad guarantee that our biggest problem – and that is an insecure border to the south – will be fixed and fixed forever.

Madam President, I again thank the distinguished Senator from North Dakota for giving me the chance to make this presentation and I yield back the balance of my time.