Radio Address by the President to the Nation, 10-22-05

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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 22, 2005

President's Radio Address

     Audio
     In Focus: Homeland Security
     

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week I signed into law a bill that supports our ongoing efforts to defend our homeland.

To defend this country, we have to enforce our borders. When our borders are not secure, terrorists, drug dealers, and criminals find it easier to sneak into America. My administration has a clear strategy for dealing with this problem: We want to stop people from crossing into America illegally, and to quickly return the illegal immigrants we catch back to their home countries.

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For the past four years, we've been implementing this strategy. To stop illegal immigrants from coming across our borders, we've added manpower, upgraded our technology, and taken the final steps necessary to complete a 14-mile barrier running along the San Diego border with Mexico. To enforce our immigration laws within our borders, we've hired more immigration agents, gone after criminal gangs, and targeted smugglers and coyotes who traffic in human beings. We are getting results: Since 2001, we have removed more than 4.8 million illegal immigrants from the United States, including more than 300,000 with criminal records.

Our border patrol and immigration agents are doing a fine job, but we still have a problem. Too many illegal immigrants are coming in, and we're capturing many more non-Mexican illegal immigrants than we can send home. And one of the biggest reasons we cannot send them back is that we lack space in our detention facilities to hold them until they are removed. When there's no bed available, non-Mexicans who are caught entering our country illegally are given a slip that tells them to come back for a court appearance. Most never show up. And then they disappear back into the shadows of our communities. This is called "catch-and-release," and it is unacceptable.

The bill I signed includes $7.5 billion that will help us address the problem of illegal immigration in two important ways. First, it provides more than $2.3 billion for the Border Patrol so we can keep more illegal immigrants from getting into the country in the first place. These funds will help us hire a thousand new border patrol agents, improve our technology and intelligence, expand and improve Border Patrol stations, and install and improve fencing, lighting, vehicle barriers, and roads along our border areas. I appreciate the help Congress has given us for our common goal of creating more secure borders.

Second, this bill also provides $3.7 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement so we can find and return the illegal immigrants who are entering our country. With these funds, we can expand the holding capacity of our detention facilities by 10 percent. This will allow us to hold more non-Mexican illegal immigrants while we process them through a program we call "expedited removal." This will make the process faster and more efficient. Putting more non-Mexican illegal immigrants through expedited removal is crucial to sending back people who have come here illegally. As Secretary Chertoff told the Senate this week, our goal is to return every single illegal entrant, with no exceptions. And this bill puts us on the path to do that.

For Mexicans who cross into America illegally, we have a different plan, but the same goal. Now, most of the 900,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico who are caught each year are immediately escorted back across the border. The problem is that these illegal immigrants are able to connect with another smuggler or coyote and come right back in. So one part of the solution is a program called "interior repatriation" where we fly or bus these illegal immigrants all the way back to their hometowns in the interior of Mexico. By returning illegal Mexican immigrants to their homes, far away from desert crossings, we're saving lives and making it more difficult for them to turn right around and cross back into America.

As we improve and expand our efforts to secure our borders, we must also recognize that enforcement cannot work unless it's part of a comprehensive immigration reform that includes a temporary worker program. If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis. I'll work with members of Congress to create a program that will provide for our economy's labor needs without harming American workers, and without granting amnesty, and that will relieve pressure on our borders.

A critical part of any temporary worker program is ensuring that our immigration laws are enforced at work sites. America is a country of laws; we must not allow dishonest employers to flout those laws. So we've doubled the resources for work site enforcement since 2004.

We have much more work ahead of us. But the Homeland Security bill I signed this week provides vital support for our efforts to deal with the problem of illegal immigration, and make all Americans safer and more secure.

Thank you for listening.

END

[Brownie74]

If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis.

Will someone please tell Bush that he gets paid to run the United States and not Kelly Girls, Manpower, or Labor Pool.

He's not serious about this.

[antisocial]

The North American Community Approach to Security will start
to become reality if Cornyn's bill is passed. Everyone should be writing their Senators about this.

[DumpsterDiver]

Since when has the government EVER done something on a "temporary" basis?

Their salary usually stays in effect for only one year, so that's one "temporary" thing. ;^)

[Borax Queen]

LOL - good point!

[TheForceOfOne]

I have read about different ideas for a fence if we decided to actually build one.

I don't know how accurate it is but I saw this estimate at
http://www.factcheck.org/article352.html

50 yards wide and including a ditch, coils of barbed wire, two tall wire fences, and sensors to warn of any incursion, at an estimated cost of between $4 billion and $8 billion.

---

Also, the biggest reason they come here is for financial gain. If all the financial incentives for illegals were taken away many would stay home with or without a fence. I prefer a fence in either situation and I would donate if I knew my donation would actually go towards the fence.

My biggest worry is the criminals and terrorists who could or do cross either border to cause death, destruction, rape, etc. on the citizens of this country.

