Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2007

Floor Speech

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, I congratulate the Senator from Arizona for his tremendous leadership in this area. I wish to detail some of that leadership and some of the work he has done. I have been proud to work with him.

I think what the amendment really helps to do is to serve as a wake-up call, a wake-up call to the Senate, a wake-up call to the Federal Government, and really a message that is being delivered day in and day out by people in my State and people all across America, who say they are sick and tired of the Federal Government not living up to its responsibilities when it comes to securing our international borders.

We all know in minute detail how porous our borders are, and we know that in the past the American people have been asked to accept solutions--like amnesty in 1986--on the condition that the Federal Government would provide a means whereby employers could determine the eligibility of prospective employees to work legally in the United States. But while the American people were given an amnesty program, legalizing roughly 3 million individuals, the Federal Government did not provide the means for employers to determine whether that prospective employee could legally work in the United States.

The Senator from Arizona mentioned the basic pilot program which was supposed to be the means to that end, but it was a purely voluntary program, and thus employers were left with a conundrum. They needed the workforce, but they did not necessarily have access to a means to determine the

legal status of prospective employees. So what they relied upon were oftentimes what turned out to be fake identification, whether driver's licenses, Social Security cards, passports, or the like. We do not expect the employers in this country to try to be FBI agents or to conduct an independent investigation as to the legal status of prospective employees.

What this amendment will do is two important things. No. 1, it will begin to cause the Federal Government to step up to finally begin to provide the resources necessary to have a bona fide electronic verification system. But perhaps more importantly, it will demonstrate the seriousness of the Federal Government to finally live up to its responsibilities.

The people across America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce--we are hearing a lot from sectors of the employment community saying they need a temporary worker program, a guest worker program. I think we all acknowledge it is important for us to determine who the 10 or 11 million people are who are currently in the country who have come here, perhaps legally in the first instance, but at least 40 percent of them have outstayed their visas and are currently out of status or people who have literally walked across or swam across the Rio Grande River to come here.

But in a post-9/11 world, there can be no doubt we must know who is in our country and what their reasons are for being here, so we can cull out the criminals, the people who come here to do us harm, and including the potential prospects of terrorists exploiting these known vulnerabilities in our way too porous border. So we need a national strategy to deal with that.

As the current occupant of the chair knows and the Senator from Arizona knows, as members of the Judiciary Committee, we are working hard to try to come up with a solution to this extraordinarily complex problem. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that, here again, we are playing catchup.

But the purpose ultimately served by this amendment as well as the budget resolution that is pending on the floor--and the Senator from Arizona rightly praised the chairman of the Budget Committee for moving funds into building infrastructure along our border--the American people need to know we are making a firm and solid commitment to do whatever it takes to make this system work and to finally bring it under control. Because people are not going to accept the bait and switch that essentially was foisted upon them in 1986, when they said take an amnesty, and then, on the condition we will have an employer verification system, we will actually sanction people for hiring people who cannot legally work in the United States, I do not think people will be fooled again. I certainly do not plan to be part of that.

I know there are many in Congress and in the Senate who are absolutely committed to coming up with a solution to this problem. It is not easy. But again, I do not believe the American people or our constituents sent us here necessarily to do just easy things. They expect us to come here and do more than go to receptions or meetings at the White House. They actually expect us to do some real work. But it is going to take some real work, and it is going to take some real money to finally make the investment the Federal Government has to make in order to bring this broken system under control.

So I gladly join as a cosponsor of this amendment and ask for the support of all of our colleagues for this very important step forward.

I yield the floor.

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