congressional_record: CREC-2004-12-08-pt1-PgS12012-2
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| CREC-2004-12-08-pt1-PgS12012-2 | 2004-12-08 | 108 | 2 | INTELLIGENCE REFORM BILL AND COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM | SENATE | SENATE | ALLOTHER | S12012 | S12013 | [{"name": "John Cornyn", "role": "speaking"}] | 150 Cong. Rec. S12012 | Congressional Record, Volume 150 Issue 139 (Wednesday, December 8, 2004) [Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 139 (Wednesday, December 8, 2004)] [Senate] [Pages S12012-S12013] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] INTELLIGENCE REFORM BILL AND COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I want to say a few words about what we have done here today in passing the intelligence reform bill and say that I support this effort. It was a difficult but necessary step to making America safer. I do not believe we should fool ourselves to think we have actually finished the job. By that I mean I think some of the objections that had been made to this legislation or I should say some of the proposals for additional measures that were excluded from this bill, I believe, were well taken. Specifically, what I am talking about is some of the security challenges relative to our immigration system, our broken immigration system. I know many Americans would be shocked to learn that the 19 9/11 hijackers had a total of 63 validly-issued U.S. driver's licenses. Because of this astounding fact, the 9/11 Commission recommended, on page 390: The federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driver's licenses. Fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft. The Commissioners aptly pointed out that ``For terrorists, travel documents [can be just] as important as weapons.'' I am pleased the conference report that we have voted on today and passed overwhelmingly includes some needed enforcement measures. But, as I say, I do not believe we should stop there. I strongly believe that issuing driver's licenses to individuals who are not lawfully present in our country has the potential of posing a national security risk in a post-9/11 world. The example I just mentioned about the 9/11 terrorists: It is well documented that Mohamed Atta had a driver's license that was valid beyond the date of the expiration of his visa. Inasmuch as he had been stopped for an ordinary traffic violation, a lapsed driver's license, if its lapse was concurrent with the end of his visa, would perhaps have raised a signal which would have caused some additional questions to be answered. Of course, I do not want to speculate what the outcome of that would be, but it makes sense to me, and I think it makes sense to most people, that why in the world would you issue a driver's license to someone who is not lawfully present or allow that driver's license to extend beyond the date of their visa? Driver's licenses, after all, are used for access to airplanes all across this Nation; therefore, invalid driver's licenses held by someone not lawfully present, or perhaps even fraudulent documentation, pose a potential terrorist threat. We know that documents like a driver's license also function as a breeder document that is used to obtain other official documents, blurring the line between those who are in the United States legally and those who are not lawfully present. Without strong standards for driver's licenses, we ignore the clear security threat of fraudulent documents. For all these reasons, I submit that our work here is not yet finished until we begin to address this potential threat. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are, at the same time, a nation of laws, or at least we claim to be. But when America fails to enforce its own laws, it becomes more and more difficult to claim, with a straight face, that we are indeed a nation of laws. We should have no qualms and make no excuses to anyone about enforcing our laws in pursuit of our Nation's security, and as the Commissioners of the 9/11 Commission pointed out, immigration reform goes hand in hand with protecting our security. We should not allow ourselves to be distracted or our attention to be diverted from these critical issues. No, Mr. President, border security is not anti- immigrant. As Speaker Hastert has said: Immigrants to America are as victimized by terrorists as American citizens. I hope we will work promptly next year to carefully reconsider the enforcement measures included in the House bill that are not included in today's conference report. Let me mention some of those provisions in the bill that was passed by the House but which are not included in the conference agreement that we have passed. No. 1, the House required, but this bill does not include, a requirement that applicants for driver's licenses show proof of legal status in the United States. It does not contain the House requirement that temporary licenses should include a requirement that a license term should expire on the same date as a visa or other temporary lawful presence authorizing document and that the face of the card should show the expiration date. This bill does not require, but we should require in future legislation, that the Department of Homeland Security certify that States have met minimum driver's license issuance and document standards. This bill does not contain, but should contain, or at least future legislation should contain, provisions providing for the electronic confirmation by State motor vehicle departments of the validity of other States' driver's licenses and information. This conference report does not contain but should contain and I hope future legislation will require that half of our new immigration investigators should focus on enforcing our existing immigration laws and requiring that each State receive at least three of the new State immigration investigators. We should also require limits on judicial review of visa revocations. We should make it more difficult for terrorists and foreign criminals to win delays of their removal from the United States. We should explicitly require verification of certain information--such as identity, mother's maiden name, or other information--for the issuance of birth certificates accepted by a Federal agency. And we should require that the States adopt standardized practices for how they secure vital records offices. Mr. President, I believe that common sense tells us that each of these provisions should be the law of the land, and I regret they were not able to be included in this legislation. But certainly all that means is that our work is not yet done, and we have much left to do. I support the measures in the House bill that I have mentioned that were not included in this conference report. But the truth is, we need comprehensive immigration reform. I come from a border State, one with a 1,200-mile border with Mexico, and we know that [[Page S12013]] Mexico's back door is the front door to Central America and beyond into South America, and that many of our immigration challenges come from south