[Pages S4554-S4574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

BORDER SECURITY, ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY, AND IMMIGRATION MODERNIZATION
ACT--Continued

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 3
p.m. will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or
their designees for debate on the pending amendments.
The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I come to the floor today to ask my
colleagues to join us in supporting the historic comprehensive
immigration bill that is before us today.
We worked hard on the Judiciary Committee to craft a strong
bipartisan bill that bolsters our economy, secures our borders and
promotes opportunity for both businesses and families.
I thank all of those involved in the original bill--Senators Schumer,
McCain, Durbin, Graham, Menendez, Rubio, Bennet and Flake. I thank the
members of the Judiciary Committee who all had a hand in changes to the
bill. And I specifically want to thank Senator Hatch who worked with me
on the I-Squared--Immigration Innovation--bill. The bill on the floor
today contains many of the provisions from I-Squared that encourage
more American innovation.
As you know, we passed this comprehensive immigration bill out of
committee on a bipartisan vote of 13 to 5 and I am hopeful we can build
that same kind of broad-based support on the Senate floor.
This is not going to be simple. It is not going to be easy. But the
most important thing--the reason I am optimistic we can get something
done--is the fact that we are all coming at this from the same basic
starting point:
Democrats and Republicans, Senators from border States and Senators
from inland States, we can all agree on this: Our current immigration
system is broken. And changes must be made.
The question now is how those changes should come about, and that is
why we are having this debate--to find that common ground and pass a
bill that is ultimately stronger because it reflects the needs and
priorities of both parties and all regions of the country.
Passing comprehensive immigration reform will be a vital step forward
for our country. It will be vital to our immigrant communities, who
have been separated their families for too long. It will be vital to
our security. And its will be vital to our economy, to strengthening
our workforce, addressing our long-term fiscal challenges and promoting
innovation.
There are many strong and compelling arguments for immigration
reform, but let me begin with the economic impact on our businesses and
major industries.
Minnesota is a big agriculture State, just like the State of
Wisconsin, Madam President, and I can't tell you how many farmers and
agricultural businesses I have heard from who tell me they rely on
migrant workers and other immigrants to keep their operations going. I
have heard it from high-tech startups, too, as well as big technology
companies like 3M, St. Jude and Medtronic. I have heard it from the
homebuilders and the construction companies, even hospitals and health
care providers.
These businesses represent a vast range of industries and interests.
But when it comes to immigration reform, they all agree: It is critical
to their operations, and it is a vital engine for growth and
innovation.
In fact, history shows that immigrants have helped America lead the
world in innovation and entrepreneurship for generations:
More than 30 percent of U.S. Nobel Laureates were born in other
countries. Ninety of the Fortune 500 companies were started by
immigrants, and 200 were started by immigrants or their children,
including 3M, Medtronic, and Hormel in Minnesota.
Workers, inventors, scientists and researchers from around the world
have built America. And in an increasingly global economy, they are a
big part of keeping our country competitive today.
If we want to continue to be a country that thinks, invents and
exports to the world, then we can not afford to shut out the world's
talent. It doesn't make sense to educate tomorrow's inventors and then
send them back home, so they can start the next Google in India or
France.
That's why I introduced the I-Squared Act with Senator Hatch to make
much needed reforms to allow our companies to bring in the engineers
and scientists they need to compete on the world stage.
One of the things that bill would do is increase fees on employment-
based green cards, so that we can also reinvest in or own homegrown
innovation pipeline by funding more science, technology, engineering
and math initiatives in our schools.
In my State the unemployment rate is at 5.4 percent. We actually have
job openings for engineers, we have job openings for welders, and we
want those jobs to be filled from kids who go to the University of
Minnesota. We want those jobs filled by kids who get a degree at a tech
school in Minnesota. But right now we have openings and we have to do a
combination of things. We have to be educating our own kids and making
sure if there is a doctor coming from another country who is willing to
study at the University of Minnesota or in Rochester, MN, and then
wants to do his or her residency right in America in an underserved
area in a place such as inner-city Minneapolis or a place such as Deep
River Falls, MN, we let them do that residency or internship there
instead of sending them packing to their own country.
Much of the legislation that was in the I-Squared bill, as I
mentioned, is included right here in the bill we are considering. The
health care leaders' provision I mentioned originally, called the
Conrad 30 bill, something I worked on with Senator Heitkamp and Senator
Moran and others--that is also in this bill.
Here's something else that's just good sense: Bringing the roughly 11
million undocumented workers out of the shadows.
Immigrants who are ``off the grid'' can not demand fair pay or
benefits, and there are those who seek to take advantage of that. It's
a bad thing for the American workers whose wages are undercut. And
it's a bad thing for the American families whose undocumented relatives
are being exploited.

In addition to the economic implications, having millions of
undocumented people living in our country poses a serious threat to
both our national security and public safety.
This bill takes the only rational and feasible approach to bringing
these

[[Page S4555]]

people out of the shadows, by creating a fair, tough and accountable
path to citizenship for those who have entered the country illegally or
overstayed their visas.
It's not an easy path. You have to pay fines, stay employed, pass a
background check, go to the back of the line, learn English and wait at
least 13 years to become a citizen.
And if you have committed a felony or three misdemeanors, you're not
eligible. You have to go back to your home country.
Keep in mind, none of these steps towards citizenship would even
begin until we had done what is necessary to secure our borders.
This bill immediately appropriates $4.5 billion towards adding more
border patrol agents, more fencing, and more technologies like aerial
surveillance to prevent illegal crossings over the southern border.
That is money that is being committed today, not a promise for future
spending or something dependent on future Congresses. That money will
be spent to make our border more secure.
I think it is important to recognize that these new efforts would
come on top of all the progress we have already made in recent years.
Some estimates show that net illegal migration over the Mexican border
is actually negative--meaning more people are going back or being sent
back to Mexico than are coming here illegally. We have seen a sea
change over the last few years and much of it, of course, is because of
enforcement efforts going on, many funded by this Congress.
But preventing illegal immigration isn't just about stopping people
at the border. It's also about removing the incentive for people to
come here illegally in the first place.
The way we do that is by requiring employers to start using the E-
Verify system, so they can check whether or not a person is authorized
to work in this country. And to ensure the smoothest possible
transition, we do it over a 5-year phase-in period based on the size
and type of the company. So smaller companies, farmers--those who find
it harder to use the system, they will go later.
I believe our compromise on the workplace enforcement issue is a good
one, and it's reflective of the bi-partisan, balanced approach that
this bill takes overall, on so many other complex issues.
The economic and security arguments for reform are compelling. But we
know there is so much more to this.
This is about maintaining America's role as a beacon for hope and
justice in the world, particularly for those seeking refuge and asylum.
This is something we know a lot about in Minnesota, where we have
always opened our arms to people fleeing violence in their home
countries. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in North
America and the second largest Hmong population in the United States.
We actually have the first Hmong woman legislator, Mee Moua. We are
better off because of the incredible diversity and entrepreneurial
spirit these people have brought to our state.
We are proud of the work these people have done. We know and we
believe we are better off because of the incredible diversity and
entrepreneurial spirit these people have brought to our State from
other countries.
Just as we have granted asylum to people fleeing violence in other
countries, we must also look after those fleeing violence here at home.
That is why I feel so strongly about the need to ensure immigrant
victims of domestic violence are not forced to suffer in silence.
The bill we are considering includes two amendments I introduced in
the Judiciary Committee that would protect immigrants who are victims
of domestic violence and elder abuse. No person who is being abused
should be forced to live in fear because they are worried they will
lose their immigration status if they speak up. Children should not be
forced to live in fear either. So we need to change our laws to ensure
that families are not being torn apart by a system that is not only
inefficient and expensive, but cruel: 64,500 immigrant parents were
separated from their citizen children during the first 6 months of 2010
as a result of deportation. So this bill is about protecting families.
It is also about building families.
If I can say one thing about the domestic abuse issue, I cannot tell
you how many cases we had when I was prosecutor where in fact the case
would come into the office and the victim would be an immigrant. The
perpetrator, we would have found, was threatening to get her deported
or get her mother deported, if she was illegal, or get her sister
deported or a family member deported if she reported it to the police.
This bill fixes a lot of that by the way it handles the U visa program
as well as other amendments I included, and it makes it easier to
prosecute these perpetrators.
As I mentioned, this bill is also about building families. Minnesota
leads the country in international adoptions, and I've seen the
incredible joy an adopted child from another country can bring to a new
mom or dad. That's why I have introduced with Senators Coats and
Landrieu a set of amendments to improve our system for international
adoptions, so that more children can find a loving home here in the
United States.

This bill is vital to our economy and to our national security, but
most importantly it is vital to maintaining America's remarkable
heritage as a nation of immigrants.
I am myself here because of Slovenian and Swiss immigrants. My
grandpa on my dad's side worked 1,500 feet underground in the iron-ore
mines of Ely, MN. His family came to northern Minnesota in search of
work, and the iron ore mines and forests of northern Minnesota seemed
the closest thing to home in Slovenia. My grandpa never graduated from
high school, but he saved money in a coffee can so my dad could go to
college.
My dad earned a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota
and was a newspaper reporter and long-time columnist for the Star
Tribune. My mom was a teacher and she taught second grade until she was
70 years old. Her parents came from Switzerland to Milwaukee where my
great grandma ran a cheese shop. The Depression was hard on their
family and out of work for several years, my grandpa made and sold
miniature Swiss chalets made out of little pieces of wood.
So I stand here today on the shoulders of immigrants, the
granddaughter and great-granddaughter of iron ore miners and cheese-
makers and craftsmen, the daughter of a teacher and newspaper man . . .
and the first woman elected to the Senate from the State of Minnesota.
It could not have been possible in a country that didn't believe in
hard work, fair play and the promise of opportunity. It could not have
been possible in a country that didn't open its arms to the risk-
takers, pilgrims and pioneers of the world.
So this is a very special and enduring part of the American story.
And we need to be sure it continues for future generations in a way
that is fair, efficient and legal.
Passing this bill is important to our economy. It is important to our
global competitiveness. It is important to our national security. And
it is important millions of families throughout the U.S. who want to
come here and live that dream my grandparents and great grandparents
lived.
It's too important for us not to act. To my colleagues, join us in
passing this bill. Let's get it done.
I yield the floor.
Madam President, I note the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I believe we must fix the immigration
bill to make it fairer for women. The bill proposes a new merit-based
point system for allocating green cards to future immigrants. Simply
put, the point system makes it harder for women than for men to come to
this country. The theory behind the merit system is that we should give
immigration preferences to people who hold advanced degrees or work in
high-skilled jobs. This idea ignores the discrimination women endure in
other countries.
Too many women overseas do not have the same educational or career

[[Page S4556]]

advancement opportunities available to men in those countries. In
practice, the bill's new point system takes that inequitable treatment
abroad and cements it into our immigration laws. This bill reduces the
opportunities for immigrants to come under the family-based green card
system.
Currently, approximately 70 percent of immigrant women come to this
country through the family-based system. This legislation increases the
amount of employment-based visas. This bill basically moves us away
from the family-based system and into economic considerations. There is
nothing wrong with that, but we should be fair to women while we are
doing it. The immigration avenues favor men over women by nearly a 4-
to-1 margin.
Using the past as our guide, it is easy to see how the new merit-
based system, with heavy emphasis on factors such as education and
experience, will disadvantage women who apply for green card status. We
all want a stronger economy, but we should not sacrifice the hard-won
victories of the women's equality movement to get it. Ensuring that
women have an equal opportunity to come here is not an abstract policy
cause to me.
When I was a young girl, my mother brought my brothers and me to this
country in order to escape an abusive marriage. My life would be
completely different if my mother was not able to take on that
courageous journey. I want women similar to her--women who don't have
the opportunities to succeed in their own countries--to be able to
build a better life for themselves here. These disparities in the
immigration bill are fixable.
Later this week a number of my female Senate colleagues and I will
introduce a proposal that will address the disparities in the new
merit-based system. Let's improve immigration reform to make this bill
better for women who deserve a fair shake in our green card system.
I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SESSIONS. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum
call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, coming up, we will be voting on some
amendments. I just want to share a few thoughts as we gather in advance
of that. One of the comments made earlier by one of our good Senators
indicated a belief that this immigration bill is going to raise the
salaries of American workers. I think that is what was said. I have to
point out that is not accurate.
This is a very serious issue we are confronting. This legislation
does the opposite of what was said and creates an unprecedented flow of
new workers into America--the likes of which we have not seen before--
and it will have a direct result of depressing job opportunities and
wages of American citizens. It will affect immigrants who are legally
here and also looking for work. It will impact the wages of African
Americans, Hispanics, and any other group in America.
Here is the reason why: Under our current law, the legal flow of
persons to America would be 1 million a year, and that is the largest
of any country in the world. Over 10 years, that will rise to 10
million people. At this point, we now have 11 million immigrants here,
plus a backlog of approximately 5 million more immigrants, which will
total approximately 15 million people who would be legalized in very
short order under this legislation.
Some say, well, they are already working here, so there is not a
problem on employment. But many of those workers are in the shadows,
underemployed, maybe working part-time in restaurants or other places,
and all of a sudden they will be given legal status. At that point,
they will be able to apply for any job in America. This will be good
for them, but the question is, Is it our duty to give our first
responsibility to those who have entered illegally? Don't we have a
responsibility to consider how it will impact people who are unemployed
today and are out looking for work?
Since 1999, we know wages have dropped as much as 8 percent to 9
percent. Wages are declining, not going up in America today. One of the
big reasons, according to Professor Borjas at Harvard, is that the flow
of labor from abroad creates an excess of labor and that causes wages
to decline. It is just a fact, and that is the way that works.
In addition to that, we have our current law that allows temporary
workers and guest workers who come for a period of time, and then they
can work. What happens to that flow of workers today? They will double
the number of people who will be coming in as temporary workers.
Everyone has to understand that many of them come for 3 years with
their family after which they can reup for another 3 years. They also
compete for a limited number of jobs that legal immigrants would be
competing for as well as citizens would be competing for.
So there is this bubble of 15 million that is accepted at once and a
doubling of the current flow of nonimmigrants. In addition to that, the
annual immigrant flow into our country will increase at least 50
percent. It could be more than that. So that would go from 1 million a
year to 1.5 million a year. Over 10 years, that is 15 million.
There are 300 million people in this country, and as elected
officials, they are our primary responsibility. If this legislation
were to pass--the 8,000 pages in this bill--it would allow 30 million
people to be placed on a permanent path to citizenship over this 10-
year period, and that is well above what would normally be 10 million
people. In addition to that, the flow of so-called temporary guest
workers will be double what the current rate is.
Madam President, how much time is there on this side?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 17 minutes.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I ask to be notified in 5 minutes.
I believe Senator Vitter's airplane has been delayed. His amendment
is projected to come up. I don't know if it will be called up if he is
not able to get back.
He has an excellent amendment that deals with a fundamentally flawed
part of our immigration system that the bill before us makes worse, not
better. It absolutely and indisputably does make it better.
This is the current situation: Six times Congress in the last 10 or
15 years has passed legislation to require an entry-exit visa system.
It is required that it be biometric. In other words, it would require
fingerprints or something like that. Normally, fingerprints would be
utilized.
People are fingerprinted when they come into the country. It goes
into the system, but we are not checking when anybody leaves. People
legally come on a visa, and they leave. Because we don't use a system
when people leave the country, nobody knows whether they left. Forty
percent of the people who enter the country illegally are coming
through visa overstays. They get a legal visa, and they just don't
leave. People don't even know if they left because they are not clocked
out.
The 9/11 Commission said this is wrong. We need a biometric entry and
exit system at land, sea, and airports.
What does this bill do? It eliminates that language that is already
in law, passed by Congress, and inexplicably has never been carried
out. The bill merely requires a biographic or electronic exit system.
It does not require a fingerprint-type exit system. Not only that, it
only requires it at air and seaports, not the land ports. The 9/11
Commission said that would not work because people come in all the time
by air and leave by land, so we cannot rely on it. It will not
establish the right integrity to know whether somebody overstayed. That
makes perfect sense.
Senator Vitter attempts to address that. He suggests that we have an
integrated biometric entry-exit system operating and functioning at
every land, air, and seaport--not just air and sea--prior to the
processing of any application for legal status pursuant to the original
biometric exit law, the 2004 Intelligence Reform Act, recommendations.
That is what the current law says.
In addition to that, before the implementation of any program
granting temporary legal status, the Department of Homeland Security
Secretary must submit written certification of the deployment of the
system which will then be fast-tracked and approved

