Knoxnews - Border Funding Won't Stop Illegal Crossings, Tennessee Congressional Delegation Says

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By: Amy Smotherman

East Tennesseans in Congress said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has waited far too long to secure the nation's southern border and that his request for $3.7 billion will do little to stop minors or anyone else from crossing into the United States illegally.

"On the border, we have a humanitarian disaster and a president who doesn't seem to want to enforce immigration laws asking for billions of dollars," said U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-Johnson City.

Before the House considers Obama's request for the money, "the president must more clearly lay out to us how he will be working to secure the border in the future," Roe said.

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ooltewah, said Obama has been playing "fast and loose" with immigration enforcement for too long.

"Simply throwing money at the problem now won't fix our significant border issues," Fleischmann said. "We need serious reform that secures the border while fully enforcing laws already on the books. Under no circumstance should we reward those who have broken the law or place them above those who have been playing by the rules."

U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville, said the flood of minors crossing the border illegally -- more than 50,000 have arrived from Central America since October -- shows how horrible conditions are in those countries.

"It is sad to me and certainly a great human tragedy that things have gotten so bad in these other countries that desperate people will do almost anything to get to the United States, including sending children," Duncan said.

But, " there is no way that our country can hold the hundreds of millions of people who would come here in a very short time if we simply opened our borders and let everyone in," Duncan said.

"We have to have a legal, orderly system of immigration and it must be enforced because without borders, you really don't have a country," he said. "We certainly shouldn't allow in a flood of illegal immigrants, adults or children, because it might help one political party over another.

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