of the Texas border, which is, of course, an international border between the United States and our neighbor Mexico. It is well documented that we have approximately 10 million people who are illegally in this country who have come from south of the border and other places around the world. Here again, I don't know how we can say with a straight face that we are a nation of laws while at the same time ignoring this fact. I know it won't be easy. Indeed, like so many other challenges that face our Nation, few of these issues are easy. I know next year we will be dealing with things such as Social Security reform, tax simplification, and winning the war on terrorism. None of those issues are easy, but we don't give that as an excuse for failing to do our duty as Senators. I hope we will not make weak and empty excuses for failing to do our duty when it comes to immigration reform. The need for immigration reform is apparent when we look at the challenges we confront in a post-9/11 world. There are some who say: We can solve our immigration problems by building a wall between the United States and Mexico or we could do it by deploying troops along our border. That is a vain hope and expectation, if indeed people are truly serious about that. The fact is, when you have one of the poorer nations of the world right next door to the richest nation, people who have no hope and no opportunity where they live will do whatever it takes to provide hope and opportunity to their families. You cannot build a wall high enough or wide enough to keep people out of this country who know only despair and who have no opportunity where they live. I believe we need to deal comprehensively with this issue in a pragmatic way, a way that allows us to call ourselves a nation of laws, and create a legal framework that allows us to deal with the present reality of our reliance on immigrant labor, some 6 million in the workforce in America doing jobs in many instances that American citizens would not want to do. All you have to do is travel to construction sites all across the country. Go to the hotels, the restaurants, to the lawn service companies, whatever the nature of the business may be, you will find-- and we know they are there--immigrants who have come from other countries who ask for nothing more than the opportunity to work. We need and rely on that labor. At the same time the demands of homeland security cry out for an accounting of who is in our country and why they are here. While I suspect--indeed I believe--the vast majority of these people who have come here illegally are here because they want nothing more than to work and the opportunity to provide for their families, what we need to do is account for everyone who is here, why they are here, what their intentions are, and to make sure that those who are a threat to our country are deported or not allowed to come into our country in the first place. In order to deal with this issue--both our homeland security, our border security, and our economic reliance on the contributions that immigrant labor provides and that are important to our economy--we need to approach this entire question with a dose of common sense and pragmatism that unfortunately has been missing for so long. Most of the people who talk about immigration today, I am afraid to say, are special interest groups that try to scare the American people or, frankly, misrepresent the facts about this important issue. Comprehensive immigration reform will allow our law enforcement officials to concentrate on those who are indeed a threat while acknowledging the contributions that immigrants make to our economy, but under a lawful framework which allows us to regain our status as a nation of laws. To that end, last summer, I introduced the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act that would create a temporary worker program, allowing immigrants to work in the United States for a limited time, then return to their home country with the skills and the savings that they have earned. The most important aspect of that bill is that it is a work and return program. It is not a pathway to legal permanent residency in the United States, nor is it a pathway to citizenship. It is not amnesty. I would not support a bill that provides amnesty for those who are not lawfully present in the United States. I believe what this does is address both the reality on the ground in places such as my State and even the great State of Montana, represented by the current occupant of the chair. Immigrants make a tremendous contribution to the workforce and the economy of all of our States. I also believe that the work and return component is important because the fact is, if we are ever going to do anything about the root causes of immigration, we are going to have to support the efforts of the nations that supply these immigrants to help build their own economy and to create opportunity and jobs. If we don't do that, then the drain of the risk takers, the young and able-bodied, the people every economy depends upon in order to do the work and to help boost the economy and create opportunity, will continue, and we will never be successful. I believe both for our purposes and for the purposes of those countries that supply immigrant labor to the United States, it is important that we have a work and return requirement. I plan on reintroducing this measure when we return in January. I believe this proposal will enhance America's border security and homeland security by allowing law enforcement to focus on the true threats to America and those who intend to do us real harm. There are as many as 10 million individuals already present in this country illegally. Our homeland security demands an accounting of the identity of these individuals and their reason for being here and a judgment as to whether they pose a danger to our citizens. While I believe we have done a good thing here today and that we have met the request of the 9/11 families and the 9/11 Commission to deal with their concerns in this bill, we have not yet finished the job. Indeed, I don't believe we can claim we have finished the job until we deal comprehensively with immigration reform. I know it is going to take a lot of discussion. This is a controversial area, but I know the American people will benefit from a discussion in Congress and from our understanding of what their concerns are so we can try to achieve a national consensus to deal with this issue which we have neglected for far too long. It is because we have neglected it that we are not as safe as we should be; nor can we justly claim to be a nation of laws while we ignore this present violation, and ignoring those laws when it has to do with the immigrants in our country. Mr. President, I will talk more about this in January when we return but I did not want the occasion to pass without making these few comments. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). In my capacity as a Senator from the State of Texas, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________ |