[[Page S4557]]

through streamlined House and Senate procedures. This amendment is
added to the current bill, and it will be effective in accomplishing
what we need. In other words, it has a little trigger that says they
don't get their legal status until the government does what they have
been directed to do by Congress for over 10 years and have failed to
do.
We have had a pilot test at the Atlanta airport, for example, where
people go to the airport, catch a plane back home to England, Jordan,
India or wherever they go, put their fingerprints on a machine, and it
reads them as they go through the airport. What they found was that out
of 29,744 people in that pilot test, 175 were on the watch list for
terrorism or warrants were out for their arrest or other serious
charges were against them. They were able to identify them before they
fled or left the country, and that is what the whole system was about.
They found it didn't slow down the airport and that it didn't cost
nearly what people are saying it will cost. Some have said it would be
$25 billion, and that is totally inaccurate. According to this report,
it will not cost anything like that. Police officers have fingerprint
reading machines in their automobiles. You can go by there, put your
fingers on there to read your print, and if you have a warrant out for
arrest for murder or drug dealing or terrorism, you get apprehended.
They recently caught a terrorist--actually from Alabama--and
prosecuted him in Alabama. He was trying to get on a plane in Atlanta.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has consumed 5 minutes.
Mr. SESSIONS. I thank the Chair, reserve the remainder of my time,
and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, let me congratulate the Gang of 8 for
their assiduous work on this immigration bill, as well as Senator Pat
Leahy, the chairman of the committee, for doing a lot of good work.
There is much in this bill I support. I support the pathway to
citizenship. I support the DREAM Act. I support providing legal status
to the foreign workers who are working in agriculture. We have to have
strong border security. I support that effort.
Let me tell my colleagues what I do not support. What I do not
support is that at a time when nearly 14 percent of Americans do not
have a full-time job, at a time when youth unemployment is somewhere
around 16 percent and kids from California to Maine are desperately
seeking employment, I do not support the huge expansion in the guest
worker program that will allow hundreds of thousands of entry-level
guest workers to come into this country.
This is important for at least two reasons. We have kids all over
America who are wondering how they are going to afford to be able to go
to college. Many of these young people are going out looking for summer
jobs, looking for part-time jobs in order to help them pay for college.
That is terribly important. We should not pass legislation which makes
it harder for young people to get jobs in order to put away a few bucks
to help pay for college.
Then there is another group of people, and those are young people
whom we don't talk about enough. Not everybody in America is going to
college. There are millions of young people who graduate high school
and want to go out and start their careers and make some money and move
up the ladder. There are others who have dropped out of high school. We
cannot turn our backs on those young people. They need jobs as well. If
young people--young high school graduates, for example--are unable to
find entry-level jobs, how will they ever be able to develop the
skills, the experience, and the confidence they need to break into the
job market? And if they don't get those skills--if they don't get those
jobs and that income--there is a very strong possibility they may end
up in antisocial or self-destructive activities.
Right now, on street corners all over this country, there are kids
who have nothing to do. And what are they doing when they stand on
street corners? What they are doing is getting into drugs, they are
getting into crime, they are getting into self-destructive activity. We
already have too many young people in this country using drugs. We
already have too many young people involved in criminal activity. As a
nation, we have more people in jail than any other country on Earth,
including China. Let's put our young people into jobs, not into jails.
As I have heard on this floor time and time again, the best
antipoverty program is a paycheck. Well, let's give the young people of
this country a paycheck. Let's put them to work. Let's give them at
least the entry-level jobs they need in order to earn some income
today, but even more importantly, let's allow them to gain the job
skills they need so they know what an honest day's work is about and
can move up the economic ladder and get better jobs in the future.
At a time when poverty in this country remains at an almost 50-year
high, and when unemployment among young people is extremely high, I
worry deeply that we are creating a permanent underclass--a large
number of people who are poorly educated and who have limited or no job
skills. This is an issue we must address and must address now. Either
we make a serious effort to find jobs for our young people now or we
are going to pay later in terms of increased crime and the cost of
incarceration.
Now, why is this issue of youth unemployment relevant to the debate
we are having on immigration reform? The answer is obvious to anyone
who has read the bill. This immigration reform legislation increases
youth unemployment by bringing into this country, through the J-1
program and the H-2B program, hundreds of thousands of low-skilled,
entry-level workers who are taking the jobs young Americans need. At a
time when youth unemployment in this country is over 16 percent and the
teen unemployment rate is over 25 percent, many of the jobs that used
to be done by young Americans are now being performed by foreign
college students through the J-1 summer work travel program.
Other entry-level foreign workers come into this country through the
H-2B guest worker program. We have heard a lot of discussion about
high-tech workers and how they can create jobs and all that. That is an
issue for another discussion. Right now, what we are talking about is
hundreds of thousands of foreign workers coming into this country not
to do great scientific work, not as great entrepreneurs to start
businesses, not as Ph.D. engineers, but as waiters and waitresses,
kitchen help, lifeguards, front desk workers at hotels and resorts, ski
instructors, cooks, chefs, chambermaids, landscapers, parking lot
attendants, cashiers, security guards, and many other entry-level jobs.
Does it really make sense to anyone when so many of our kids are
desperately looking for a way to earn an honest living that we say to
those kids: Sorry, you have to get to the back of the line because we
are bringing in hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to do the jobs
you can do tomorrow?
The J-1 program for foreign college students is supposed to be used
as a cultural exchange program--a program to bring young people into
this country to learn about our customs and to support international
cooperation and understanding. That is why it is administered by the
State Department. But instead of doing that, this J-1 program has
morphed into a low-wage jobs program to allow corporations such as
McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, Disney World, Hershey's, and many other
major resorts around the country to replace American workers with cheap
labor from overseas.
Each and every year companies from all over this country are hiring
more than 100,000 foreign college students in low-wage jobs through the
J-1 summer work travel program. Unlike other guest worker programs, the
J-1 program does not even require businesses to recruit or advertise
for American workers. What they can do is pay minimum wage. They don't
have to advertise for American workers. And guess what. For the foreign
worker, they do not have to pay Social Security tax, they don't have to
pay Medicare tax, and they don't have to pay unemployment tax. So,
essentially, we are creating a situation where it is absolutely
advantageous for an employer to hire a foreign worker rather than an
American worker.

So what I have done is introduced two pieces of legislation to
address this

[[Page S4558]]

issue. No. 1 basically says while I strongly support cultural
programs--bringing young people here from abroad is a great idea--at
this moment, with high unemployment, we cannot have those people
competing with young Americans for a scarce number of jobs. So we
eliminate the employment element of the J-1 program.
The second bill says if we can't do that--and I hope we can--at the
very least we need a jobs program for American kids, not just a summer
jobs program but a yearlong jobs program. Let's not turn our backs on
kids who want to get into the labor market, who want to develop a
career. They need something in the summertime, they need something year
round, and we have introduced legislation to do just that.
My time has expired. I yield my time, if he wants it, to Senator
Grassley.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

Amendment No. 1197

Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, we will soon be voting on the Thune
amendment, and I rise to speak in support of the Thune amendment.
The Thune amendment would strengthen the bill and beef up the
triggers that precede the legalization program.
The Thune amendment would ensure that current law regarding double-
layer fencing is implemented.
Over the years, administration after administration--and not just
Democrat or just Republican but both--has failed to enforce the laws on
the books. The American people don't want more laws that will simply be
ignored, they want the laws on the books to be enforced. This amendment
offered by Senator Thune would ensure that the border is more secure
before any legalization program is carried out.
In a new CNN poll released just today, 36 percent of those polled
said they favored a path to citizenship for people who have come to
this country undocumented. But 62 percent of those polled said it is
more important to increase border security to reduce or eliminate the
number of immigrants coming into the country without permission from
our government. So if we stand with the American people, and if we want
the border secured, we will vote for the Thune amendment.
It is this simple: When issues come up in my town meetings in my
State of Iowa and people are asking what is going on with immigration,
and we sit down and try to explain to the people how this bill is
moving along or what it might include, invariably there are a lot of
people in the audience who say we don't need more legislation, we need
to have the laws on the books enforced. I think this is backed up by
this poll we have heard about from CNN today.
In addition to that, I think it very much clarifies that people want
the laws on the books enforced. But, more importantly, they expect
people who take an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws would
actually carry out the laws they are elected to carry out. So I hope my
colleagues will vote for the Thune amendment.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Under the previous order, the question is on agreeing to amendment
No. 1197, offered by the Senator from South Dakota, Mr. Thune.
Mr. GRASSLEY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs.
Feinstein), the Senator from Iowa (Mr. Harkin), and the Senator from
Maryland (Ms. Mikulski) are necessarily absent.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the
Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Cochran), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr.
Inhofe), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Shelby), and the Senator from
Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). Are there any other Senators in
the chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 39, nays 54, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 151 Leg.]

YEAS--39

Alexander
Ayotte
Barrasso
Blunt
Boozman
Burr
Chambliss
Chiesa
Coats
Coburn
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Cruz
Enzi
Fischer
Grassley
Hatch
Heller
Hoeven
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson (WI)
Kirk
Lee
Manchin
McConnell
Moran
Paul
Portman
Pryor
Risch
Roberts
Scott
Sessions
Thune
Toomey
Vitter

NAYS--54

Baldwin
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Blumenthal
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coons
Cowan
Donnelly
Durbin
Flake
Franken
Gillibrand
Graham
Hagan
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Hirono
Johnson (SD)
Kaine
King
Klobuchar
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
McCain
McCaskill
Menendez
Merkley
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Rubio
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden

NOT VOTING--7

Cochran
Feinstein
Harkin
Inhofe
Mikulski
Shelby
Wicker
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order requiring 60 votes
for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is rejected.
The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. I yield to the Senator from Louisiana.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.

Amendment No. 1222

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I offer this amendment. It is a
technical amendment, three technical but important changes to the Child
Citizenship Act of 2000. Senator Coats, Senator Blunt, and Senator
Klobuchar have helped lead this effort. I have explained it numerous
times on the floor. I think the leaders have agreed on a voice vote.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I have spoken with the distinguished
ranking member, Mr. Grassley. I understand we are able to agree to the
Landrieu amendment by voice vote.
I ask unanimous consent that the 60-vote threshold with respect to
the Landrieu amendment be waived.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I urge the question.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
The amendment (No. 1222) was agreed to.

Amendment No. 1228

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2
minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote on amendment No. 1228
offered by the Senator from Louisiana, Mr. Vitter.
The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Before we do that, I wish to remind everybody the next
vote will be a 10-minute vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, this amendment is very simple but it is
important. It would finally demand and require execution and
enforcement of the so-called US-VISIT system, an entry-exit system to
catch visa overstays. This system was first mandated by Congress in
1996. We have had six additional votes by Congress demanding it then.
The 9/11 terrorists were visa overstays. As a result, this system was
strongly recommended, one of the top recommendations of the 9/11
Commission. We must put this in place as we act on immigration. This
amendment would get that done.
I reserve the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. I agree that we need to better track visa overstays. But a
fully biometric entry-exit system at all air, sea, and land ports of
entry is the kind of unrealistic trigger we can't adopt. Implementation
of this amendment would be prohibitively expensive and cause all kinds
of delays.
In the Judiciary Committee we adopted an amendment offered by Senator
Hatch which presents a more reasonable approach.

[[Page S4559]]

I would urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment.
I ask for the yeas and nays.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, may I inquire how much time is remaining?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 9 seconds remaining.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, we have talked about this since 1996 and
9/11 happened. When are we going to do it if not now?
I urge support of the amendment.
Mr. LEAHY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Iowa (Mr. Harkin) and
the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski) are necessarily absent.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the
Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Cochran), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr.
Inhofe), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Shelby), and the Senator from
Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 36, nays 58, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 152 Leg.]

YEAS--36

Alexander
Barrasso
Blunt
Boozman
Burr
Chambliss
Chiesa
Coats
Coburn
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Cruz
Enzi
Fischer
Grassley
Hatch
Heller
Hoeven
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson (WI)
Kirk
Lee
McConnell
Moran
Paul
Portman
Pryor
Risch
Roberts
Scott
Sessions
Thune
Toomey
Vitter

NAYS--58

Ayotte
Baldwin
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Blumenthal
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Collins
Coons
Cowan
Donnelly
Durbin
Feinstein
Flake
Franken
Gillibrand
Graham
Hagan
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Hirono
Johnson (SD)
Kaine
King
Klobuchar
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
Menendez
Merkley
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Rubio
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden

NOT VOTING--6

Cochran
Harkin
Inhofe
Mikulski
Shelby
Wicker
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order requiring 60 votes
for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is rejected.
Mr. LEAHY. I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on
the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Amendment No. 1198

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2
minutes of debate equally divided prior to the vote on amendment No.
1198, offered by the Senator from Montana.
Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, this amendment will include the tribal
representatives on the DHS Border Task Force.
In this country within 100 miles of the border we have 13 Indian
reservations, some of them right on the border. If we are going to make
sure the borders are secure in the north and the south, Indians need to
be a part of the conversation, our Native American friends. They have a
unique government-to-government status. As I said before, their input
is critically important.
This amendment would not be costing anything, has bipartisan support,
and it will add tribal representatives--two on the north and two on the
southern region--to the Department of Homeland Security Border Task
Force. I encourage a ``yea'' vote on this amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I have no problems with this amendment.
It ensures that tribal communities are represented.
The bill's task force is a new and independent entity designed to
provide recommendations about immigration and border security. Mr.
Tester is adding four additional members to the task force to ensure
that the tribes are represented; however, this amendment does not
fundamentally change the bill.
There is no opposition to making sure that the tribes have a voice in
policy. Of course, this task force doesn't have any real power, it only
makes recommendations. The Secretary isn't required to address their
concerns or enact their recommendations. Too often, the Secretary does
not take into consideration our recommendations. Even now she has a
hard time implementing laws.
So, again, while the amendment is noncontroversial, Members should
know this task force is a figleaf for actual border security.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Iowa (Mr. Harkin) and
the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski) are necessarily absent.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the
Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Cochran), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr.
Inhofe), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Shelby), and the Senator from
Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 94, nays 0, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 153 Leg.]

