Posted on 10/18/2005 6:42:56 PM PDT by mdittmar
Homeland Security's Chertoff urges three-tiered approach to address problem
Washington -- Illegal immigration is a severe and growing problem, and the United States is taking aggressive and innovative steps to address it, says U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.
In October 18 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chertoff told lawmakers that ending illegal immigration requires tough law enforcement, as well as action to reduce the demand that draws illegal migrants into the country.
U.S. officials believe a three-tier comprehensive approach to curbing illegal immigration is necessary, Chertoff added. This approach involves establishing better control of the border, a more robust interior enforcement program and a Temporary Worker Program (TWP) that would match willing employers with willing workers.
Chertoff said that since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, U.S. annual spending on border security and immigration enforcement has increased dramatically. With these funds, he said, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has added 1,649 patrol agents along U.S. borders and 4,533 officers at ports of entry since 2001.
The secretary explained that the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill signed by President Bush October 18 will allocate $940 million in new resources for homeland security law enforcement agencies to strengthen further border security and immigration enforcement. These new resources will support additional personnel, technology and infrastructure -- and should deliver benefits in the near future, Chertoff said. (See White House fact sheet on appropriations bill.)
"I am convinced that we can soon make dramatic improvements in the use of technology, infrastructure, and our rapidly growing enforcement team," he said.
Chertoff said he anticipates a fairly rapid improvement in the removal of illegal immigrants from the United States. Currently, he said, apprehensions of illegal immigrants exceed removals.
The secretary explained that whereas the 900,000 illegal Mexican immigrants caught entering the United States each year immediately are returned to Mexico, only 30,000 of 160,000 non-Mexican nationals apprehended were removed from the United States. This so-called "catch and release" practice, he said, encourages illegal immigration, and efforts are under way to end it, he said.
"We must end 'catch and release' and implement 'catch and return,'" he said. "In fact, we are already taking steps to implement 'catch and return' as I speak."
Chertoff said that homeland security is expanding removals by making better use of detention and removal assets. He testified that he has set a goal for complete removal of the "catch and release" practice, without exceptions. The secretary said he expects that significant progress can be made toward this goal during the remainder of 2005.
As efforts to streamline removal of people caught crossing U.S. borders illegally move forward, Chertoff said, immigration enforcement within the United States' interior -- including worksite enforcement -- also must improve. He indicated that more robust efforts at interior enforcement are under way, and better cooperation with federal, state and local partners should improve immigration enforcement overall.
OFFICIALS CALL FOR “WELL-DESIGNED” TEMPORARY WORKER PROGRAM
With an increase in the effectiveness of border security and immigration enforcement, Chertoff said, a TWP also will be necessary to augment these efforts.
"The effectiveness of our border security and interior enforcement initiatives is closely tied to creating a workable TWP," he said. "A well-designed TWP will provide legal channels for U.S. employers and foreign-born workers to meet the needs of a vibrant and successful U.S. economy without disadvantaging American workers."
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who also testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, agreed with Chertoff's assessment.
"An improved temporary worker program will enhance border security and interior enforcement by providing a workable and enforceable process for hiring foreign temporary workers," she said.
Chao noted that a reformed worker program should allow those workers who are in the United States illegally to come forward, apply for a legal temporary work status and participate in the legal economy. At the same time, she stressed that those workers who do come forward should not receive amnesty for their violations of law, but rather pay a fine or penalty to participate in the TWP.
"President Bush strongly opposes amnesty, because it unfairly rewards lawbreaking and because amnesty encourages further illegal immigration," she said.
Chao observed that felons and those workers in removal proceedings would not be eligible to participate in the TWP under Bush's proposed plan.
On the subject of matching willing workers with U.S. employers, Chao said that while the private marketplace -- not the government -- is best suited for this role, the government will retain controls to prevent abuses such as excessive fees.
The labor secretary added that once workers are enrolled in a TWP, the Department of Labor would work to protect their labor rights.
"The Department of Labor takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure that our work force, including foreign workers admitted under temporary worker programs, is fully protected by our nation's labor laws," she said.
In conclusion, Chao told legislators that the Bush administration looks forward to working with the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in the coming months to craft a TWP that enhances U.S. security and prosperity.
