Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOEVEN. I appreciate the comments of the distinguished Senator from Mississippi.
I rise to speak on immigration reform and to discuss an amendment I will be introducing to S. 744, the comprehensive immigration reform legislation the Senate body is carefully considering and debating. That amendment is the Hoeven-Corker border security amendment. It is being finalized, and I plan to introduce it this afternoon, along with the Senator from the great State of Tennessee, Senator Bob Corker, who is here with me. I want to thank him for the tremendous work he has done on this legislation. He has been absolutely inspirational to work with, a great leader, and somebody who is working to do immigration reform the right way, to get a bipartisan solution that truly addresses the challenges we face with immigration reform and to get it done the right way.
In addition to Senator Corker and myself, other sponsors include Senator John McCain, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Jeff Flake, Senator Kelly Ayotte, Senator Dean Heller, and others who are joining us on this legislation. I believe a number of them will be down here to provide their comments as well.
I believe the first order of business for immigration reform is to secure the border. I will repeat that. I believe the first order of business for immigration reform is to secure the border. Americans want immigration reform, of that there is no doubt, but they want us to get it right. That means, first and foremost, securing the border.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and the Congress granted legalized status to between 3 and 4 million illegal immigrants. The intent was to once and for all resolve the illegal immigration problem, but obviously it didn't. Here we are today with more than 11 million illegal immigrants in this country. Here we are today with a border that has still not been secured.
Ironically, illegal immigrants continue to come into our country because we have not secured the border at the same time--at the same time--our immigration laws do not meet the needs of our modern-day workforce for STEM-trained workers, other specialty and high-demand areas. In fact, one of the strengths of the underlying bill, the underlying legislation drafted by the Gang of 8 on a bipartisan basis, along with amendments that have already been added in committee, one of the strengths is it includes provisions that will help us with our workforce needs. These provisions were adopted from legislation myself and other Senators fostered, such as legislation led by the esteemed Senator from Texas John Cornyn, which would allow an increased number of college graduates, postgraduate degreed individuals with degrees in STEM--science, technology, engineering, math-trained individuals--and other highly skilled, highly trained people who could stay in this country. These are people we need to help grow our economy and to help create jobs.
We also want people who can bring capital and job-creating opportunities to come to our country. I believe the underlying bill has captured these concepts. The immigration innovation legislation I was proud to cosponsor with Senators HATCH, KLOBUCHAR, COONS, and others is included in this bill.
We are not done. We must do more to secure the border in this legislation. That is exactly what we are offering here today. It is a very straightforward way to secure our border and to do so before allowing a pathway to legal permanent residency for those who came here illegally.
Furthermore, it will ensure that we do not repeat the error we made before, failure to secure our border while at the same time fixing our immigration laws. It builds on what is already in the underlying bill, and it provides objective, verifiable standards and metrics to do so.
Our legislation will provide significantly more resources to secure the border, more manpower, more fencing, more technology. Those resources must be fully deployed and operational before green card status is allowed. The legislation provides five specific conditions which must be met before anyone in RPI status, registered provisional immigrant status, can be adjusted or transitioned to LPR, lawful permanent resident status, green cards.
These conditions are: First, we are including a comprehensive southern border security plan right in the legislation. This is a $3.2 billion high-tech plan. The plan is detailed border sector by border sector, and it includes combinations of conventional security infrastructure such as observation towers, fixed and mobile camera systems, helicopters, planes, and other physical surveillance equipment to secure the border.
The plan also includes high-tech tools such as mobile surveillance systems, seismic imaging, infrared ground sensors, and unmanned aerial systems equipped with infrared radar cameras, VADER radar, and long-range thermal-imaging cameras. The Secretary of Homeland Security, together with the Secretary of Defense and the Comptroller General of the United States, the GAO, must certify to the Congress that this comprehensive southern border security strategy is deployed and operational. That means in place and operating, other than routine maintenance. That is the first requirement before the adjustment to LPR status.
Second, DHS must deploy and maintain 20,000 additional Border Patrol agents on the southern border. That is in addition to the number of Border Patrol agents on the border now, which is right at about 20,000.
So we will double the number of armed Border Patrol agents to detect and turn back those individuals who would try to cross our border illegally.
Third, DHS must build 700 miles of fencing. That is double the amount required in the underlying bill, which calls for 350 miles of fencing. So 700 miles of fencing--that compares to about 42 miles of fencing we have in place right now.