YEAS--94

Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Boozman
Boxer
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Chambliss
Chiesa
Coats
Coburn
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Cowan
Crapo
Cruz
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Hagan
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson (WI)
Johnson (SD)
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Landrieu
Leahy
Lee
Levin
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Paul
Portman
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Rockefeller
Rubio
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Sessions
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Toomey
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Vitter
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden

NOT VOTING--6

Cochran
Harkin
Inhofe
Mikulski
Shelby
Wicker
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order requiring 60 votes
for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is agreed to.
Mr. LEAHY. I move to reconsider the vote and lay that motion on the
table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. I am here to speak to what is a historic
debate here on the floor of the Senate; that is, the debate we are
having with regard to comprehensive immigration reform. We have a major
opportunity here in the Congress to finally pass meaningful, strong,
bipartisan legislation. Immigration reform is something Congress has
grappled with in fits and starts for over a decade. In fact, I remember
the summer 7 or 8 years ago when this Senate came very close to passing
comprehensive immigration reform and fell just short of that goal.
Today the need to act has become imperative. We cannot ignore it.
There are constituents in Colorado from across the spectrum who are
hard-working. They are small business owners, religious leaders,
farmers, and citizens. They believe that now is the time.
If we look at our economy, it is beginning to gain strength. Our
economy is beginning to get its legs under it.

[[Page S4560]]

Our economy also needs the labor market certainty that would come from
immigration reform. So let's seize this opportunity to pass commonsense
legislation that our constituents expect.
I am looking right over the dais. Above the dais, I see ``e pluribus
unum,'' which translates to ``out of many, one.'' That is a simple
motto which is engraved in this great Senate Chamber, and it is one of
the daily reminders that we are a nation of immigrants. Throughout our
history, millions of immigrants--including my ancestors and the
Presiding Officer's--braved hardship and great risks to come here. Why
was that? They sought freedom, opportunity, and a better life for their
families. Today's immigrants, in that same spirit, continue to brave
great risks and hardships to obtain the American dream.
We have heard from fellow Americans who are opposed to fixing our
broken system. There are those among us who unfortunately see
immigrants as a burden on our country or want to enact overly punitive
measures to punish undocumented immigrants. I ask that they remember
that our country was built and forged by immigrants whose blood and
sweat built the America we know today.
To oppose this legislation, with all due respect, is to deny the
promise our ancestors and even the Framers expected us to extend to
those outside our borders. Yes, we are a nation of laws, and we don't
take lightly the violation of our laws, but we are also a nation that
welcomes foreigners who want to build the American dream.
I would like to challenge my colleagues to remember that we are a
better, stronger country because of our immigrants whose first glimpse
of America was the Statue of Liberty emblazoned with the words of poet
Emma Lazarus:

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free.

Our country and our economy were built from the ground up by the hard
work and ingenuity of immigrants and their families. In recent years,
one in four of America's new small business owners has been an
immigrant. One in four high-tech startups in America was founded by
immigrants. And 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies--when they
started--were created by first- or second-generation immigrants. If we
look at our system today, unfortunately, because it is broken, it has
made it harder for would-be business owners as I just described to
create jobs and help spur our Nation's economic development.
Let me give another example. Right now our system invites the best
and brightest from all over the world to come and study at our top
universities. Once they have the training they need to create a new
invention or build a new business--listen to this--our system tells
them to go back home. That is not right.
I am pleased, honored, humbled, and a little bit proud that I have
worked for years with Coloradans at my side to solve this problem and
to make the United States a place where entrepreneurs are encouraged to
stay, build businesses, and grow our economy. In that vein, I want to
thank the Gang of 8 for their hard work in crafting a bill that is
built upon those principles. Entrepreneurs embody the American dream.
Fixing our broken system is about more than businesses and startups;
it is principally about families. To say that our current broken
immigration system is bad for our families would be an understatement.
Thousands of fathers--myself included--gathered with their families
this past weekend to celebrate Father's Day. I couldn't help but think
of the thousands of fathers our immigration system has separated from
their loved ones or the countless fathers living today in Colorado who
struggle with the fear every day that they could be separated from
their families.
There are fathers like Jorge, who has been living in the United
States for 23 years. He is the proud father of four U.S. citizen
children, including a U.S. Army corporal. He has been contributing to
our economy in Colorado and therefore to the American economy and his
community for many years. With immigration reform, Jorge will be able
to come out of the shadows, where he will finally be able to realize
the American dream without the constant fear of being deported and
separated from his children. As I have suggested, unfortunately Jorge's
situation is not unique. The fact that our current system has brought
us to the place where at any moment thousands of families can be ripped
apart is just not right.
This bill would give Jorge and millions of others like him a tough
but fair shot at earning legal status and eventually citizenship. Make
no mistake. This process will not be without significant cost, and it
will not be easy.
Let me explain how I draw that conclusion. In order to get earned
legalization, Jorge will have to pass a background check, pay back
taxes, penalties, and fees, demonstrate work history, learn English,
and go to the back of the line behind others who have also gone through
the process. This is a tough but fair road ahead. It is a path
negotiated by Senators of both parties and supported by the American
people.
Today there are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in
the United States. Some cross the border illegally, others have
overstayed their visas. Regardless of how they came, the overwhelming
majority of these folks, just like Jorge, are trying to earn a living
and provide for their families.
There are thousands of immigrants in Colorado who are working in the
shadows, where they are vulnerable to exploitive employers paying them
less than minimum wage, making them work without overtime, and denying
them any of the benefits given to their other employees. That pushes
down standards for all workers. What I am saying is that our current
immigration system has fostered an underground economy that exploits a
cheap source of labor while depressing wages for everyone else.
My conclusion is that this bill will ensure that businesses are all
playing by the same set of rules, and it includes tough penalties for
businesses that do not. The underlying bill implements an effective
employment verification system that will prevent identity theft, the
hiring of unauthorized workers, and send a clear message that will help
prevent future waves of illegal immigration. It is a commonsense
solution. It is the kind of solution I have heard Coloradans ask for.
I will now turn my attention to the border. This legislation contains
historic resources and measures to better secure our borders. Last week
I heard time and time again: Borders first, borders first. To the
Coloradans who expect border security, as I do, I say the best thing we
can do for border security is pass a comprehensive immigration reform
bill.
We have made significant progress over the past several years. We
have put $17 billion in resources into protecting our borders. As a
result, illegal border crossings are at their lowest levels in decades.
Let's be clear. There is still room for significant improvement, and
the strong border security provisions in this bill help us get there.
In fact, the underlying bill would be the single biggest commitment to
border security in our Nation's history. Why? It would put another $6.5
billion on top of what we are already spending toward stronger,
smarter, more innovative security along our borders. It would also
direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit to Congress a
comprehensive border security plan and a southern border fencing
strategy. Moreover, the legislation would delay the process of granting
legal status to immigrants until the plan and strategy have been
deployed, a mandatory employment verification system has been
implemented, and an electronic biographic entry-exit system is in place
at major airports and seaports.
Finally, this legislation would hold employers more accountable if
they knowingly hire undocumented workers. We are saying that no longer
will we tolerate an underground market of workers who are illegally
employed and many times exploited.
As I begin to close, I would like to turn to a special group of
Coloradans who would be helped. This is a group about whom we all
should care and about whom I deeply care, and that is our students. I
am very pleased and excited that the provisions for the DREAM Act are
included in the comprehensive immigration reform bill we are
considering.
I have stood alongside a steadfast group of my colleagues as we
fought for

[[Page S4561]]

passage of the DREAM Act for many years. Along the way I have talked to
and more importantly listened to countless Colorado students who have
looked me in the eyes and asked for their government to help give them
status, opportunity, and potential so they can go on to be the next
generation of American leaders without the daily fear of deportation.
We are talking about thousands of Colorado students who were brought to
the United States at a very young age. It wasn't their decision to be
brought here, but they came here with their parents. That cohort--
literally thousands of these wonderful, enthusiastic, energetic
Coloradans--is poised to graduate college or join the military and in
the process strengthen our country and grow our economy. Let's do the
right thing by the DREAMers.
I say and implore my colleagues, let's not stand in the way of what
Americans want and what our economy needs. Our Nation will be stronger
when our borders are secure, when employers are held accountable for
the workers they have hired, when jobs are filled with qualified and
documented workers who contribute to the economy and undocumented
workers who are currently here are held accountable and given an
opportunity to earn their legal status and then citizenship.
So for my colleagues who are here today and are serious about fixing
our broken immigration system, let's actually have a serious debate to
improve this legislation. Let's vote on amendments with a sincere
intent to really improve this bill. Let's work productively to find a
bipartisan solution to this huge national issue in the same way the
Gang of 8 has worked for the past many months.
As I said in my opening remarks, we have a historic opportunity to
finally pass comprehensive immigration reform. We have an extraordinary
opportunity to show the Senate at its best. Having the opportunity to
openly and honestly debate this legislation is one of the many reasons
we ran to serve in the Senate in the first place. The public has placed
their trust in us to get this right, and we can.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, I rise to present and discuss the next
amendment I personally offered which I am going to be bringing to the
Senate floor; that is, amendment No. 1330, to prohibit anyone who has
been convicted of offenses under the violence against women and
children act from gaining legal status under the bill.
I think if we ask the American people if they support the outline
that has been presented as the guiding outline for the Gang of 8, the
vast majority would say we absolutely support those principles. I would
say I support those principles as they were enumerated. The trouble is,
in my opinion, when we actually read the bill--and let's remember,
particularly as we are in the middle of the debacle of executing
ObamaCare, it is important to read the bill, it is important to know
what is in the bill--in my opinion, the trouble is when we actually
read the bill, it doesn't stand up to those principles. It doesn't
match.
One example is the absolute commitment made by the Gang of 8 early on
in this process that individuals with a serious or significant criminal
background would not get legal status and would be deported. They were
very specific about that. In their bipartisan framework for
comprehensive immigration reform, which the authors of this bill--the
so-called Gang of 8--released in January of this year--they said very
specifically:

Individuals with a serious criminal background or others
who pose a threat to our national security will be ineligible
for legal status and subject to deportation.

It is very clear.
But then, again, when we actually read the bill, I believe it comes
up far short of that. It does not include significant crimes, serious
crimes which it should include as a disqualification.
One of the areas I think is the clearest example of that is offenses
under the Violence Against Women Act, offenses that have to do with
domestic violence, with child abuse. Those are serious violent offenses
that every American citizen--particularly women--would certainly
consider very consequential, very significant, very serious,
undermining their fundamental security.
This Vitter amendment No. 1330, which I will be presenting and
getting a vote on later in this debate, is simple. It simply says those
criminal offenses, a conviction of any of those criminal offenses under
the Violence Against Women Act--we are talking about domestic violence,
we are talking about child abuse--are disqualifiers. Nobody can gain
legal status if they are convicted of any of those offenses. That is a
disqualifier and it is grounds for deportation.
Again, it is very important to read the bill. It is very important
that if anything passes here, it actually matches the promises made to
the American people, the rhetoric the American people have heard for
weeks and months. This is an important area where we need to get it
right.
So I hope all of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, agree that
these are serious offenses. Certainly, everybody seemed to agree in the
important discussion about the Violence Against Women Act. Certainly,
everybody seemed to agree then that those offenses that are all about
domestic violence and child abuse are very serious, very significant,
involve or threaten violence, and certainly they should be
disqualifiers for a person becoming legalized under this bill and they
should be grounds for immediate deportation. I hope this is beyond
debate. I hope this amendment, as it should, gets widespread bipartisan
support.
I very much look forward to continuing this discussion about
amendment No. 1330. I very much look forward to getting the vote it
will get because it deserves to get it--and I will demand it--and I
very much hope for and look forward to a strong bipartisan vote in
support of stopping violence against women, in support of furthering
the protections of the Violence Against Women Act.
Thank you. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Warren). The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I know the parties are working on a
unanimous consent agreement for the next tranche of amendments to come
forward. I expect and hope mine will be one of them, but it is not
quite completed yet. So rather than ask for unanimous consent to call
up my amendment now, what I would like to do is just talk about it a
little bit and explain to my colleagues what is in it.
We call my amendment the RESULTS amendment because it is necessary,
because in the current form of the so-called Gang of 8 bill, it does
not include any genuine guarantee of border security. My colleagues
don't have to take my word for it. All they have to do is take a look
at the chart behind me. Senator Durbin, one of the four Democrats and
four Republicans who were responsible for coming up with the so-called
Gang of 8 bill, said in January that in that bill, a pathway to
citizenship ``would be contingent upon securing the border.'' He said
that in January. I think a lot of people took him and others at their
word, only to find out otherwise in June, 6 months later--June 2013--
when he was quoted as saying that the gang has ``delinked the pathway
to citizenship and border enforcement.''
What that means is the underlying bill gives a promise--another
hollow, unenforceable promise--and, based upon our experience, I think
the American people would be justified in saying they are asking us to
trust them at a time when there is a genuine trust deficit with regard
to the Federal Government. We have heard too many promises. We want
guarantees that these promises will be delivered on, and that is what
my amendment is all about.
In the underlying bill, all we have is--first of all, we have a 100-
percent situational awareness requirement and a 90-percent apprehension
requirement of people who are crossing the border illegally. But all
that is required in the underlying bill is the submission of a plan and
substantial completion of that plan for which nobody has seen the
contents. That is 10 years from now. I don't think anyone would be out
of bounds in saying there may be good intentions--people may actually
believe what they say, but how can we possibly know that some unwritten
plan that is going to be in place 10 years from now will actually be
successful in accomplishing the very goals that were set out in the
bill?