The 9/11 terrorists all had Visa's and didn't cross either border in the dead of night. They came here in public view and lived among us without anyones notice.

I wish it were as simple as a fence, but there is a lot more to it than that. Most wish to blame the president alone but Congress and the entire bureaucracy in Washington plays its part. State and local governments are also to blame for what they could do on their own and fail to do.

Everyone has their own idea about how to fix the problem and fix it we must, but I don't believe that destroying a Republican president to make a point is the answer. We must press the issues that concern us while maintaining our majority.

I appreciate your comments and have a nice day kitkat. :)

[DumpsterDiver]

The 9/11 terrorists all had Visa's and didn't cross either border in the dead of night. They came here in public view and lived among us without anyones notice.

Did you ever read any of the articles written about the visa applications of the 9/11 terrorists? This article (9/11 Terrorist Visa Applications) shows how slipshod we are in granting visas and the following are links to the actual visa applications of a few of the terrorists. This sure doesn't inspire me to have much faith in our government and its attendant bureaucracies.

Hani Hanjour, 1997
Hani Hanjour, 2000 (a)
Hani Hanjour, 2000 (b)
Waleed al-Sherhi, 2000
Wail al-Sherhi, 2000
Abdulaziz Alomari, 2001

Everyone has their own idea about how to fix the problem and fix it we must, but I don't believe that destroying a Republican president to make a point is the answer.

There is definitely enough blame to go around here, that's for sure, but after 30-some years of this non-action from Washington, all I know is that I do want to destroy something, I'm just not sure what (or who) to destroy!

[nothingnew]

so what are you doing about it nothingnew.

Voting my principles instead of pub-bot blindness.

What are you doing about it?

FMCDH(BITS)

[lonewacko_dot_com]

"Mexico is one of our two IMMEDIATE neighbors, and we can't risk all-out war with a country so physically close to us. This bill should satisfy President Fox of Mexico, while allowing Mexicans to cross the border for jobs that need to be filled here."

Because they've got millions of their citizens in our country, and because when Jorge Castaneda was foreign minister he joked/hinted about "propagating militant activities" inside the U.S., it's important for President Bush to give Mexico what it wants.

[SwinneySwitch]

Border Ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.

[CindyDawg]

I guess I had better read this. It's seems I'm a Republican now. I have no idea how this happened. I got my "papers" in the mail Sat:')

[CindyDawg]

This sounded good until I got to the last paragraph. I have 2 suggestions. Secure the borders and send the ones here home and then work on a guest program but not until this mess is cleaned up.

[Pelham]

He knows.

[Calpernia]

SwinneySwitch has border and immigration.

I have Human Trafficking.

[Types_with_Fist]

Is this a spoof or just more token gestures?

It's not funny enough to be a "spoof" and is more token gestures.

[Calpernia]

ICE ping

President Address: this bill also provides $3.7 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement so we can find and return the illegal immigrants who are entering our country.

[conservativecorner]

"For Mexicans who cross into America illegally, we have a different plan, but the same goal. Now, most of the 900,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico who are caught each year are immediately escorted back across the border. The problem is that these illegal immigrants are able to connect with another smuggler or coyote and come right back in. So one part of the solution is a program called "interior repatriation" where we fly or bus these illegal immigrants all the way back to their hometowns in the interior of Mexico. By returning illegal Mexican immigrants to their homes, far away from desert crossings, we're saving lives and making it more difficult for them to turn right around and cross back into America."

As we improve and expand our efforts to secure our borders, we must also recognize that enforcement cannot work unless it's part of a comprehensive immigration reform that includes a temporary worker program. If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis. I'll work with members of Congress to create a program that will provide for our economy's labor needs without harming American workers, and without granting amnesty, and that will relieve pressure on our borders.

A critical part of any temporary worker program is ensuring that our immigration laws are enforced at work sites. America is a country of laws; we must not allow dishonest employers to flout those laws. So we've doubled the resources for work site enforcement since 2004.

We have much more work ahead of us. But the Homeland Security bill I signed this week provides vital support for our efforts to deal with the problem of illegal immigration, and make all Americans safer and more secure.

Thank you for listening.

I see we are trottong out the same old dog and pony show called , "Guest Worker Program". At a time when both parties are beginning to jockey for being a hawk on illegal immigration, we have the President promoting amnesty, he can call it what he likes, for Mexicans who are easily transported back across the border while at the same time they are setting up "expediated proccessing' for non-Mexicans who will have to be flown back home at a much higher expense. Typical Washington math I'm afraid.

He's on the wrong side of this issue, and he will burn much political capital in this fight much like the Meir's debacle. In the end he will lose this fight because the American people are sick of open borders. It's almost like 9/11 never happened.

[calrighty]

Yep : )

[calrighty]

Good tag team!

[Calpernia]

;)

[calrighty]

I typed in your blasted pin code 3 times before I got an account!.............nice website tho!