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It was one year ago this week that I introduced my border security first bill to crack down on illegal immigration. It includes more border patrol agents, more detention bed facilities, a verification system for employers to confirm worker status, penalties for businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants, and a border barrier.
My belief was, and continues to be, that we need to secure the border first before we can address issues surrounding illegal immigrants who are already here. I set out to close the back door to illegal immigration so that we can open the front door to legal immigration.
While most Nebraskans told me they supported it, some of my colleagues in the Senate opposed a border barrier and increased enforcement provisions, favoring a do-all approach that included amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Because the “try to do everything” approaches, some that include amnesty for illegal immigrants, have stalled, I believe that we should separate the issues, address border security first, and then deal with other immigration reforms. This approach would have stopped the problem from worsening, improved our national security, stopped the flow of drugs across our southern border, and applied comprehensive and across-the-board workplace enforcement.
Washington didn’t do enough to secure our borders after the 1986 immigration reforms were approved. As a result, it is estimated that an additional 12 million illegal immigrants have entered our country.
After working on this for the past year I am pleased to report that Majority Leader Bill Frist agrees that it’s time to secure the border. He allowed the House-passed bill, H.R. 6061, the Secure Fence Bill, which includes a 700 mile fence and no amnesty plan to come to the Senate floor in a final effort to get a major border security bill passed and sent to the President. The Senate voted 94-0 to allow this bill to be considered but it may not have enough votes to pass this week.
With illegal immigration placing a strain on local budgets, threatening the availability of jobs, and enabling drugs such as methamphetamine to stream across our border, I remain more committed than ever to secure the border first.
Border security is not anti-immigrant. It is anti-“illegal” immigrant. It is not another Berlin Wall or Great Wall of China. As shown in San Diego, increased border security, including a fence, works. The San Diego border fence has dramatically reduced the number of illegal border crossings. Crime also showed a significant drop after the fence was built. The rest of our border deserves the same protection as San Diego.
In fact, earlier this summer the Senate approved construction of a border barrier along the southern border. That plan, approved 94-3 on August 2, included physical border barriers like walls and vehicle barriers and a virtual wall utilizing surveillance technology in other areas. With that vote, the anti-border security caucus in the Senate dwindled to three members. The Senate is likely to pass the Defense Appropriations Conference Report this week, which includes that funding.
As I said one year ago when I introduced my border security first bill, “the first thing you do to get out of a hole is stop digging”. Since then, a lot of people have been repeating those very words when they lend their support to a border security approach. Nebraskans understand this will stop the digging. They understand that our borders remain open and the problem of illegal immigration is only getting worse. They understand that Washington needs to do something to secure our borders.
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