[[Page S4562]]

My amendment is slightly different because it embraces those same
standards, including 100 percent situational awareness and 90 percent
cross-border apprehensions, and it says a person can't transition from
probationary status to legal permanent residency until it is certified
that they have accomplished those goals. What that does, simply stated,
is--it doesn't punish anything, but it lines up all of the incentives
for those of us who want to secure the border and have a border
immigration system that actually works and incentives for those for
whom a pathway to citizenship is the holy grail; that is what they want
more than anything else. So it realigns incentives on the right and the
left and gets us in a position where we can actually look the American
people in the face and say we have as close as humanly possible a
guarantee that these promises will ultimately be kept.
My amendment requires the Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security and the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection and the
Department of Homeland Security inspector general, in consultation with
the Government Accountability Office and the Comptroller General, to
jointly certify that the following triggers are met before registered
provisional immigrants can adjust to lawful permanent residency or
green card status. First, as I said, the Department of Homeland
Security has to have achieved and maintained full situational awareness
of the entire southern border for not less than 1 year. That means the
Department of Homeland Security has the capability to conduct
continuous and integrated monitoring, sensing or surveillance of each
and every 1-mile segment of the southern border or its immediate
vicinity.
Some may say: Full border situational awareness? How are we going to
do that? Are we going to link Border Patrol agents arm to arm across a
2,000-mile border? Are we going to just build a fence, as some have
advocated, along the 2,000-mile border? The fact is we are going to use
the best technology and the best strategy to make sure the resources
our U.S. military has deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq and which have
been tested along the southern border are available for border control,
so that by virtue of radar, eyes in the sky, dirigibles, and unmanned
aerial vehicles, a combination of these connected to the sensors on the
ground will make sure the Border Patrol knows what is happening along
the border when people try to cross and enter illegally. Then it is up
to them to hit the 90-percent operational control requirement in both
the underlying bill and in my amendment.
The Department of Homeland Security is required to achieve that
operational control for not less than 1 year, meaning it has an
effectiveness apprehension rate of not less than 90 percent in each and
every sector of the southern border.
I saw this morning that Senator McCain said he expects to have a
letter from the head of the Border Patrol which states that standard is
imminently doable, given the proper resources. So if it is imminently
doable, then I would like to suggest, contrary to what the majority
leader said a few days ago, that this amendment is not a poison pill.
This amendment would give the American people the confidence that we
are actually going to do what is technologically feasible and which I
believe they have a right to expect if we are going to be generous in
the way we treat the 11 million people who are here and provide them
not only an opportunity to apply for probation and to work, if they
qualify and if they maintain the terms of that probation, but if they
are successful, to ultimately apply 10 years hence for legal permanent
residency for those who want that and who have played by the rules.
The third trigger in my amendment is one that maintains the
underlying provision requiring the Department of Homeland Security to
implement an E-Verify system nationwide. The current situation is such
that individuals who want to work may have fake documents claiming to
be somebody they are not--maybe it is somebody else's Social Security
number--in order to get hired. But the employer is not expected to be
the police; they are not expected to be able to look behind these
documents. We know that massive identity theft and document fraud occur
in such a way as to circumvent the efforts to enforce our system and to
restore legality into the system when it comes to people who come to
this country and want to work here. So that is the third one.
The fourth one, in order to fill a gaping hole in the bill with
respect to interior enforcement, the RESULTS amendment requires the
Department of Homeland Security to initiate removal proceedings for at
least 90 percent of visa overstays who collectively currently account
for 40 percent of illegal immigration. I think it surprises a lot of
people to learn it is not just our porous borders, it is people who
enter the country legally who simply overstay their visa and melt into
the great American landscape, unless they happen to get caught for
committing a crime of some kind, and they typically are not identified
or detained. This is simply unacceptable, and my amendment is designed
to guarantee that the Department of Homeland Security will implement a
procedure which has been required for 17 years now. President Clinton
signed a provision into law requiring a biometric entry and exit
system.
When a person enters the country on a foreign visa, they are required
to give fingerprints--that is their biometric identifier--but there is
no way and no means by which to check whether a person has left the
country when their visa has expired. This is designed to deal with that
40-percent source of illegal immigration.

My amendment authorizes the creation of a southern border security
commission similar to the one in the underlying bill, but does so in a
way that respects the Constitution and federalism.
My amendment removes Washington, DC, appointees from the commission
and allows State Governors to immediately begin advising the Department
on gaining operational control of the southern border. I think this is
very important because while I have heard colleagues here in the Senate
who have good intentions--but I think sometimes their only
consciousness of what the border may look like is derived from movies
they have seen or novels they have read--this requires consultation
with the people who know the border communities best, and that is the
people who live there and the State Governors who govern States on our
U.S.-Mexico border.
My amendment also requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to
issue a comprehensive southern border security strategy within 120 days
of enactment. People who are listening may say: I thought the
Department of Homeland Security already had a southern border security
strategy. And if it does not, why in the heck not?
Well, this would compel the Secretary--who, amazingly to most people
in my State, when she declared the border is secure, nearly provoked
laughter, as much as anything else, because it is patently and
demonstrably not true--but this amendment would require such a strategy
within 120 days of enactment of the bill and chart a course for
achieving and maintaining full situational awareness and operational
control of the southern border.
The Secretary would also be required to submit semiannual reports on
implementation. This amendment would also streamline and improve the
strategy required under the underlying bill. For example, it combines
the southern border security strategy and the southern border fencing
strategy for administrative clarity and economies of scale.
It also addresses an oversight in the underlying bill by requiring
the Department of Homeland Security to develop a strategy to reduce
land port of entry wait times by 50 percent in order to facilitate
legitimate commerce and encourage lawful cross-border trade.
This is something that is not sufficiently appreciated. Mexico is our
third largest trading partner. Six million jobs in America depend on
cross-border trade with Mexico. Why in the world would we want to do
anything that would make cross-border lawful trade worse? Right now, by
failing to update our infrastructure at the ports of entry--and to make
sure we have adequate staffing here--there are huge wait lines which
prove very useful to the people who want to smuggle drugs and people
across the border. So this would have a way of separating the
legitimate trade and traffic from the

[[Page S4563]]

people who are up to no good: the drug dealers, the human traffickers,
and the like.
There is a question that has arisen, as you might expect, about how
we are going to pay for all this. That is a good question, and it is an
important question. My amendment creates a comprehensive immigration
reform trust fund similar to that in the underlying bill. Ultimately,
the goal is for fees and fines to fund this entire piece of
legislation. But my amendment combines all border security funding
streams and makes $6.5 billion of these funds available immediately for
implementing the southern border security strategy.
The RESULTS amendment increases the number of Border Patrol agents
and Customs and Border Protection officers by 5,000 each. Some people
have mistakenly said I want to add 10,000 Border Patrol agents to the
border on top of the 20,000 who are already there. Well, that is not
entirely accurate. We want 5,000 more because if you have this great
technology--which is going to give you eyes in the sky; 100-percent
situational awareness--when this technology identifies people trying to
cross the border, you have to have somebody to go get them and to
detain them. That is why Border Patrol agents are important. In some
parts of our 1,200-mile border in Texas alone, there are huge stretches
of land that are vulnerable to cross-border traffic. That is why the
Rio Grande sector in South Texas is now the single most crossed sector.
The other day, when I was in Brooks County--Falfurrias, TX--the head
of the Border Patrol sector in that area told me that in 1 day they had
700 people coming across the border whom they detained. We do not know
how many got away, but they did detain 700 people. Madam President, 400
of them came from countries other than Mexico. In other words, Mexico's
economy is doing much better, and it is less and less incentive for
people to cross into the United States to work if they have a job where
they live. But in Central America things are pretty bad right now. So
400 out of the 700 in 1 day came from Central America. Literally people
could come from anywhere around the world if they have the money and
the determination to penetrate our southern border. So it is important
we have increased numbers of Border Patrol agents as well as Customs
and Border Protection officers to help facilitate legitimate commerce
and to detain people trying to cross illegally.
By the way, the underlying bill already has a provision for
additional CBP officers--Customs and Border Protection officers--and my
amendment would increase that number by 3,500, and add 5,000 Border
Patrol agents to it.
The RESULTS amendment also improves emergency border security
resource appropriations by ensuring that deployment decisions are
consistent with the comprehensive strategy and not done in a piecemeal,
disconnected sort of way. It is important that we have a combination of
not only boots on the ground, infrastructure, but also that technology
I think we would all agree upon, much of which the American taxpayer
has already paid for because it is being deployed by the U.S. military
in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. What we need to do is transfer
some of that to the Homeland Security Department--another part of the
Federal Government--and to implement it to help provide that
situational awareness and enforcement.
My amendment also authorizes $1 billion a year for 6 years--it does
not appropriate it; it authorizes it--in emergency port of entry
personnel and infrastructure improvements. I already touched on that a
moment ago. But the whole idea of the underlying bill is to provide a
guest worker program, a legal means to come and work in the United
States. The idea is that will allow law enforcement to focus on the bad
actors. This has the similar rationale.
The RESULTS amendment further improves the land ports of entry by
allowing the General Services Administration to enter into public-
private partnerships to improve infrastructure and operations.
This amendment also repurposes the Tucson sector earmark in the
underlying bill to the full southern border to help ensure that
effective border security prosecutions are increased in every sector,
not just in one, in Tucson.
By making improvements to the State Criminal Alien Assistance
Program--the so-called SCAAP bill--my amendment would help ensure that
State and local governments are swiftly and fully compensated for their
assistance in detaining criminal aliens who have been convicted of
offenses and who are awaiting trial.
One of the great frustrations in my State--given our common border
with Mexico and the failure of the Federal Government to live up to its
responsibilities when it comes to border security--is that much of the
cost of that is borne by local governments and local taxpayers in
counties along the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly when it comes to
education, health care, and law enforcement.
This SCAAP provision in my amendment would help make sure that in the
law enforcement area State and local law enforcement officials are
indemnified and, indeed, encouraged to help cooperate in detaining
criminal aliens who have been convicted of offenses and are awaiting
trial.
My amendment would also create the southern border security
assistance grant program to help border law enforcement officials
target drug traffickers, human traffickers, human smugglers, and
violent crime. Again, the Federal law enforcement agencies cannot do it
by themselves, and local and State law enforcement in Texas do not
expect them to, but they do expect a little bit of help, financial
help, particularly, when it comes to overtime, when it comes to
equipment that is necessary to supplement the Federal effort or to fill
the gap when the Federal Government leaves a gap in law enforcement
efforts.
My amendment would also remove a controversial provision in the
underlying bill that would prevent the emergency deportation of serious
criminals.
My amendment would remove a controversial disclosure bar that would
prevent law enforcement and national security officials from obtaining
critical information contained in legalization applications filed under
this bill. My amendment would allow these officials to request and
obtain information in connection with an independent criminal, national
security, or civil investigation.
This is directed at one of the biggest problems in the 1986 amnesty
Ronald Reagan signed, because he signed an amnesty for 3 million people
premised on the idea that we were actually going to enforce the law and
we would never need to do that again. But so much of that amnesty was
riddled with fraud and criminal activity because of the confidentiality
provisions which prohibited law enforcement from investigating and
detecting fraud and criminality. If we want to maintain the integrity
of the provisions of this bill, we need to make sure our law
enforcement officials are not blinded, but that they actually have the
ability to investigate these matters for a criminal, national security,
or civil investigation.
My amendment would allow Citizenship and Immigration Services to turn
over evidence of criminal activity or terrorism contained in
legalization applications filed under the bill to other law enforcement
agencies after the application has been denied and all administrative
appeals have been exhausted.
This would greatly work to reduce the potential for mass fraud that
occurred in the 1986 amnesty bill, and it would allow the application
process to maintain its basic integrity and ensure that national
security is protected.
My amendment would also give American diplomatic officials more
flexibility to share foreigners' visa records with our allies by
clarifying that the State Department may share visa records with a
foreign government on a case-by-case basis for the purpose of
determining removability or eligibility for a visa, admission, or other
immigration benefits--not just for crime prevention, investigation, and
punishment--or when the sharing is in the national interest of the
United States.
My amendment would further improve the public safety by denying
probationary status--something called RPI, or registered provisional
immigrant status--to any person who has been convicted of a crime
involving domestic violence, child abuse, assault

[[Page S4564]]

with bodily injury, violation of a protective order under the Violence
Against Women Act, or drunk driving. These are serious offenses, and
the consequences are often tragic. The underlying bill would allow the
vast majority of illegal immigrants who have committed these crimes to
automatically become registered provisional immigrants and, ultimately,
hold open to them the possibility they could become American citizens.
I think we need to draw a very bright line between those whose only
offense is to try to come here for a better life and those who have
shown such contempt for our laws and American law and order that they
commit crimes. We should not reward them with a registered provisional
immigrant or probationary status.
My amendment also removes an unjustified provision in the underlying
bill that would allow repeat criminals with multiple convictions to
automatically obtain legal status, so long as they were convicted of
the multiple offenses on the same day. I know that sounds very strange,
but in the underlying bill, if you commit multiple offenses on one day,
they do not count as separate offenses for purposes of the bar--if you
commit three misdemeanors or a felony. So my amendment would fix that.
My amendment would also remove a dangerous provision in the
underlying bill that would allow the Secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security unfettered discretion to waive this criminal activity
prohibition and to allow people to gain legal status, even if they are
repeat criminals who have been convicted of three or more offenses.
My amendment would strike a controversial provision allowing
deportees and persons currently located outside the United States to
qualify for probationary status. I do not know how many people have
actually focused on this provision. I think most people thought this
was for people who were in the shadows in the United States whose only
offense was simply a violation of our immigration laws to come here and
work. But this underlying bill would allow people who have already been
deported and who have committed crimes already to reenter the country
and to qualify for probationary status. My amendment would change that
and fix that.
My amendment would require the Secretary of Homeland Security,
through her designees, to conduct interviews of applicants for RPI
status who have been convicted of a criminal offense in order to
determine whether the applicant is a danger to the public safety.
Now, I can imagine that somebody might have committed some
misdemeanor offense, but upon further inquiry and examination they may
not be deemed a threat to the public safety. That is what the purpose
of that interview requirement would be. We also close a judicial review
loophole that would allow dangerous individuals to remain in the United
States after their RPI application has been denied by the Department of
Homeland Security.
Finally, my amendment would take a hard line against human smuggling
and the transnational criminal organizations that are the primary
movers of people and drugs across the southern borders. I do not know
how many of our colleagues really understand this now, but this is a
major business that is primarily occupied by organized crime. It is the
drug cartels. It is what we sometimes call transnational criminal
organizations and the people who work for them.
They are the primary agency moving people, drugs, and contraband
across the border. That is what my amendment is designed to attack--
increased penalties for human smuggling and the transnational criminal
organizations that facilitate them. My amendment adds aggravated
penalties for human smuggling that is committed by repeat offenders
which result in death, result in human trafficking, or include
involuntary sexual conduct.
I had the humbling experience the other day when I was in south Texas
in meeting a young lady who is from Central America. Her parents paid
$6,000 for her to be smuggled into the United States and to be reunited
with relatives in New Jersey, only to find out that did not work out
too well, and she had to rejoin the person who brought her across the
border, the human smuggler, who promptly prostituted her and put her
into involuntary servitude where she was afraid to escape lest she be
deported and have to leave the country.
There are innumerable human tragedies which occur day in and day out
under the status quo, which is one reason why I believe we need to fix
our broken immigration system, and particularly our porous border, that
allows these predators to prey on innocent young women like this young
woman I met from Guatemala, and to basically commit them to human
slavery in the United States in places like Houston, where she worked
in a bar and was prostituted out numerous times a day. Because she felt
so vulnerable, she believed the only way she could actually stay here
was to submit to the demands of this sexual predator.
My amendment respects the victims of abuse of human smuggling by
requiring the Department of Justice to ensure that information about
missing and unidentified migrant remains found on lands near the
southern border is uploaded into the National Missing and Unidentified
Persons System. We provide state and local officials with resources to
identify the victims.
This is another experience I had when I was in Brooks County recently
in south Texas, where just last year alone they found 129 dead bodies--
human remains--that they were unable to identify because these were
people simply left behind by the human smugglers who basically did not
care anything about them--only for the money they would provide, which
once provided, they could care less about whether these people actually
made their way into the United States, particularly if they were
slowing down the rest of the group.
My RESULTS amendment disqualifies persons who have used a commercial
motor vehicle to commit a human smuggling offense from operating a
commercial vehicle for a year. We ban repeat human smugglers from
operating commercial motor vehicles for life. This is a penalty that
will have teeth in it and deter this heinous crime. My amendment
creates special penalties for illegal immigrants convicted of drug
trafficking or crimes of violence.
Now, we understand that, again, some people have come across our
borders without observing our immigration laws who want nothing but a
chance to work. But if people have come across the border and engaged
in drug trafficking or criminal violence, they deserve the special
penalties provided for in my amendment. My amendment would create a new
crime for illegal border crossing with the intent to aid, abet, or
engage in a crime of terrorism. Again, this is something I wonder
whether my colleagues really understand because they do not live along
the southwestern border.
We have had people from 100 different countries, including countries
of special interest as state sponsors of terrorism, come across our
southwestern border. When I was in Falfurrias the other day, the Border
Patrol showed me rescue beacons which, if you get sick enough and
dehydrated enough and exposed enough to the elements and just want to
give up, you can hit the beacon and the Border Patrol will come and
rescue you.
They are listed in three languages: English, Spanish, and Chinese. I
asked the Border Patrol: Well, Chinese, that seems a little bit out of
place in south Texas. They said: Well, for $30,000, if you are from
China, you can hire someone to smuggle you into the United States. So,
as we have heard from both the Director of National Intelligence and
the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, this vulnerability along
our southwestern border is literally a national security vulnerability,
and one reason we need to adopt my amendment.
My amendment closes loopholes in current laws that allow drug cartel
mules to transport bulk cash and launder money with near impunity. So
what happens is, the drugs come from the south of the border to the
north of the border. Then the transaction is made by somebody buying
those drugs. The cash has to make its way back. We have developed
pretty sophisticated means through a wire transfer process to identify
when large amounts of cash are transferred by wire. But there is also a
huge trade in bulk cash, where

