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Judy on ImmigrationJudy's position on immigration reform with short summaries of immigration bills in the 109th Congress.I would like to share with you an update on the progress being made in addressing immigration reform.
In the wake of the September 11th attacks, the 9/11 Commission highlighted many of our nation’s vulnerabilities—specifically those relating to illegal immigration—that Congress must address in order to assure the protection of Americans. Despite tougher border security since the attacks, it is estimated that another 3.7 million illegal immigrants entered the United States between 2000 and 2005—more than any other five year period in our nation’s history. Furthermore, in March of 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the number of illegal immigrants has risen from 3.2 million in 1986 to 10.3 million in 2004. Now in 2006, the illegal immigrant population is estimated at 12 million.
The House and Senate have very approaches to illegal immigration problem in the United States.
My view is that before we even think about guest worker programs or amnesty, we first must secure our borders to stop illegal aliens from entering this country. That’s why I supported House Resolution 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.
It is important to understand how the Senate and House Bills differ. Below is a short synopsis of both the House and Senate Bills.
H.R. 4437, The Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. I strongly support this bill:
Border Security
Border Surveillance Plan
Mandated in this bill is the creation of a comprehensive border security strategy. Within one year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would have to create a comprehensive border security plan. The first portion of this plan, focusing on border surveillance, is to be completed within six months.
Military Surveillance
H.R. 4437 requires the DHS and Defense Department to submit within six months a plan to use military surveillance equipment, such as unmanned aerial drones, for border security.
Cargo Screening
H.R. 4437 requires the installation of radiation detectors at all points of entry and the testing for nuclear or radiological materials of all cargo entering the United States.
Border Fences
Reps. Hunter (R-CA), Drier (R-CA), Royce (R-CA), Goode (R-VA) and Gingrey (R-GA) offered an amendment that would require DHS to construct a double security fence—accompanied by access roads, cameras and sensors—across several portions of the Mexican Border. The fencing and surveillance would be constructed in areas that have a high occurrence of immigrant death, drug smuggling or illegal border crossings. I voted in favor of this amendment, which passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 260-159.
Reduction of Illegal Immigration
Illegal Immigrant Smuggling
Alien smuggling rings present an enormous problem in the United States. These criminal organizations are growing in sophistication, violence and brutality. H.R. 4437 attempts to target these rings by making it a crime to induce, assist, or direct illegals to enter or remain in the country. It also makes it a crime to conceal illegal aliens from authorities or transport them into or within the country. Many have attempted to misrepresent the intention of this provision by claiming that members of Church groups and other organizations providing humanitarian aid to illegal immigrants would be incarcerated. This is not the intention of the provision. As H.R. 4437 is discussed in conference, I will be sure to insist that this provision is clarified so there is no doubt.
Employment Eligibility
With close to 12 million illegal immigrants working in the United States and in some cases taking jobs from legal immigrants and American citizens, a worker eligibility verification program is necessary. For the past several years, a voluntary program called “Basic Pilot” has allowed employers to screen through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a prospective employee’s Social Security and foreign identification numbers in order to verify if he or she is in the country legally or is authorized to work in the United States. H.R. 4437 would make this pilot program permanent, and require businesses to use it to verify employment eligibility of current and prospective employees. By verifying that they are only hiring those eligible to work in the United States, businesses can do their part to deter illegal immigration. At the same time, we must be careful not to overly burden businesses with costly bureaucratic requirements. That is why I supported Rep. Westmoreland’s (R-GA) amendment that would cap penalties on companies violating the above provision. Passed by the House, the amendment also provides an exemption from penalties for initial good-faith efforts that still resulted in violations.
Mandatory Detention
Every year, more than 900,000 Mexicans are caught in the United States and returned immediately to Mexico. In the last fiscal year, border patrol agents apprehended more than 160,000 non-Mexican illegal aliens, but only 30,000 were removed from the United States. H.R. 4437 eliminates the “catch and release” practice and requires, by October 1, 2006, the detention of apprehended illegal aliens until they are deported. To address the lack of personnel and beds, the bill authorizes the hiring of 2,000 new border patrol agents and the expansion of detention space by 8,000 beds between fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2010.
Local Law Enforcement
With alarming increases in illegal immigration, it is important that local, state, and federal governments work together to reduce illegal entry into the United States. Unfortunately, some state and local governments have policies that prohibit police officers from assisting in immigration enforcement and from reporting illegal immigrants to federal authorities. If the goal is to reduce illegal immigration, it doesn’t make sense to prohibit law enforcement from reporting illegal immigrants. At the same time, I do not support federal laws requiring local law enforcement to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities. I voted in favor of an amendment to withhold federal funding from state and local governments that maintain prohibitory enforcement policies. This amendment is intended to provide an incentive to state and local governments for the removal of these counterproductive policies. This amendment passed the House with bipartisan support.
Illegal Presence
Current immigration law defines illegal entry into the United States as a criminal offense; living illegally in the United States is simply a civil offense. H.R. 4437 makes living illegally in the United States a crime comparable to illegal border crossing and sets the penalty for both at 366 days in prison—a felony. Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the sponsor of this bill, attempted to amend this provision to remove the felony status by reducing the maximum sentence to six months in prison. I supported this amendment, but unfortunately, it failed by a vote of 164-257. I am pleased to report, however, that Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) have committed publicly to removing the felony status from this provision in conference.
Cost Estimates
The Congressional Budget Office examined these and all other provisions of the bill and estimate the cost of implementing H.R. 4437 at around $1.9 billion over the next five years. Such costs would continue to grow after 2010 as additional requirements of the bill are initiated.