"Reforming our temporary worker program is a difficult and complicated undertaking," she said. "Working together, I am confident that reforms will be enacted to protect homeland security, restore the rule of law, serve the economic needs of our nation, and honor our history of openness to legal immigration."
The testimonies of Chertoff and Chao are available on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Web site.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff is a liar!
Re: The Title...
There is something about the word CURB that smells of weaselword...wouldn't the word STOP have been better? But of course, it won't happen.
For the truth, please see this:
"Bush immigration "reform" offensive under way"
http://michellemalkin.com/immigration/2005/10/18/03:56.pm
Kinda like
"it depends on what the meaning "is" is."
Apparently, Bush's approach to the Illegal Immigration problem is to make all Immigration legal.
No illegality, no problem.
Kinda like the lefties' approach to drugs !!
Full disclosure: hey, come to think of it, they're both smuggled into the States...
Apparently, Bush's approach to the Illegal Immigration problem is to make all Immigration legal.
No illegality, no problem.
Kinda like the lefties' approach to drugs !!
Full disclosure: hey, come to think of it, they're both smuggled into the States...
Apparently, Bush's approach to the Illegal Immigration problem is to make all Immigration legal.
----
That is his objective. To make breaking the law, LEGAL. His main purpose is to cater to elitist interests in the WTO. He has little concern for America's interests.
You forgot to add FRAUD, if I may interject. What a joke this whole Administration is. Blackbird.
Bush is totally a RINO.
I can't believe he called the minute men "vigilante" while calling himself a republican.
Many say Bush is re-elected only through the horror that John Kerry might be president.
Words alone
I think conservatives are starting to understand the real enemy on immigration. The activists are funded by someone so they can sponsor lawyers, and protestors to intimidate the Minuteman. Illegal immigrants do not have this resource, and radical professors cannot use research grants to pay for protestors. There has to be an underground source of funding that comes from Mexico and within the US. Only US corporations have this resource. They make donations to foundations which in turn make donations. Several layers downward, you will find these corporate foundation funds make their way to the street level immigration advocates. Purpose, import labor like UPS packages. Border security is only part of their equation of weighing the profits from cheaper labor against the cost of an occasional terrorist attack on US homeland. Right now the profits outweigh the risks. But we have something corporate America does not have, numbers and the vote. Now we need a prominent politician and patriot to lead us. Right now I do not see one yet in the GOP.
So far, he has called many of us GOP conservatives "vigilantes", "elitists" and "sexists". Can anybody recall the worst term he has ever used to describe any of the liberal 'Rats that consistently trash him and every aspect of his policies, personality and principles?
this is hilarious-- no one believes this tripe!!!
This approach involves establishing better control of the border, a more robust interior enforcement program and a Temporary Worker Program (TWP)
This is a bunch of double speak, since if these people are made legal then the other two proposed tiers; better control of the border, aan more robust interior enforcement programs are meaningless.
What was proposed previously and rejected by US citizens overwhelmingly last time when this same plan was set in motion, doesn’t change just by changing the name from the Guest Amnesty Worker Program to the Revolving Temporary Amnesty Worker Program, since amnesty means amnesty no matter what you call it if foreign workers are allowed to immigrate freely with no limits to the employers who are hiring them at wages that would have been grounds for succession in pre-civil war era.
It is so obvious that big business has bought this administration Lock, stock and barrel, I want to scream when I see people writing about what a fine President we have!
He is crippling the entire nation and doing a damn good job of it too. Our schools are too crowded, the kids are suffering in every aspect except learning a foreign language. Medical insurance systems costs are inflating like helium balloons. Hard working, high tech workers are being laid off a couple of years before retirement. The stock market is locked in freeze with the fuel running out. America is hurting and the pain medication is almost gone. On and on it goes. This next year is going to be one to remember.
I am at the point where I almost want to see a Democrat in th White House but I'm afraid that these RINO's will start supporting him/her instead of locking the system down.
"We're going to track down each and every one of these illegals, and so help me Quatzecoatl, jam a guest worker permit into their hands to make them legal. Yeah, we're serious about this."
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