[[Page S4565]]

literally cash is transferred in bulk across the border south in order
to launder it with near impunity. My amendment would address that
problem.
My amendment targets money-laundering efforts through stored value
cards and blank checks. So why do it on the wire? Why do it in bulk
cash if you can just do it through a gift card you can buy at a local
grocery store or blank checks? These are tactics that are frequently
used by cartels to transport criminal proceeds across the southern
border and launder money.
In sum, my amendment goes beyond promises and platitudes. It demands
results. Again, it realigns the incentives for everybody to make sure
the Department of Homeland Security hits the standards in this bill of
100 percent situational awareness, 90 percent operational control.
These are not my standards alone. These were standards that the Gang
of 8 wrote initially into their bill. Their bill offers promises but no
real enforcement means to make sure it actually happens.
Under my amendment, people who applied for registered provisional
status are not eligible for legal permanent residency until the
American people have the assurances that the border security measures,
the E-Verify provision, the biometric entry-exit system, all those
things have been done.
That seems like a small price to pay with a generous gift that the
American people are being asked to confer upon people who have entered
the country illegally or who came in legally and overstayed their visa
in violation of our laws. Now, this is what a real border security
trigger looks like. Unfortunately, some of our colleagues do not want a
trigger at all. Above all, they want a pathway to citizenship
regardless of whether we have secured our borders.
We have tried that before--in 1986. We have also promised people
since 1996 that we would implement a biometric entry-exit system and
have never delivered that. The 9/11 Commission identified the need for
a biometric entry-exit system as a national security imperative in the
9/11 Commission report. We still have not done it. So why in the world
would the American people, at a time when their trust in the Federal
Government is at an all-time low, why in the world would we simply say
trust us once more. We are going to promise you the Sun and the Moon
and the aurora borealis, but we are not going to have any means
necessary in the bill to actually require the implementation of those
promises. By the time the empty promises are realized, we know there
will be 11 million people on registered provisional immigrant status
and potentially on the way to legal permanent residency and
citizenship.
CNN reported a poll today that said 6 out of 10 Americans in their
poll were OK with providing people humane and compassionate treatment,
including an opportunity to earn legal status in this country if they
could just be assured that the borders would be secured and our laws
would be enforced. My amendment accomplishes exactly that.
As I have repeatedly emphasized, my amendment uses the same border
security standards as the Gang of 8 bill. Again, the difference is that
in my amendment it has a real trigger that is based on demonstrable
results, while their so-called trigger can be activated whether or not
our borders are ever secured.
To put it another way, their trigger demands border security inputs.
My trigger demands border security results or outputs. We have now had
27 years of inputs since the 1986 amnesty, and we still do not have
secure borders. It is long past time to demand results, or outputs, and
not just more hollow promises.
One final point about immigration reform. Whatever legislation we
pass in this Chamber will head over to the House of Representatives. If
we want the Senate bill to have any chance to become law, then we have
to include real border security provisions and a real border security
trigger. Our House colleagues have made that abundantly clear.
In other words, my amendment is not a poison pill. It is an antidote
because it is the only way we are ever going to truly get bipartisan
immigration reform, something which I hope and pray we will because the
status quo is simply unacceptable.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.
Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, I understand I am not supposed to call up
my amendment. But I would like to discuss amendment No. 1298. If it
were appropriate, I would ask to make it pending. But, again, I
understand we are not quite ready for that.
I am offering this amendment, when the time is right, because I think
it is crucial that we have the strongest possible border protection
system in place if this bill, in fact, does someday go into law. To
that end, I would like to ensure that we have the best trained
personnel securing our borders and overseeing the activity that
contributes to the safety of our Nation every day.
Therefore, I am proposing an amendment to require the Department of
Homeland Security to set up a program to recruit highly qualified
veterans of the Armed Forces as well as members of the Reserves to fill
crucial positions within Customs and Border Protection and Immigration
and Customs Enforcement.
The security provided by these agents depends on the line watch
agents who identify and apprehend undocumented aliens, smugglers, and
terrorists. It depends on the agriculture and trade specialists,
aircraft pilots, and mission support staff. It also depends on the
intelligence research specialists, report officers, and systems
engineers. Although the role and responsibilities within ICE and CBP
are varied, each plays a critical role in protecting the border. The
ability of these agencies to protect the border depends on the skills,
training, and judgment of its employees.
The men and women who have served our Nation in the Armed Forces, as
well as those who have served in the Reserves, have a broad range of
capabilities that make them well suited to work in these important
agencies. These men and women embody endurance and adaptability. Many
of them have the human intelligence skills that ICE and CBP agents and
officers need to detect illegal border crossers and respond to other
nefarious activities. They are familiar with the security equipment and
technologies that these agencies rely upon.
They have experience responding to leads provided by electronic
sensor systems and aircraft sightings, as well as interpreting and
following tracks and other physical evidence. They are trained in
target assessment and have experience in disseminating the intelligence
needed to make informed operational strategies.
These men and women, in short, have the physical skills, operational
experience, and decisionmaking abilities needed by ICE and CBP to
ensure that our borders are stronger than ever.
Let me say this is one of these amendments that is a no-brainer. This
makes sense, and it helps our veterans in a couple of different ways.
It helps with the unemployment rate, but it also helps them continue to
serve our country. The bottom line is it helps our country to have the
best, the brightest, most capable, and most experienced personnel we
can possibly have on the border.
This is a bipartisan amendment. Senator Johanns is my partner, and I
am honored to be joined by him. Certainly, I would like to have broad-
based bipartisan support as we proceed when the time is right.
I hope to have this amendment included in the bill. Again, when the
time is right, I would ask that my colleagues consider supporting this
amendment.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. My colleagues have heard me mention so many times that
we tend to delegate more and we ought to be legislating. This bill is
another example of delegating too much and giving too much authority to
Cabinet-level people, in this case the Secretary of Homeland Security,
and not making enough hard decisions on the floor of the Senate.
It is reminiscent of the 1,693 delegations of authority we gave to
Cabinet people in the health care reform bill to a point where you can
read that 2,700 pages and understand it, but we truly don't know what
the health care system in the United States is going to be

[[Page S4566]]

until those 1,693 regulations are put in place. That is going to be a
long way down the road.
I wish to point out to my colleagues, I think we are making the same
mistake in this immigration bill that is before the Senate. I wish to
take some time to talk about how important it is to emphasize the need
for Congress to legislate, not delegate, especially with this
immigration bill before us.
When an immigration bill is nearly 1,200 pages long, the American
people should expect that it is their elected representatives writing
the legislation and making most of the decisions. They should expect
the executive branch and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in
particular, to carry out those policies.
There are individual circumstances that Congress cannot fully
anticipate, so it is understandable, then, delegating some authority.
With direction from Congress, the Secretary should be able to issue
regulations to enforce legislative policies in those situations. Those
regulations and any discretion the Secretary exercises, such as other
delegations of power from Congress, should be subject to judicial
review to ensure that the policies Congress established are being
carried out according to congressional intent.
But this immigration bill takes a different and wrong-headed
approach. It provides highly general discretion to the Secretary. It
gives the Secretary tremendous, often unilateral, discretion to
implement the bill. In many instances, that discretion is not even
subject to judicial review.
This, obviously, is not the way power is supposed to work in our
representative system of government. Uncontrolled unilateral discretion
is not what the Framers of the Constitution envisioned for a government
with separation of powers, checks, and balances. We have seen, for
instance, and recently with the IRS, what can happen when the executive
branch exercises authority with too much discretion and not enough
oversight.
By some accounts, there are 222 provisions in the bill that give the
Secretary of Homeland Security discretion or even allow her to waive
otherwise governing parts of the bill. Other people have counted even
more than the 222 provisions I have just referred to. Whether it is
more or less, it is still a lot. In some cases, it is not just the
delegation, it is how it is delegated.
The Secretary's unbridled waiver authority makes a bill that is
already weak on immigration enforcement then even weaker.
Ironically, when the Judiciary Committee marked up the immigration
bill, it rejected amendments that I and others offered to limit
judicial review of immigration enforcement proceedings against people
who are in this country illegally. The majority argued against them by
claiming that judicial review, which historically has been limited to
these enforcement actions, should be expanded to cover these decisions
and that is an expansion of judicial review.
Let me speak of the inconsistency of when they didn't think judicial
review should be there. The majority wants unlimited judicial review
when the Secretary would take enforcement action against people in the
country illegally.
At the same time, the bill provides more judicially unreviewable
discretion for the Secretary when she decides not to enforce the law
against undocumented immigrants.
The people of this country should be aware of the one-way ratchet for
discretion that the bill contains. Then it adds judicial review when
the Secretary would enforce the law and does not provide judicial
review when the Secretary decides to withhold enforcement of border
security and other measures designed to reduce illegal immigration.
I believe it is worth noting some of the specific provisions of the
bill that give the Secretary discretion in enforcement, sometimes
without judicial review. Some of the specific language that allows her
to waive provisions that supporters of the bill claim make this bill
even tough on illegal immigration and border security should also be
discussed.
When they are contrasted, the legislation's goal is very clear: enact
very general border security measures that are said to be tough, while
giving the Secretary often unilateral discretion and waiver authority
to water down those measures.
For instance, the Secretary can commence processing petitions for
registered provisional immigrant status--RPI status we call it--based
on her determination of border security plans and how she views the
status of their implementation. The fencing that the bill seems to
demand can be stopped by the Secretary when she believes it is
sufficient.
The Secretary has the ability to decide whether certain criminal
offenses should bar someone from the legalization program. She can
waive, with few exceptions, the grounds of inadmissibility prescribed
in law. She is given discretion whether to bring deportation
proceedings against those who do not qualify for RPI status. If they
are denied, shouldn't they be deported?
The Secretary is also allowed to waive various requirements when a
person adjusts from RPI status to legal permanent resident status,
including what counts as passing a background check.
The Secretary has broad authority on how to use the $8.3 billion in
upfront funds transferred from the Treasury. On top of that, she has
wide discretion on how to use the additional $3 billion in startup
costs that don't have to be entirely repaid to the Treasury.
Notwithstanding the constitutional powers of Congress over the purse,
she is given authority to establish a grant program for nonprofit
organizations.
With respect to the point system, the Secretary is given discretion
to recalculate the points for particular petitioners and to decide not
to deport inadmissible persons.
She also has the discretion to waive requirements for citizenship
that otherwise apply under the bill.
The Secretary is also given a great deal of discretion in the
operation of the electronic employment verification system; for
instance, which businesses will be exempt from the requirement; which
documents can individuals present to prove identity or work
authorization. She also has the authority to determine when an employer
who has repeatedly violated the law is required to use the system.
Those decisions will be vital in determining whether the employment
verification system will be effective.
Members of this body can opine all day about what this bill does, but
we may not know for years, as in the case of ObamaCare, until these
regulations are written or these waivers are used, the extent to which
this bill is carried out with the intent that we believe it is carried
out.
We don't know that for years. I use the example of the health care
law because we are learning, after 4 years that the bill has been
passed, there are a lot of unknowns in it. We also learned there is not
a lot of certainty. That is the fallout from delegating so much power
in one Secretary. We shouldn't repeat that mistake when we pass this
bill next week.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. CARPER. I wish to say thank you to Senator Manchin, former
Governor Manchin, for his willingness to let me slip ahead of him for a
few minutes. He is going to talk about the birthday of the State in
which both of us were born, West Virginia. I am happy to be here to
cheer him on and to applaud all the good work that goes on in my native
State and the great work he is doing.
The Presiding Officer has a baseball team up there in Massachusetts,
those Red Sox, and every now and then there is a pitcher who telegraphs
a pitch. I wish to telegraph a pitch this afternoon.
I was surprised to find out last month from the chair of the Senate
Committee on Homeland Security, when I was down at the Mexican border
of South Texas, that three out of every five people who come into our
country illegally in Texas come not from Mexico, but they come from
Central American countries. They come from Guatemala, they come from
Honduras, and they come from El Salvador--3 out of 5, 6 out of 10.
For the most part, they don't realize what they are getting into.
They don't realize the risks they face on their way to the north to go
to the border of Mexico and even when they get across the border into
the United States. The dangers they face are of getting robbed,

[[Page S4567]]

raped, beaten, drown in the river, and die of starvation and
dehydration in the desert. Finally, they get to this country at a time
when employers are tightening up in terms of whom they actually hire.
They are not hiring those who are here and undocumented.
There is the prospect of detention, not a very pleasant experience,
followed shortly thereafter by literally being transported back to
their native countries. Most of the people who are trying to get here
from those three countries, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, don't
know what they are getting into.
They need to know what they are getting into. When I was Governor, as
part of the 50-State deal negotiated by the States' attorneys general,
you may recall, with the tobacco industry, we created a foundation out
of that and called it the American Legacy Foundation. We ran something
called a truth campaign. The idea was to convince people, such as these
pages, not to start smoking and, if they were smoking, to stop. It was
hugely successful.
What we need is something similar to that, particularly in those
Central American countries, where the majority of people are now coming
from in order to get into Texas and to the United States.
The other thing I would have us keep in mind, we have spent a fair
amount of resources in this country trying to help the Mexicans go
after the drug lords and to quash the drug trade. What is happening is
it is akin to squeezing a balloon. The bad guys in Mexico have worked
their way down to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and created mischief
there, setting up a drug trade, creating a lot of violence, and making
life very unpleasant.
What you have in those countries is not a good situation. One can
understand why people want to get out of it: for jobs, hope, and for
personal safety. One of the things we have done to help in Mexico--and
we are part of the problem. Our country's consumption of illegal drugs
has created this problem for Mexico. This deal where drugs come north
and guns go south--we are part of that problem, and we need to
acknowledge that. But we want to be part of the solution in Mexico, and
I think we are playing a constructive role.