Senate Bill 2611, The Senate Reid – Kennedy Bill. I oppose this bill
Guest Worker Provisions
The Reid – Kennedy Bill creates a guest worker program for approximately 1.5 million farm workers and establishes for them a path to legal permanent residency. There would also be 200,000 new temporary guest worker visas allowed each year. Visas for immigrants with “specialty occupations” such as scientists, engineers and computer programmers would also be increased from 565,000 to 115,000 visas annually beginning in 2007.
Amnesty
S. 2611 creates a system that rewards illegal immigrants who have worked in the United States illegally for 5 or more years by allowing them to remain, continue working and become legal permanent residents. In order to qualify, these immigrants would have to become proficient in English, pay $3,250 in fines and fee and pay back taxes. This provision would also penalizes those attempting to enter the country the legal way by allowing millions of illegal immigrants to move to the front of the line of those waiting to become legal United States Citizens.
Path to Citizenship
S. 2611 allows those who have been in the country between two and five years to remain in the country as long as they go to a point of entry and fill out an application before they re-enter the United States.
Social Services
The Reid – Kennedy Bill has a provision that would allow any newly legalized immigrants, as a result of any guest worker, amnesty or path to citizenship provisions, to be able to claim nearly $50 billion in federal benefits such as earned income and child tax benefits, Medicaid and Social Security. An attempt was made by Senator Ensign (R-NV) to remove this provision from the bill. Unfortunately, the Republican motion failed 50-49.
Cost
The Congressional Budget Office examined these and all other provisions of the bill and estimate the cost of implementing the Reid – Kennedy Bill at around $126 billion over the next decade. Costs would continue to grow after as additional requirements of the bill are initiated.
Four Recent Border Security Bills I Strongly Support
We must secure our borders as the first step in addressing the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. In August, during our District Work Period, Republicans in the House spent time in our districts talking to constituents. It became apparent that you see the importance of securing our border now. I heard from so many of you who support the House version of the bill that know how important securing our border is. I am happy to report that because of you, we were able to get 4 border security bills passed through the House. The Senate even heard you message and sent one of the bills to the President.
I am happy to share some additional information about these bills with you:
1) H.R. 6061, The Secure Fence Act of 2006
On September 14, 2006, I voted in favor of H.R. 6061, the Secure Fence Act of 2006. I was a cosponsor of this bill that requires the Department of Homeland Security to construct a double security fence—accompanied by access roads, cameras and sensors—along several portions of the U.S.-Mexico border. The fencing and surveillance would be constructed in areas that have a dense population with high occurrence of immigrant death, drug smuggling or illegal border crossings. The bill also would mandate a study on the necessity and feasibility of a state-of-the-art barrier system along our northern and maritime borders.
I am pleased to report that H.R. 6061 passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 283 to 138 and was referred to the Senate. Subsequently, H.R. 6061 passed without amendment in the Senate by a vote of 90 to 19. The President signed this bill into law on October 26, 2006.
2) H.R. 4830 - Border Tunnel Prevention Act of 2006
I also cosponsored H.R. 4830, the Border Tunnel Prevention Act of 2006. This bill takes a hard line against those authorizing, operating, financing or constructing a tunnel across the border. Border tunnels increasingly have been used to smuggle illegal immigrants, controlled substances, or other illegal goods and pose a huge threat to our national security. Most recently, on September 15th, 2006, a drug smuggling tunnel was discovered that spanned 400 feet between residences in Calexico, California and Mexicali, Mexico. The tunnel was approximately 20 feet underground and was equipped with lighting and supported by wooden beams.
This bill would: increase penalties to up to 20 years in prison for anyone convicted of knowingly constructing or financing a tunnel across the border; increase penalties to up to 10 years in prison for persons who permit the construction or use of such a tunnel on their land; and mandate that individuals who use illegal tunnels to smuggle illegal immigrants, controlled substances, weapons of mass destruction, or other illegal goods be subject to twice the criminal penalty that they otherwise would have faced.
I am pleased to report that H.R. 4830 passed the House by a unanimous vote of 422 to 0 and was referred to the Senate. Subsequently, the provisions of this bill were included in the Fiscal Year 2007 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which passed the House and Senate on September 29, 2006 and was signed into law on October 4, 2006.
3) H.R. 6094 – The Community Protection Act of 2006
The Community Protection Act of 2006 focuses on the detention of high-risk illegal immigrants within the United States prior to their deportation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently reported that 696 high-risk aliens were released in the first six months of 2005 as a result of current catch-and-release policies. This bill ends these catch-and-release policies and ensures that all individuals deemed dangerous -- including those associated with a criminal street gang -- can be detained until their removal.
I am pleased to report that the House passed H.R. 6094 by a vote of 328 to 95 and the bill has been referred to the Senate.
4) H.R. 6095 - Immigration Law Enforcement Act of 2006
Many states have policies that prohibit a state or local law enforcement officer from apprehending illegal immigrants. The Immigration Law Enforcement Act of 2006 takes a common sense approach to declare that all state and local law enforcement officers have “inherent authority” to apprehend illegal immigrants and transfer them to federal custody.
H.R. 6095 also addresses judicial issues involving human smuggling and immigration lawsuits. Due to case backlogs, many illegal aliens involved in litigation against the federal government are awaiting deportation pending the outcome of their trails. This bill would establish requirements under which courts can expedite rulings in immigration cases and end injunctions that have resulted in catch-and-release policies. H.R. 6095 also directs the Department of Justice to hire more attorneys to prosecute human smuggling cases and moves up on the docket all immigration related lawsuits against the federal government.
I am pleased to report that H.R. 6095 passed the House by a vote of 277 to 140 and has been referred to the Senate.
You may wish to contact Senators Durbin and Obama to express your support for each of these bills.
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