Fourth, the Secretary of Homeland Security must verify that the mandatory E-Verify system has been implemented to enforce workplace laws so that illegal immigrants are not employed.
Fifth, the electronic entry-exit identification system must be in place at all international airports and seaports in the United States where U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are currently deployed.
So these are the requirements. These are the requirements, and they must be met before lawful permanent residency is allowed. No green cards, other than for DREAMers and blue card ag workers, until these requirements are met.
Once again, simply put, we must secure the border first. That is what Americans demand, and that is what we must do to get comprehensive immigration reform right. That is what this legislation does, and it does it with objective and verifiable methods. We ask our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join with us and pass this legislation.
Madam President, at this point I would like to turn to my distinguished colleague from Tennessee, whom I want to thank again for his tremendous work, which is ongoing. I can't say how much I appreciate his good efforts and his good faith on a bipartisan basis. I turn to him now for his comments as well as to then enter into a colloquy with our colleagues who have worked so hard and played such a leadership role in this legislation.
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Mr. HOEVEN. Well, I appreciate the esteemed Senator from Arizona again emphasizing these points. That is what this is all about. This is about securing the border. And all of the things the Senator from Arizona just identified are in the bill. They are requirements. The plan itself, this $3.2 billion comprehensive southern border strategic plan, is detailed border sector by border sector. And again, this puts everybody in the same place saying that we are going to secure the border first because there are no green cards until we secure the border.
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Mr. HOEVEN. I would like to add that it is not just all these things that we are putting on the border and that we are requiring that these things be in place and certified and operating before we go to green card status, but also it is about eliminating
the incentive to try to get across the border. When we put E-Verify in place and we have a proper guest worker program, we take away the incentive to try to get across the border. So we secure the border, but we also take away the incentive to come across because someone can come across legally through the guest worker program. And if they come across illegally, we are going to find them and they can't get a job. So it is both. That is what we mean when we talk about comprehensive border security and a comprehensive approach.
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r. HOEVEN. I would respond to the good Senator from Arizona and say, look, all of the ideas that have been brought forward to secure the border we have worked to include in this package. We have tried in a bipartisan way to listen to everybody and say: What can we do? What can we put on the border to secure the border? We have tried to bring all those resources to bear.
To the good Senator from Arizona I would say we want to bring in our Senator from Florida, who has worked so hard, along with the Senator from Arizona, to provide truly the right kind of leadership for comprehensive reform on a bipartisan basis. I also want to reach out to the good Senator from Texas. A lot of the ideas in this bill came from legislation he put forward. Look, this is about all of us putting our ideas into securing this border. We have tried to include everybody's ideas in this effort. That is exactly what we did.
I would yield for the Senator from Texas.
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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I appreciate very much the question from the Senator from the great State of Texas. I thank him for the work he did and the work we did together, and the fact that we absolutely tried here to build on concepts the Senator put forward. It is not the same, but we tried to build on those concepts.
In terms of the actual border security plan, the comprehensive southern
border security strategy, the $3.2 billion plan that includes technology, helicopters, planes, all these different things I detailed, that is exactly what the Senator was talking about in his legislation. Physically we do deploy all the things the Senator laid out in his legislation, and then we add to it 20,000 agents, and an additional 350 miles of fence on top of the 350 miles of fence called for in the underlying bill. We put all of the physical resources out there, and then we add all of the fencing and all the manpower to make sure we accomplish exactly what the Senator was laying out. In terms of the trigger, all those things are triggers before going to a green card.
It is different in that the discussion was, How do we set up verifiable metrics? And that is what we are doing by clearly delineating all these things we are putting in, and then we actually add to what the Senator had in the legislation.
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Mr. HOEVEN. And if I may respond to that. Again, that makes my point.
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Mr. HOEVEN. That is where I am going right now.
Remember, in the CBO score, in the first 10 years, $197 billion. We use about $30 billion to make sure that border is secure. But overall, this bill with this amendment creates border security and more than pays for itself.
Here is the other point. Remember, in that CBO score it showed $197 billion in terms of revenue creation. So we used $30 billion of that to add the border agents and secure the border.
But here is the other thing we have to look at in that CBO score. It said without our amendment, with the underlying bill, we would have 7 million more illegal immigrants in this country in 10 years. Without the bill we would have 10 million more. So what does that say? It didn't get the job done on border security. That is exactly why we are adding this amendment, and it will get the job done.
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