We need to be part of the solution in Honduras, El Salvador, and
Guatemala and do a similar kind of thing we are doing in Mexico. Part
of that is to help a little on their own public safety, the law
enforcement efforts in those three countries. Part of it is helping on
economic development, job creation, so people don't feel the need to
leave those countries and try to flee to our country. The last piece is
to actually work with Mexico so they can do a better job of controlling
their own borders, to make sure folks don't get, from south of them,
into Mexico and eventually work their way into Texas and into the
United States.
I will be offering an amendment--not tonight but I suspect tomorrow--
that tries to say: Let's put together a truth campaign, convey what is
really facing the people, particularly from those three Central
American countries, who are trying to get to the United States and to
also see, while we are doing that, if we can't help a little on the
economic development and job creation side in those countries and in
terms of helping them face lawlessness and crime. We can do a little to
help there as well. I call this going after the underlying causes--not
just treating the symptoms of the problem but going after the
underlying cause--and I think we should do this. So I will offer this
tomorrow, and I hope my colleagues will agree.
I want to say again to my fellow native West Virginian, thank you for
the chance to go ahead. Thank you most of all for the great job you are
doing here and for being here to tell us a little bit of the good
coming out of the Mountain State.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.

West Virginia's 150th Birthday

Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, this week the State of West Virginia
will celebrate the sesquicentennial of its birth--a brave and daring
declaration of statehood that is unprecedented in American history.
West Virginia was born out of the fiery turmoil of the Civil War 150
years ago. It was founded by true patriots who were willing to risk
their lives and fortunes in a united pursuit of justice and freedom for
all.
To West Virginians, the names of Pierpont, Willey, and Boreman are
nearly as familiar as Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. Each of
these men was a pivotal figure in our States's improbable journey to
independence from Virginia and to our very own place in the Union.
But, of course, our forefathers could not have brought forth a new
State conceived of liberty without the hand of Abraham Lincoln. It was
Lincoln who issued the proclamation creating West Virginia and
establishing our State's birthday as June 20, 1863. And
characteristically with few words, the 16th President dismissed the
arguments of the day that his proclamation was illegal. Lincoln wrote:

It is said that the admission of West Virginia is
secession, and tolerated only because it is our secession.
Well, if we call it by that name, there is a difference
between secession against the Constitution, and secession in
favor of the Constitution.

Indeed, the people of West Virginia had a choice of two different
flags to follow during the Civil War. There was, as Francis Pierpont
pointed out, ``no neutral ground.'' The choice, he said, was ``to stand
by and live under the Constitution'' or support ``the military
despotism'' of the Confederacy. We chose wisely. We chose the Stars and
Stripes. We chose allegiance to the country for which it stands. We
chose to live under a constitution that promised the constant pursuit
of ``a more perfect union'' of States. And ever since that historic
beginning, we the people of West Virginia have never failed to answer
our country's call. No demand has been too great, no danger too
daunting, and no trial too threatening.
The abundant natural resources of our State and the hard work and
sacrifice of our people have made America stronger and safer. We mined
the coal that fueled the Industrial Revolution. We powered the
railroads across the North American continent and still today produce
electricity for cities all across this country. We stoked the steel
factories that armed our soldiers for battles all across the globe and
built the warships that plowed the oceans of the world. And we have
filled the ranks of our military forces in numbers far greater than
should ever be expected of our little State.
Consider this: According to U.S. census data, West Virginia ranked
first, second, or third in military casualty rates in every U.S. war of
the 20th century--twice that of New York's and Connecticut's in Vietnam
and more than 2\1/2\ times the rates of those two States in Korea.
Today 13.8 percent of West Virginia's population is made up of
veterans--the seventh highest percentage among all States. That is
higher than the national average of 12.1 percent. That is higher than
States with much larger populations, States such as Florida, New York,
Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, or Massachusetts. It is like I
always say: West Virginia is one of the most patriotic States in the
country.
The best steel comes from the hottest fires. We have all been told
that. Well, the fires of the Civil War transformed West Virginia from a
fragile hope to a well-tempered, steely reality, dedicated to the
ideals of the Declaration of Independence and guarantees of the U.S.
Constitution. But West Virginia is great because our people are great--
mountaineers who will always be free. We are tough, independent,
inventive, and honest. Our character is shaped by the wilderness of our
State, its rushing streams, its boundless blue skies, its divine
forests, and its majestic mountains.
Our home is, in the words of the best-selling novelist James
Alexander Thom, ``a place for health and high spirits, where one's
first look out the cabin door every morning [makes] the heart swell
up.'' Thom wrote of our magnetic land as it existed long before it
achieved statehood, but his words ring just as true of today's West
Virginia. They pay homage to a State of natural beauty, world-class
outdoor recreation, year-round festivals, ancient crafts, rich culture,
strong tradition, industry, and trade. It is a place of coal mines and
card tables, racing horses and soaring eagles, Rocket Boys and right
stuff test pilots, sparkling lakes and magical mountains, breathtaking
backcountry and barbecue

[[Page S4568]]

joints, golf and the Greenbrier, battlefields and big-time college
football, college towns and small towns that are pure Americana. It is
a place of power, pulse, and passion. It is the special place we call
West Virginia, the special place we call home.
I admit we have had our ups and downs and setbacks and triumphs. We
have had some pretty famous family feuds--a few you might have heard
of--and life can be tough sometimes. But the spirit of West Virginia
has never been broken, and it never will. I learned that a long time
ago growing up in a small coal-mining town of hard-working men and
women called Farmington, WV. When things got tough, they got tougher.
It is as if we still hear the words of Francis Pierpont to the
delegates to the Second Wheeling Convention in 1861 as they debated
whether to secede from Virginia. Pierpont said:

We are passing through a period of gloom and darkness . . .
but we must not despair. There is a just God who rides upon
the whirlwind and directs the storm.

It is as if we still hear the words of President John F. Kennedy from
the rain-soaked steps of the State capitol in Charleston during our
State's centennial celebration. President Kennedy said:

The sun does not always shine in West Virginia, but the
people always do.

We are West Virginians. Even in the darkness and the gloom, we look
to a just God who directs the storm. We are West Virginians. We are the
35th State of these United States. We are West Virginians, and like the
brave, loyal patriots who made West Virginia the 35th star on Old
Glory, our love of God and country and family and State is unshakable,
and that is well worth celebrating every year.
I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
Mr. CARPER. Madam President, if the Senator will yield, that was
wonderful. I am sorry more of us weren't hear to hear those words.
The Senator holds the seat once held for many, many year by Robert
Byrd, who until maybe this month was the longest serving person in the
history of our country to serve in Congress. I think the record was
just eclipsed by John Dingell from Michigan--a most worthy successor.
The Senator from West Virginia knows there is another notable West
Virginian who is rising now to national prominence to serve our country
as the new Director of the Office of Management and Budget. She grew up
in Hinton, WV, graduated from Hinton High School, played on the girls
basketball team, and her name is Sylvia Mathews Burwell.
So West Virginia is a State that has produced certainly a lot of
coal, a lot of natural resources, but also a lot of good people and a
lot of good leaders. And this Senator came to us from West Virginia
having been a two-term Governor and chairman of the National Governors
Association, and I know he is marked maybe for greatness--maybe for
greatness. And I think his wife has a birthday tomorrow; West Virginia
has a birthday the day after tomorrow.
Mr. MANCHIN. Hers is the 20th also.
Mr. CARPER. The fact is that West Virginia sort of separated itself
from Virginia, and about 237 years ago this past Saturday, the State of
Delaware gave Pennsylvania its independence. It is quite common to talk
about what is Delaware and what is not Delaware--Pennsylvania and
Delaware were joined at the hip--but as I said, on June 15, 1776,
Delaware gave Pennsylvania its independence and also declared our
independence from the tyranny of the British throne. But here we are 5
days later celebrating West Virginia giving Virginia its independence,
and now they are on their own and making us all proud.
Mr. MANCHIN. I know the Senator from Delaware was also, like myself,
born in West Virginia. And when we think about all the famous people
who have come from West Virginia, we think about the men with the right
stuff--Charles Yeager, General Yeager, who broke the sound barrier in
1947; we think about the Rocket Boys and the movie ``October Sky.'' We
think about the Hatfield and McCoy feud--a couple of feuds we have had
and some might say are still going on; and we think about the logo for
the National Basketball Association. Jerry West is the person dribbling
the basketball. That is his picture. That is the logo. So we think
about so many contributions, but most important of all the people in
West Virginia and all over this great country have contributed to who
we are today, and I am a proud West Virginian through and through.
Mr. CARPER. If I could add, Madam President, every Sunday night I
turn on the radio to WNCN to hear simulcast across the country West
Virginia Mountain State--it is great music, eclectic music that is
wonderful and reminds me of home.
I thank the Senator for enabling us to help him celebrate West
Virginia's birthday as well.
Mr. MANCHIN. I thank the Chair, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I rise to discuss the report by the
Congressional Budget Office that was just released. This is a long-
awaited report, and we have all been waiting with bated breath to see
what they would say. The report assesses the economic and fiscal impact
of S. 744, the bipartisan immigration bill being debated here in the
Senate. We are still digesting the report, but at first glance it
contains some very positive news for comprehensive immigration reform
on a number of fronts.
At the beginning of our bipartisan negotiations on this bill, we made
an important promise: Our bill will not add to the deficit. CBO found
that we kept our promise--and then some. Let me review some of the top-
line findings of the CBO report.
CBO found our bill decreases Federal budget deficits by $197 billion
over the 2014-2023 period. CBO finds we achieve about $700 billion in
deficit reduction in the second decade of implementation, from 2024 to
2033. So the first 10 years, our bill, according to CBO, decreases the
deficit by $175 billion and in the second 10 years by $700 billion.
The CBO also released an economic analysis that found the bill will
increase GDP by 3.3 percent in 2023, and between 5.1 percent and 5.7
percent in 2033.
The second-decade figure on deficit reduction is quite relevant and
remarkable. Many of the bill's opponents were specifically urging the
CBO to look at the second decade in hopes it would show major costs,
but CBO found just the opposite.
I cannot overstate the significance of these findings. Simply put,
this report is a huge momentum boost for immigration reform. It debunks
the idea that immigration reform is anything other than a boon to our
economy, and robs the bill's opponents of one of their last remaining
arguments.
The report proves once and for all that immigration reform is not
only right to do to stay true to our Nation's principles, it will also
boost our economy, reduce the deficit, and create jobs. Immigration
reform should be a priority of progressives and conservatives alike.
Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Rosoboronexport

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I come to the floor to say a few words
about Rosoboronexport, the Russian State arms dealer which has been
supplying the Syrian Government with deadly weapons and thereby
facilitating mass murder. Last November I sponsored an amendment to
prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars in America to enter into contracts
or agreements with Rosoboronexport. My amendment had strong bipartisan
support, and it passed unanimously. Yet just yesterday, as President
Obama met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the G8 Summit in
Northern Ireland, we learned the Pentagon signed a brandnew $572
million contract with Rosoboronexport to buy MI-17 helicopters for the
Afghan Army.

[[Page S4569]]

How did the Obama administration get around the prohibition in my
amendment? They argued that the Rosoboronexport contract was in our
national security interests. In other words, they want us to believe we
are promoting U.S. security by doing business with a Russian arms
dealer who is helping an anti-American, terror-sponsoring dictatorship
commit mass atrocities. Unbelievable.
Last year the Pentagon agreed to audit the contract with
Rosoboronexport and make good-faith efforts to find other procurement
sources for the Afghan military. Now they are refusing to complete that
audit on the grounds that Rosoboronexport simply has refused to
cooperate.
Meanwhile, my office has learned that Army officials within the Non-
Standard Rotary Wing Aviation Division, whose primary focus is the Mi-
17 program, are the subjects of an ongoing criminal investigation.
This, obviously, raises troubling questions about whether the terms of
the new Mi-17 procurement contract resulted from criminal misconduct.
I want to take this opportunity to say once again that American
taxpayers should not be indirectly subsidizing the murder of Syrian
civilians, especially when there are perfectly good alternatives to
dealing with Rosoboronexport. If the Pentagon continues this
relationship, it will undermine American efforts to stand by the Syrian
people.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for
perhaps up to 20 minutes as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Global Climate Change

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I am here again--I think it is the
36th time--to speak as I do every week on global climate change, to
remind us that it is time for us to wake up and to take action to
protect our communities. The risks that we ignore will not go away on
their own. The longer we remain asleep, the greater the challenges we
leave for our children and grandchildren. The changes we are already
seeing--rising sea levels, floods, and erosion, more powerful storms--
are taking their toll in particular on our aging infrastructure which I
would like to talk about today--our roads, our bridges, our sewers and
water pipes. This kind of infrastructure is designed to operate for 50
to 100 years and to withstand expected environmental conditions. So
what happens if expected weather and climate patterns change? Well,
they are.

According to the Draft National Climate Assessment:

U.S. average temperature has increased by about 1.5 degrees
Fahrenheit since 1895; more than 80% of this increase has
occurred since 1980. The most recent decade was the nation's
hottest on record.

