The Hill Report: Week of October 13 - 17, 2008

As the 110th Congress draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight my priorities for increasing border security and implementing true immigration reform.

 

Our nation’s broken immigration system remains a serious threat to the safety of our community and nation. Despite the critical need to address security and economic issues associated with illegal immigration, Democrats in Congress have failed to enact any new immigration reforms during their control of Congress the past two years.

 

Unlike this Democrat Congress, North Texans understand that ignoring the issue will not make it go away. As a strong supporter of meaningful immigration reform, I have talked with North Texas residents, employers, and small business owners to develop comprehensive immigration reform priorities that are thorough, principled, straightforward and, most importantly, in the best interest of American citizens.

 

Securing our border must be the top priority.  This includes completing work on a 700 mile double-layered fence, as outlined in the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and maintaining operational control of the border. While progress has been made, illegal immigration and violence along the border persists, requiring steadfast efforts to ensure that the influx of illegal immigration is addressed. Securing the border also means combating drug and human trafficking and giving local law enforcement and border sheriffs the resources they need to enforce federal immigration laws. 

 

Documenting the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our nation is central to America’s interior security.  Although these people have broken the law by entering the country, it is simply neither feasible nor economically practical to arrest and deport them all.  Instead, the government must use a strategic, graduated process to identify and document them as efficiently and as timely as possible.  This will require incentives for compliance and penalties for non-compliance. Once their identity and information has been collected, it must be accessible and searchable in a web-based database.  Illegal immigrants who have committed crimes must be accountable for their actions and not be eligible for legal status in the United States. 

 

Immigration reform must prioritize following the rule of law, and a key component of this is strengthening interior enforcement.  This includes implementing the exit portion of US-VISIT so that we can account for those who have overstayed their visas.  Those who fail to come forward with documentation should be penalized for unlawful presence in the United States. Immigration reform must strengthen the Criminal Alien Program (a local/federal criminal alien processing partnership) and deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes—including membership in an alien gang organization.

Employers, including many small business owners, have made it clear that they depend on seasonal and guest workers.  Establishing a true guest worker program is the next step in comprehensive immigration reform.  Many of the 12 million illegal immigrants have come to the United States for jobs, not citizenship.  An effective guest worker program would grant authorization to work for a defined period of time without the prospect of citizenship.  It would also provide for market-based caps on the number of workers, tamperproof identification cards with biometric data, background checks, and authorization for workers to verify status before hiring.  If a guest worker leaves his job, he must return to his home country or prove that he has a new job.  Employers would also be responsible to notify the government if the employee is no longer in their service.  Finally, all guest workers would have to pay income taxes on wages earned in the United States and be required to have health insurance—an important requirement of any effective immigration reform plan to ensure that our social programs are safeguarded for U.S. citizens.  

 

Citizenship issues have too often confused and even derailed immigration reform discussions. Illegal immigrants who wish to become citizens of the United States should return to their country of origin and apply through the appropriate channels and application processes. These applicants would go to the end of the line—behind those who have applied legally and are waiting to hear about their pending applications. 

 

 

I believe that these principles provide an important framework from which an effective immigration reform plan can be developed. Clearly, many other issues—such as safeguarding social programs—must also be addressed, and I will continue to support taxpayer protections and additional immigration reform provisions that serve the best interest of current American citizens.

 

 

While this Democrat Congress has failed to address immigration solutions, I am pleased to report that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has continued its successful local efforts.  Through ICE initiatives like the National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP) and the Criminal Alien Program (CAP), ICE agents in North Texas are working hard to provide a safer community by removing illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

 

During a five-day operation in early October, ICE officials arrested 99 fugitive illegal immigrants in the Dallas area as part of the National Fugitive Operations Program.  This program was created in 2003 to pursue illegal immigrants who fail to appear at their scheduled immigration hearings or who have fled after being sentenced to deportation.  This program is part of the larger effort by ICE to target, arrest and deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the United States. 

 

Those arrested during the Dallas operation were foreign nationals from Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Mexico, Nepal and Nicaragua.  Of the 99 arrested, 22 had previous criminal convictions.  In fiscal year 2008, the ICE Fugitive Operations Teams in Dallas and Oklahoma City made 1,629 arrests.

 

In the past two years, the City of Irving—which participates in the Criminal Alien Program—has reported over 3,000 dangerous criminal aliens from the Irving jail to ICE for deportation proceedings.  This program ensures that these criminal aliens are not released from jail without ICE being notified.  Since January, crime in Irving has dropped 10 percent. 

 

Despite the continued success of combating illegal immigration at the local level through partnerships with the federal government, some of my Democrat colleagues have tried to restrict the role local law enforcement plays in reducing illegal immigration.  Although, illegal immigration reform is a federal issue that must be dealt with in Washington D.C., local governments should be provided every resource necessary to keep behind bars illegal immigrants who commit crimes. This Congress, I worked with my Republican colleagues to ensure that valuable programs like 287(g)—which allows qualified local law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration law—remain intact. 

 

As your Member of Congress, I will continue to be a strong advocate for partnerships between federal, state and local resources for these detention and removal programs and will work with my colleagues to promote comprehensive, effective immigration reform that will strengthen our communities and nation.

 

 

Have a good weekend.