Senator Sam explains: (green card, visas, illegal immigrants, laws)

[chele123]

Proof they're feeling the heat?
June 26, 2007 – Brownback Immigration Update (http://www.brownback.com/s/NewsRoom/PressReleases/June262007BrownbackImmigrationUpdate/tabid/381/Default.aspx - broken link)

“One of the primary jobs of a government is to ensure the safety of its citizens. In order to do so we must strategically secure our borders and discourage illegal immigration as well as drug and human trafficking.”
- U.S. Senator Sam Brownback

Brownback Immigration Principles: No Amnesty, Border Security is National Security, and No Additional Paths to Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants

June 26, 2007 – Brownback Immigration Update

Senator Brownback voted in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed to the immigration bill today. That means he voted to bring the bill back to the floor for debate and for amendments to be offered.

This does NOT mean that Senator Brownback supports the immigration bill itself – he feels the bill needs to be improved.

Brownback opposes amnesty, and believes first and foremost in securing our borders and ending illegal immigration. Brownback voted to debate the bill in the Senate but is withholding support for the bill until the amendment process is complete.

Senator Brownback has not and will not support giving Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants. The bill in its current form denies Social Security benefits for any Social Security credits earned while performing unauthorized work. This provision is actually "tougher" than Senator Ensign's amendment from last year because it denies Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants using fraudulent documents to obtain work as well as work performed on a legitimate, though expired, work permit.

Senator Brownback fully supports securing our border with a fence. He voted for the Secure Fence act in the 109th Congress and voted to fund it as well .

The current bill is imperfect and Senator Brownback looks forward to the amendment process, which he hopes will improve the bill – though efforts to offer amendments to improve the bill have thus far been thwarted by the Democratic majority.

The Senate immigration bill represents a very tenuous compromise, which could significantly change over the course of the debate.

The bill changes significantly every day and for this reason, Senator Brownback is waiting to see what the bill looks like when it comes time for final passage before reaching a conclusion on how he will vote.

That said, Senator Brownback has stated that he will support the bill if it –

1) effectively secures the border through fencing, enhanced electronic surveillance, increased number of border patrol agents, and unmanned aerial vehicles;

2) implements a strong worksite enforcement system that prevents undocumented immigrants from getting jobs; and

3) fixes our immigration system going forward by ending chain migration, creating a legal temporary worker program, and eliminating the national security risk of having 12 million undocumented immigrants in our country.

************************************************** ********The Senate bill would require that the DHS Secretary certify in writing that DHS has achieved "operational control" over the entire US-Mexico border and that the following border and worksite enforcement measures are funded, in place, and in operation before initiating a guest worker program or issuing Z visas to current undocumented immigrants:

20,000 (CBP) Border Patrol hired
Construction of 300 miles of vehicle barriers and 370 miles of fencing
105 ground-based radar and camera towers along the southern border
Deployment of 4 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and supporting systems
The ending of catch-and-release
Resources to detain up to 31,500 aliens per day on an annual basis
The use of secure and effective identification tools to prevent unauthorized work.
The receiving and processing and adjudicating of applications for Z status.

The Senate bill would provide:

National Strategy for Border Security.
14,000 new border patrol agents by 2012 – doubling the current force.
2,500 new Customs and Border Protection officers by 2012.
3,000 new DHS investigators by 2010.
24,000 new detention beds by 2010.
Enhanced Surveillance – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), cameras, sensors, satellites, radar coverage, and other technologies.

The Senate bill is not amnesty – it requires undocumented immigrants would have to leave the US and apply from their home country for a green card.

The Senate bill also:

Ends chain migration.
Institutes merit-based immigration system geared more toward highly skilled and educated immigrants.
Creates robust worksite enforcement Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS) in which SSA shares information w/ DHS to allow them to go after immigrants fraudulently using SSNs to gain employment.
Increases employer sanctions. Employers who hire illegal workers will face stiff new criminal and civil penalties – the maximum criminal penalty for a pattern or practice of hiring illegals will increase 25-fold, from $3,000 per alien to $75,000 per alien.
Guest worker program is truly temporary - no path to citizenship.

There are some good things about the bill such as border security and worksite enforcement, and there are some bad aspects of the bill such as the requirement that undocumented immigrants be given a legal status without having passed a background check.

Brownback has an amendment to fix this loophole in the bill

The issue of illegal immigration is far too important to avoid. Doing so is irresponsible and will only make the problem worse.

We need to secure our broken borders and fix our broken system.

America is a nation of both justice and compassion – the two are not mutually exclusive, but reconciling the two is very difficult in light of the grim reality of the immigration problem we currently face.

It would be nice if simply enforcing the laws already on the books would solve the problem but it won't, and we can't afford to maintain the status quo.

For example, IF we shut down the border to where no one crosses illegally AND successfully end 100 % of visa overstays AND double the number of agents responsible for deporting illegal immigrants, THEN it will still take 25 to 30 years to deport the estimated 11 to 13 million illegal aliens currently in the US.

As a matter of national security we can't wait 30 years to figure out who is in our country illegally.