We are also getting more precipitation with more and more of our rain
coming in big, heavy downpours. Between 1958 and 2011, the amount of
rain that fell during individual rainstorms increased in every region
of the country--up to 45 percent in the Midwest and 74 percent in our
northeast.
Last month the Government Accountability Office issued a report
revealing the risks posed to U.S. infrastructure by climate change. The
report--which I requested, along with finance chairman Max Baucus--
shows we can no longer use historical climate patterns to plan our
infrastructure projects.
First, limited resources often must be focused on short-term
priorities. Fixing an unexpected water main break, for example, won't
usually allow for upgrades to account for climate change. And long-term
projects that do include climate change safeguards usually require more
money upfront. That is GAO's warning.
GAO also found that local decisionmakers--folks in our home
communities--need more and better climate information. The faster
someone drives, the better their headlights need to be, and carbon
pollution is accelerating changes to our climate and weather. Our
communities need the information--the headlights--to see these oncoming
changes, and it needs to be local.
When a bridge is constructed in Cape Hatteras, it is more helpful to
know how climate change will affect North Carolina than North America.
Thankfully, leaders across the country are waking up to the reality of
climate change and are making evidence-based, not ideological,
decisions about how to best serve their communities.
This is the Interstate 10 twin span bridge that crosses Lake
Pontchartrain near New Orleans. During Hurricane Katrina, the storm
surge rocked the bridge's 255-ton concrete bridge spans off of their
piers, twisting many, and toppling others into the lake. Hurricane
Katrina brought the largest storm surge on record for Lake
Pontchartrain. Scientists tell us that climate change loads the dice
for these stronger and more frequent storms. So the recovery design
team decided to strengthen and raise this bridge. They made a larger
initial investment in order to reduce maintenance costs in the future.
That is smart planning.
In 2012, Hurricane Isaac was the first major test for the new bridge,
and it passed. The damage was limited to road signs and electrical
components. This is the new higher bridge over here and that is the old
bridge down on the left there.
To the south, Louisiana State Highway 1 is the only access road to
Port Fourchon. Senator Vitter, who is from Louisiana and our ranking
member on the Environment and Public Works Committee, has told us that
18 percent of the Nation's oil supply passes through Port Fourchon. It
is a pretty important port, and Highway 1--the only access road to it--
is closed on average 3\1/2\ days a year due to flooding, according to
GAO. NOAA scientists project that within 15 years portions of Louisiana
Highway 1 will flood an average of 30 times each year. State and local
officials raised 11 miles of Highway 1 by more than 22 feet. So when
Hurricane Isaac brought a 6\1/2\ foot storm surge up the gulf, those
raised portions were unaffected.
Up north in Milwaukee, WI, the metropolitan sewerage district spent
$3 billion in 1993 to increase the capacity of its sewer system based
on historical rainfall records dating back to the 1960s. But extreme
rainstorms in the Midwest have changed drastically. Milwaukee
experienced a 100-year storm 3 years in a row. Milwaukee experienced
100-year storms in 2008, again in 2009, and again in 2010. The
University of Wisconsin projects these storms will be even more common
in the future, so Milwaukee took steps to improve the ability of nearby
natural areas like wetlands to absorb the extra runoff from rainstorms.
This eased the pressure on the city's wastewater system.
The GAO infrastructure report also found that areas recently hit by a
natural disaster tend to get proactive about adaptation. I think it is
easy to see how getting clobbered by a hurricane will help people to
rethink their emergency preparedness. But waiting for disaster is not
risk management, and we can and must do better.
In my home State of Rhode Island, local leaders are wide awake to
climate change. For instance, North Kingstown is a municipality with
planners who have taken the best elevation data available and modeled
expected sea-level rise as well as sea-level rise plus 3 feet of storm
surge. By combining these with the models and maps that show the roads,
emergency routes, water treatment plants, and estuaries, the town can
better plan its transportation, conservation, and relocation projects.
Last week, North Kingstown's efforts were recognized by a grant from
the EPA and will be a model for communities throughout the country.
Other coastal States face many of the same risks we are facing in
Rhode Island--none more than Florida. A study of sea-level rise on U.S.
coasts found that in Florida more than 1.5 million residents and almost
900,000 homes would be affected by 3 feet of sea-level rise. Both
numbers, 1.5 million residents and almost 900,000 homes, are almost
double any other State in the Nation.

[[Page S4570]]

These maps show what 3 feet of sea-level rise means for Miami-Dade
County in southeastern Florida. The map on the left shows the current
elevation in southern Miami-Dade compared to 3 feet of sea-level rise
shown here on the right. The blue regions, which are green here, are
the regions that have gone underwater with 3 feet of sea-level rise.
They would lose acres and acres of land. This nuclear power station and
this wastewater treatment plant are virtually cut off from dry land.
And the flooding won't just be along the coast; low-lying inland
areas are also at risk. That is because in Florida, particularly in the
Miami metropolitan area, the buildings are built on limestone. Florida
stands on a limestone geological base, and limestone is porous. Up in
New England, we can build levees and other structures to hold the water
back. In Miami, they would be building those structures on a geological
sponge. The water will seep under and through the porous limestone.

Rising seas don't just threaten southern Florida. According to the
American Security Project, Eglin Air Force Base on the Florida
panhandle coast, which is the largest Air Force base in the world, is
one of the five most vulnerable U.S. military installations because of
its vulnerability to storm surges, sea-level rise, and saltwater
intrusion.
Responsible Floridians looking at these projections have decided to
take action. Four counties in Florida--Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward,
and Monroe--have formed the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change
Compact. Using the best available science, they have assessed the
vulnerability of south Florida's communities to sea-level rise. In
their four counties in Florida alone, a 1-foot rise in sea level would
endanger approximately $4 billion in property--just in those four
counties. A 3-foot sea-level rise would endanger approximately $31
billion in property.
In Monroe County, 3 of the 4 hospitals, two-thirds of the schools,
and 71 percent of emergency shelters are in danger by a 1-foot rise.
That is a lot of infrastructure at risk.
Together, these Florida counties, which are led both by Republicans
and Democrats--this is a bipartisan county effort in Florida--have
adopted a plan to mitigate property loss, make infrastructure more
resilient, and protect those essential community structures such as
hospitals, schools, and emergency shelters.
This past October, those member counties signed a 5-year plan with
110 different action items, including efforts to make infrastructure
more resilient, reduce the threats to vital ecosystems, help farmers
adapt, increase renewable energy capacity, and educate their public
about the threat of climate to Florida. Looking at all of those risks
to Florida and looking at the bipartisan action taken by those county
leaders in Florida, I have to ask: If you are a Member of Congress from
Florida, how can you credibly deny climate change?
Studies show about 95 percent of climate scientists think climate
change is really happening and humans really are contributing to it.
About 5 percent disagree or aren't so sure. Can Floridians here in
Congress really take the 5-percent bet? Does that seem smart, cautious,
prudent, and responsible? This is the only Florida we have, and the
Sunshine State is ground zero for sea-level rise. It is long past time
for us to act on climate change, but it is not too late to be ready and
it is not too late to be smart in Florida and elsewhere. In Florida,
and in other States, infrastructure has to be designed for and adapted
to the climate changes we can foresee.
I thank the Government Accountability Office for this report. Nature
could not be giving us clearer warnings. Whatever higher power gave us
our advanced human capacity for perception, calculation, analysis,
deduction, and foresight has laid out before us more than enough
information for us to make the right decisions. Fortunately, these
human capacities provide us everything we need to act responsibly on
this information if only we will awaken.
I yield the floor and note 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. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Amendment No. 1255

Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I rise this evening to discuss an
amendment I have filed to the immigration bill. It is Senate amendment
No. 1255. It would ensure that the funding for an important border
security program known as Operation Stonegarden continues to be
allocated by the Department of Homeland Security based on risk. Without
my amendment, 90 percent of the $50 million in funding for this program
awarded annually would be earmarked for the southwest border. What I am
proposing is that we not put a percentage in the bill but, rather,
allow for a risk-based assessment of where Operation Stonegarden monies
would best be spent. This program has been extraordinarily successful
in my State of Maine. It has helped Federal, county, State, and local
law enforcement to pool their resources and work together to help
secure our border.
While the southwest border is much more likely to make the evening
news, we must not forget about our northern border. As the Department
of Homeland Security pointed out when it released its first northern
border strategy in June 2012: ``The U.S.-Canadian border is the longest
common border in the world'' and it presents ``unique security
challenges based on geography, weather, and the immense volume of trade
and travel.''
According to a report released by the GAO in 2010, the Border Patrol
had situational awareness of only 25 percent of the 4,000-mile northern
border and operational control of only 32 miles--less than 1 percent.
We will hear those terms discussed a lot during the debate on
immigration with respect to the southwest border. I think it is
important that we not forget we also have a 4,000-mile northern border.
This lack of situational awareness and operational control is
especially troubling because as GAO has observed: ``DHS reports that
the terrorist threat on the northern border is actually higher [than
the southern border], given the large expansive area with very limited
law enforcement coverage.''
In the same report, GAO noted that the maritime border on the Great
Lakes and rivers is vulnerable to use by small vessels as a conduit for
the potential smuggling and exploitation by terrorists, alien
smuggling, trafficking of illicit drugs, and other contraband and
criminal activity. Also, the northern border's waterways frequently
freeze during the winter and can be easily crossed by foot, vehicle, or
snowmobile. The northern air border is also vulnerable to low-flying
aircraft that, for example, smuggle drugs by entering U.S. airspace
from Canada.
Additionally, Customs and Border Protection reports that further
threats result from the fact that the northern border is exploited by
well-organized smuggling operations which can potentially also support
the movement of terrorists and their weapons.
There is also, regrettably, significant criminal activity on the
northern border. In the same report, GAO noted that in fiscal year 2010
DHS has reported spending nearly $3 billion in its efforts to interdict
and investigate illegal northern border activity, annually making
approximately 6,000 arrests and interdicting approximately 40,000
pounds of illegal drugs at and between the northern border ports of
entry.
The Operation Stonegarden grant program is an effective resource for
addressing security concerns on our northern, southern, western, and
coastal borders. Over the past 4 years, approximately $247 million in
Operation Stonegarden funds has been allocated to 19 border States
using a risk-based analysis for determining the allocations rather than
the formula-based analysis that is included in this immigration bill.
Earmarking 90 percent of funding from Operation Stonegarden to the
southwest border is ill-advised. Operation Stonegarden grants should be
used to help secure our northern, southern, and coastal borders by
funding joint operations between the Border Patrol and State, county,
and local

[[Page S4571]]

law enforcement. These joint operations can act as a force multiplier
in areas that would otherwise be unguarded altogether.
My amendment would ensure that DHS continues to have the flexibility
it needs to make risk-informed decisions about where Operation
Stonegarden funds will best serve the security of our Nation's borders.
I urge my colleagues to support my amendment, and I hope it will be
brought up at some point tomorrow.
Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the following
amendments be in order to be called up and that they not be subject to
modification or division, with the exception of the technical
modifications to the Merkley and Paul amendments contained in this
agreement: Manchin No. 1268; Pryor No. 1298; Merkley No. 1237, as
modified with the changes at the desk; Boxer No. 1240; Reed No. 1224;
Cornyn No. 1251; Lee No. 1208; Paul No. 1200, as modified with the
changes at the desk; Heller No. 1227; and Cruz No. 1320; finally, that
no second-degree amendments be in order to any of these amendments
prior to votes in relation to the amendments.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. REID. Madam President, we now have these amendments in order and
we will work with all the parties to see if we can have some way of
proceeding to set up votes. I would hope we can work something out so
we do not have to do procedural things to try to get rid of them. We
are going to do our utmost. I appreciate everyone's cooperation getting
this long list of amendments so we can start voting on them.
I think it would be a pretty fair assumption that we are not going to
have any votes tonight on these amendments. We will work something out
tomorrow. It is about 7 o'clock and we still have a little more work to
do on other issues.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.

Luis Restrepo Confirmation

Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise this evening to make some brief
comments regarding a judicial nominee we voted on yesterday--one of
two--Judge Luis Restrepo from Philadelphia, from the southeastern
corner of Pennsylvania.
I rise tonight because my train was late last night so I was not able
to make some comments about his nomination, his qualifications, prior
to the vote. But I was honored that he received the vote of the Senate
last night.
I also rise because it is timely in another way because we are
considering immigration reform. I was on the floor last week talking
about yet another judicial nominee from Pennsylvania--now a judge, as
of last week. Judge Nitza Quinones, who is a native of Puerto Rico,
came to this country after her education and became a lawyer and an
advocate, and then, ultimately, a judge for more than two decades now,
and now will serve on the Federal District Court for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.
So it is true of now Judge Restrepo. A native of Colombia, Judge
Restrepo became a U.S. citizen in 1993. He earned a bachelor of arts
degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and a juris doctor
degree from Tulane University's School of Law in 1986.
He is highly regarded by lawyers and members of the bench. He
exhibits an extraordinary command of the law and legal principles, as
well as a sense of fairness, sound judgment, and integrity.
Judge Restrepo has served as a magistrate judge for the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since June of 2006.
Prior to his judicial appointment, he was a highly regarded lawyer
and a founding member of the Kreasner & Restrepo firm in Philadelphia,
concentrating on both civil rights litigation as well as criminal
defense work.
He served as an assistant Federal defender with the Community Federal
Defender for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1990 to 1993,
and as an assistant defender at the Defender Association of
Philadelphia from 1987 to 1990.
An adjunct professor at Temple University's James E. Bensley School
of Law, he was also an adjunct professor at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Law from 1997 to 2009 and has taught with the
National Institute for Trial Advocacy in regional and national programs
since 1992.
I know the Presiding Officer knows something about being a law
professor and the demands of that job and the demands of being an
advocate.
I think anyone who looks at Judge Restrepo's biography and background
would agree he is more than prepared to be a Federal district judge,
and I am grateful that the Senate confirmed him.
Finally, Judge Restrepo has also served on the board of governors of
the Philadelphia Bar Association and is a past president of the
Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania.
So for all those reasons and more, I believe he is not only ready to
be a Federal judge, but I am also here to express gratitude for his
confirmation and for the vote in the Senate.
As we consider immigration reform, we should be ever inspired by the
stories we hear from not only judges who are nominated and confirmed
here, but others as well who come to this country, who work hard, who
learn a lot, and want to give back to their country by way of public
service. Judge Restrepo, this week, and Judge Quinones, last week, are
two fine examples of that.
With that, Madam President, 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.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, the prime sponsor, I suppose, of the
immigration bill before us--this 1,000-page document--Senator Schumer,
announced earlier today, based on the Congressional Budget Office
report, that lower deficits were promised, and that the bill, indeed,
produces lower deficits. I do not believe that is an accurate
statement, and I will share with you some of my concerns about that.
We have been through this before, where the budget numbers, in
reality, have been utilized in a way that is not healthy, and it
creates a false impression of what is occurring here.
Secondly, I do not know that he talked about this--I doubt he did--
the CBO report is explicit. Under this legislation, if it were to pass,
the wages of American workers will fall for the next 12 years. They
will be lower than the inflation rate. They will decline from the
present unacceptably low rate, and continue to decline for 12 years,
according to this report. That alone should cause us to defeat this
bill.
We have been told it is going to create prosperity and growth, but
what it is going to produce is more unemployment, as this report
explicitly states. It is going to produce lower wages for Americans, as
this report explicitly states. And it is going to increase the deficit.
So I think we need to have an understanding here that something very
serious is afoot: to suggest that you can bring in millions of new
workers to take jobs in the United States at a time of record
unemployment and that will not impact wages, that will not make
unemployment go up, goes beyond all common sense.
Dr. Borjas at Harvard has absolutely proven through peer-reviewed
research that that is exactly what is going to happen. Wages go down,
as they have been going down, and unemployment will go up. So this
report confirms that.
I will read some of the things that are in it.
I am on page 7 of ``The Economic Impact of S. 744, the Border
Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.''

S. 744 would allow significantly more workers with low
skills and with high skills to enter the United States--. . .
.

No doubt about that. They say it is a move to merit-based
immigration. But it is not a move to merit-based immigration. It
increases low-skill workers substantially, as well as increasing other
workers.

[[Page S4572]]

Taking into account all of those flows of new immigrants,
CBO and JCT [Joint Tax] expect that a greater number of
immigrants with lower skills than with higher skills would be
added to the workforce. . . .

In other words, another group coming in, more lower skilled than
higher skilled, just as I indicated and other commentators have
indicated previously.
The report said this:

Slightly pushing down the average wage of the labor force
as a whole.
Pushing down the wage of the labor force as a whole. But
they go on to say this. Get this. The next sentence:
However, CBO and Joint Tax expect that currently
unauthorized workers----

Illegal workers, in other words----

who attain legal status under 744 will see an increase in
their wages.

So I think this underestimates, if you read the report carefully, the
adverse impact that the flow of workers will have on the wages of
American workers and lawful immigrants who are here today. But at any
rate, it is clear that is so.
It goes on to say this, dramatically, I suggest:

The average wage would be lower than under current law over
the first dozen years. CBO estimates that it would increase
unemployment for at least 7 years.

So this is supposed to be good for the people we represent? Of
course, I would like to ask our colleagues to think carefully about our
duty. Who is it we represent in this body? What kind of
responsibilities do we have to decent, hard-working Americans who
experts have told us have seen their wages decline every year,
virtually, since 1999.
Wages have declined by as much as 8 percent since 2009 for a number
of reasons. One of the reasons, according to Professor Borjas, is that
immigration is already pulling down wages by as much as 40 percent. So
this will add to the problem.
This report said, quite clearly, unequivocally, it is going to
increase unemployment, and it is going to pull down wages. That is
exactly the wrong thing that ought to be happening at this time. How in
the world can we justify passing a bill that hammers the American
working man and woman who is out trying to feed a family, get a job,
that has a little retirement, a little health care, some money to be
able to take care of the family, and hammer them with additional
adverse economic impacts?
I suggest to you this is not a report that in any way justifies
advancing this legislation. Let me just take a moment. I wrestle with
these numbers. I see the Presiding Officer who is on the Budget
Committee understands these numbers. They say it pays down the deficit.
Let me show you what it really says. This is the way they double
counted the money to justify ObamaCare.
Basically, they created, through cuts in Medicare, savings and they
lengthened the life of Medicare, but they claim they used that same
money to fund ObamaCare. At one point, Mr. Elmendorf, the Director of
the Office of Management and Budget, who wrote this said it was double
counting the money. You cannot use the same money to fund ObamaCare and
use that same money to strengthen Medicare. How simple is that?
We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in double
counting of the money. That is what is happening in here. Look at this
report. Impact on the deficit over the 10-year period, 2014 to 2023,
the budget deficit would increase by $14.2 billion. The debt would
increase by $14.2 billion. But then they say the off-budget money would
decrease the deficit by $211 billion.
My colleague, Senator Schumer, said this is all great. We have a big
surplus now. We have $200 billion in the off-budget account. But what
is that money?
What is that money? That is the payroll taxes. That is your Social
Security payment and your Medicare payment. When more of the illegal
aliens come in and get a Social Security number and pay Social Security
and Medicare, the money comes into the government. All right? But is it
free to be spent on bridges and roads and aircraft and salaries for
Congressmen and Senators? No.
This is money that is dedicated to Social Security and Medicare. This
is the trust fund money that goes to Social Security and Medicare. Yes,
when people are legalized, they will pay more Social Security and
Medicare taxes on their payroll, but it is going to that fund to pay
for their retirement and their health care when they retire. You cannot
use that money. You cannot spend the money today and pretend it is
going to be there to pay for their retirement when they retire.
They are going to pay into Medicare. They are going to pay into
Social Security. They are going to draw out Social Security and
Medicare when they reach the right age. What we know is, as Mr.
Elmendorf indicates, as I have said repeatedly, most of these
individuals are lower income, lower skilled workers. Therefore, what we
know is in that regard, the lower skilled workers who pay into Social
Security and Medicare take out more than they pay in. So this is not
going to be positive, it seems to me, particularly when you account for
the fact that a lot of people have scored this, but they have not
scored it from the fact that most of the workers who will be paying
Medicare and Social Security are lower income workers and they will be
paying the lower rates. Not a huge difference, but it is a difference.
So I would contend, I think, without fear of serious contradiction,
although I expect political contradiction, that the off-budget money is
your Medicare and Social Security money. See, you paid into that. The
government, if it takes and spends it, does not have anything now to
pay your Social Security and your Medicare benefits when you get old.
We know it is already actuarially unsound. Those programs are in danger
of defaulting a lot sooner than a lot of people think. We need to be
saving these programs, not weakening them.

So in the short run you get this bubble effect. You get an extra
group of money. Since a lot of the workers are younger, it will look
good on the budget for 10 years. It looks good on the budget for 10
years, but this is not money to be spent by the government. This is
money that is dedicated to their retirement and will be drawn out by
these individuals when they go into retirement.
So I would suggest that this 10-year score, 2014 through 2023, shows
that the real impact is a $14.2 billion dollar reduction--increase in
the deficit of the United States over 10 years in the general fund
account. The off-budget section says it reduces the deficit by $200
billion. But that money is utilized--it has to be in the trust fund to
be utilized for future payments to these individuals when they retire.
It is not money we can account for.
The mixing of these two matters is one of the most dramatic ways this
country has gotten itself into an unsound financial course. We have
double counted this money repeatedly. We have money coming in to Social
Security and Medicare and we spend it immediately. We pretend it is
still there to pay for someone's retirement. This is going to be the
same except it is guaranteed to be a financial loser over the long run.
Again, I know Senator Sanders has talked about this, my colleague
from Vermont. In a free market world, when you bring in more labor, the
wages go down. I think CBO is probably underestimating this, frankly.
Professor Borjas at Harvard, his numbers look more grim than these. But
this is what they came up with. They have been trying to do guesswork
and tell the truth the best they can, but they are getting a lot of
pressure from the other side.
A lot of Members here seem to think we can just bring in millions of
people and those millions of people will somehow create more revenue.
We are going to be like Jack Kemp. You know, everything is wonderful.
It is just going to grow. But we have to be prudent. We have to be
responsible. What we know is that since at least 1999, the wages of
average American people have not kept up with inflation. That means
those wages are on a net serious decline.
Professor Borjas says it declined by 8 percent. That is very real. My
Democratic colleagues used to be very critical when it was President
Bush because it was all his fault that wages were not keeping up with
inflation, people were being hurt. So now they do not talk about that
anymore. If they do, they blame it on President Bush even though he has
been gone 5 or 6 years.
The reality is, I came to believe there is truth to this. It is not
just a temporary cyclical thing that workers'

[[Page S4573]]

wages have not been keeping up. I think it is something deeper than
that. I think it is several things. Businesses are getting very intent
on reducing the number of employees they have to produce certain
products and widgets. They are getting far more efficient. So we are
making more widgets with less people.
If you go into plants like I do, you see these incredible robotics
where you get dramatic improvements of productivity for widgets with
less people. This creates, in some ways, unemployment.
Last month we had a moderate increase in jobs in May, but there was
an 8,000-job reduction in manufacturing. The increase was in service
industries like restaurants and bars and that kind of thing. The
increase was also temporary. So this is not healthy. You have this
unhealthy trend out there when you bring in large amounts of labor, a
majority of which the CBO says is low skilled, and you are hammering
the American worker.
Further, Peter Kirsanow, one of the outstanding members of the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights, along with Abigail Thernstrom, a brilliant
lady who has written on these matters over the years, they wrote a
letter recently that warned that passage of this bill will harm poor
people in America, particularly African Americans.
They said they had hearings on this matter. They have had the best
economists come and testify. They studied those reports. They say not a
single one of the economists they dealt with denied that the wages
would be pulled down or unemployment would go up.
That is what CBO told us today: Unemployment will go up, wages will
go down. We have good Republican colleagues and they cannot conceive
that we are in such a circumstance. They just believe growth is always
good, and if you bring in more people you will have more growth. That
is correct.
Let me tell you the brutal truth based on the in-depth analysis by
Professor Borjas at Harvard. He says the prosperity, the growth enures
to the benefit of the manufacturers, of the employers who use a lot of
low-skilled labor. Their income will go up, but the average wage of the
average working person will go down. That is what large flows of
immigration will do when there is high unemployment.
Peter Kirsanow, a member of the Civil Rights Commission, in his
letter, said that it is absolutely false that we have a shortage of
low-skilled labor. He says we have a glut of low-skilled labor. The
facts show that.
The number of people employed in the workforce today has reached the
level of the 1970s. That was before women were going into the
workplace. As a percentage of the American population, the percentage
of people who actually have a job today has been falling steadily, and
it has now hit the level of the 1970s. Now they are going to bring in
all these masters of the universe, these geniuses who have this plan
that somehow is going to fix everything. We will just bring in more
people.
We had a Senator today say that it is going to increase wages. How
can that be? What economic study shows that? Not any, to my knowledge.
CBO says--wages are going to fall. Unemployment is going to go up, and
it is not going to fix our deficit either.
I feel very strongly that we have to put on a realistic hat. We are
going to have to ask ourselves: Whom do we represent? Are we
representing a political idea that is going to bring in more votes? Are
we representing people who entered the country illegally? Are those our
first priority? Do we have any obligation to the people who fight our
wars, raise our next generation of children, try to do the right thing,
pay their taxes, want to be able to have a decent job, a decent
retirement plan, have a vacation every now and then, and have a health
care plan they can afford? Don't we owe them that? Shouldn't that be
our primary responsibility right now? I think it is. I think that is
our primary responsibility.
One says: Well, don't you care about people who are here illegally?
I say: Yes, I care about them. I care about them deeply.
I think we can work on this situation to not be in a position to say
we are going to deport all of those who are here illegally. We can
treat people compassionately. We are going to do the right thing about
that.
In the future, should we have a work flow every year in that doubles
the amount of guest workers who come in for the sole purpose of working
and not becoming an immigrant, and should we increase the annual legal
flow of immigrants from 1 million a year to 1.5 million a year,
increasing it 50 percent? Is that what good legislation would do? I
mean, how did this happen?
Thomas Sowell, a Hoover Institution scholar and economist at Stanford
University, says there are three interests out here. One is the
immigrants. They win. This report says their salaries go up. The other
one is the politicians. They have it all figured out. They have written
a bill that they think serves their political interests. The question
is, Who is representing the national interests? Who is representing the
American people's interests? Were they in these rooms when the chamber
of commerce was there, La Raza was there, the business groups,
agricultural groups, the labor unions and Mr. Trumka were there
dividing up the pie, making sure their interests were protected? Who
was defending the interests of the dutiful worker who is out trying to
find a job today?
There was a report in the New York Times last week about an event in
Queens. Apparently, there was a group of jobs that were going to be
offered as elevator repair personnel in New York. The line started
forming 5 days in advance. People brought their tents, they brought
their food, they brought their sleeping bags, and they waited in line
for days to be able to get a job as an elevator repair person. We have
people saying these are jobs Americans won't do. That Americans won't
work, and that's why we need more labor.
Well, I always cut my own grass when I am home, but I am up here a
lot, so there is a group that comes and cuts my grass in Mobile. These
were two African-American gentlemen in their 40's. They came out, did a
great job in the heat in Alabama, and took care of my yard.
What is this--jobs Americans won't do? They want a job that has a
retirement plan. They want a job that has some permanency to it. They
want a job that has a decent wage. Americans will work, and all hard
work should be honored.
I will acknowledge that in seasonal work, temporary work, certain
circumstances, we could develop a good migrant guest worker program
that could serve this. Maybe in different times, if unemployment is
low, we could justify bringing in even more workers than you would
expect. But at a time of high unemployment, we have low participation
in the workforce, and we ought to be careful about bringing in large
amounts of labor that pleases rich businesses and manufacturing and
agribusiness groups but doesn't necessarily protect the honest, decent,
legitimate interests of American workers. I think they are being
forgotten too often in this process.
I wanted to push back to that. This report might look like it's
saying that we are creating a service and we are reducing the debt. In
one sense, on the on-budget analysis, the way we do our accounting
around here, that impression is certainly created. It is a false
impression, and it is that false understanding of the reality of the
on-budget and off-budget accounting of revenue to America that has
gotten us fundamentally in the problem we are now facing.
Again, I repeat, the on-budget deficit, according to the CBO report,
goes up over 10 years by $14 billion. It claims, though, that the
deficit drops on the off-budget. Remember, that money is obligated.
That is your withholding. That is your FICA. That is your Social
Security, Medicare--withholdings on your paycheck. It goes up there,
and it has been set aside for you, for your retirement, for your
medical care when you are elderly. It is not available for us to spend
today willy-nilly.
And we think we have now created a circumstance where billions of
dollars are being double-counted. Can you imagine that? That is what we
are doing in this country. We are counting trillions of dollars--really
double-counting it. Money that comes in we count in a unified budget as
income to the budget, but it is dedicated income. We owe the people who
paid it into their Social Security check, their Medicare coverage. It
is owed to them.
What we know is that when you have particularly lower--well, the
whole

[[Page S4574]]

program is unsustainable, but particularly the lower income workers pay
in less than they will eventually take out over a lifetime. Adding all
of these workers into the Social Security and Medicare system, where
they pay in, will not place us on a sound path.
Again, we need to be honest about where we are. The numbers do not
look good. This Congress needs to wrestle with how to deal
compassionately with the people who have been here a long time. We need
to do it in a right way, but we have a responsibility, a financial duty
to the people who sent us here to manage their money wisely and not
make our financial situation worse than it is today. We have an
obligation to try to figure out a way to reverse the steady, long-term
trend of wage decline for millions of American workers. It needs to be
getting better. What this report says is that if this bill is passed,
this immigration bill is passed, it will make the long-term wage
situation of Americans worse. How wrong a direction could that be?
Look, if we let the labor market get a little tighter, we are going
to find businesses that are willing to pay more to get a good worker.
That is the free market. These business guys don't mind trying--Walmart
seeks the very lowest priced product it can get, whether it is China or
the United States. They are ruthless about it. It is free market, we
say. We value it. OK, we support free market. But if there is a labor
shortage, why shouldn't the laboring man be able to get a little higher
wage for a change around here? This large flow of immigration will
impact, adversely, their ability to find a job--unemployment will go
up, according to the report--and we'll get a decrease in wages.
I yield the floor.
<bullet> Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, today I would like to indicate
support for two amendments I cosponsored and were introduced by Senator
Thune and Senator Vitter.
The first is amendment No. 1197 introduced by Senator Thune. Border
security should be the number one priority in any immigration
discussion, and building this fence which is already required by law
will help in that endeavor.
The second is Amendment No. 1228 introduced by Senator Vitter. This
requires that the biometric border check-in and check-out system be
fully implemented prior to any legal status being granted to an illegal
alien. Our national and economic security depends on us knowing who is
in our country, and this amendment will help achieve that goal.
While I strongly disagree with granting amnesty to those who broke
the law, on the chance that this bill passes I want to make sure that
amendments like the two of these are included in the final
legislation.<bullet>

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