Remarks by President Bush on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

    WASHINGTON, April 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a
 transcript of remarks by President Bush on comprehensive immigration
 reform:
     U.S. Border Patrol -- Yuma Station Headquarters
 
     Yuma, Arizona
 
     10:21 A.M. MST
     THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thank you all very much, please be
 seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for the warm weather.
 (Laughter.)
     AUDIENCE MEMBER: Twenty-eight degrees in Washington.
     THE PRESIDENT: Yes, 28 degrees in Washington, that's right. I
 appreciate you sharing that with me. (Laughter.) Sometimes it's a little
 hotter than that in Washington. But I'm glad to be back here in Yuma. Thank
 you so very much for your hospitality. Thanks for your service to the
 country. I appreciate so very much the work you're doing day and night to
 protect these borders. And the American people owe you a great debt of
 gratitude.
     The Border Patrol is really an important agency. I know some people are
 wondering whether or not it makes sense to join the Border Patrol. My
 answer is, I've gotten to know the Border Patrol, I know the people serving
 in this fine agency -- I would strongly urge our fellow citizens to take a
 look at this profession. You're outdoors, you're working with good people,
 and you're making a solid contribution to the United States of America. And
 I want to thank you all for wearing the uniform and doing the tough work
 necessary, the work that the American people expect you to do.
     Last May, I visited this section of the border, and it was then that I
 talked about the need for our government to give you the manpower and
 resources you need to do your job. We were understaffed here. We weren't
 using enough technology to enable those who work here to be able to do the
 job the American people expect. I returned to check on the progress, to
 make sure that the check wasn't in the mail -- it, in fact, had been
 delivered.
     I went to a neighborhood that abuts up against the border when I was
 here in May. It's the place where a lot of people came charging across. One
 or two agents would be trying to do their job and stopping a flood of folks
 charging into Arizona, and they couldn't do the job -- just physically
 impossible. Back at this site, there's now infrastructure, there's fencing.
 And the amount of people trying to cross the border at that spot is down
 significantly.
     I appreciate very much Ron Colburn and Ulay Littleton. They gave me the
 tour. Colburn, as you know, is heading up north. He's going to miss the
 weather. More importantly, he's going to miss the folks he worked with down
 here. I appreciate both of their service, I appreciate the tour. The
 efforts are working -- this border is more secure, and America is safer as
 a result.
     Securing the border is a critical part of a strategy for comprehensive
 immigration reform. It is an important part of a reform that is necessary
 so that the Border Patrol agents down here can do their job more
 effectively. Congress is going to take up the legislation on immigration.
 It is a matter of national interest and it's a matter of deep conviction
 for me. I've been working to bring Republicans and Democrats together to
 resolve outstanding issues so that Congress can pass a comprehensive bill
 and I can sign it into law this year. (Applause.)
     I appreciate the hard work of Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Secretary
 of the Department of Homeland Security. I appreciate Commissioner Ralph
 Basham, he's the main man in charge of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
 David Aguilar, Chief of the Border Patrol is with us. David, thank you for
 the job you're doing. Lieutenant General Steven Blum, Chief of the National
 Guard Bureau. I want to thank the governor of the state of Arizona, Janet
 Napolitano. I appreciate you being here, Governor, thank you for taking
 time from the session to be down here. It means a lot when the governors
 take an active interest in what's going on in the borders of their
 respective states.
     I appreciate so very much Senator John Kyl. Kyl is one of the most
 respected United States senators and I'm proud to be with him today -- and
 glad to give him a ride back to Washington, I might add. (Laughter.)
     I appreciate members of the congressional delegation who have joined
 us: John Shadegg; Jeff Flake -- from Snowflake, Arizona, I want you to know
 -- and I appreciate you working on this immigration issue; Congressman
 Trent Franks, and Congressman Harry Mitchell. I appreciate you all taking
 time for being with me here today, it means a lot that you'd come.
     I want to thank Senator Tim Bee, he's the president of the Arizona
 State Senate, for being here. Mr. Mayor, thank you for coming. Larry
 Nelson, the Mayor of Yuma, Arizona. I appreciate you being here, Mr. Mayor.
     I do want to thank Major General David Ratacheck, the Adjutant General
 of the state of Arizona; thank all the local and state officials; and, most
 importantly, I want to thank the Border Patrol agents and I want to thank
 the National Guard folks for wearing the uniform. I am proud to be the
 Commander- in-Chief of all these units here today and I appreciate your
 service to the United States of America. (Applause.)
     I hope by now the American people understand the need for comprehensive
 immigration reform is a clear need. Illegal immigration is a serious
 problem - - you know it better than anybody. It puts pressure on the public
 schools and the hospitals, not only here in our border states, but states
 around the country. It drains the state and local budgets. I was talking to
 the governor about how it strained the budgets. Incarceration of criminals
 who are here illegally strains the Arizona budget. But there's a lot of
 other ways it strains the local and state budgets. It brings crime to our
 communities.
     It's a problem and we need to address it aggressively. This problem has
 been growing for decades, and past efforts to address it have failed. These
 failures helped create a perception that America was not serious about
 enforcing our immigration laws and that they could be broken without
 consequence. Past efforts at reform did not do enough to secure our
 nation's borders. As a result, many people have been able to sneak into
 this country.
     If you don't man your borders and don't protect your borders, people
 are going to sneak in, and that's what's been happening for a long time.
 Past efforts at reform failed to address the underlying economic reasons
 behind illegal immigration. People will make great sacrifices to get into
 this country the find jobs and provide for their families.
     When I was the governor of Texas I used to say family values did not
 stop at the Rio Grande River. People are coming here to put food on the
 table, and they're doing jobs Americans are not doing. And the farmers in
 this part of the world understand exactly what I'm saying. But so do a lot
 of other folks around the country. People are coming to work, and many of
 them have no lawful way to come to America, and so they're sneaking in.
     Past efforts at reform also failed to provide sensible ways for
 employers to verify the legal status of the workers they hire. It's against
 the law to knowingly hire an illegal alien. And as a result, because they
 couldn't verify the legal status, it was difficult for employers to comply.
 It was difficult for the government to enforce the law at the work site.
 And, yet, it is a necessary part of a comprehensive plan. You see, the
 lessons of all these experiences -- the lesson of these experiences is
 clear: All elements of the issue must be addressed together. You can't
 address just one aspect and not be able to say to the American people that
 we're securing our borders.
     We need a comprehensive bill, and that's what I'm working with members
 of Congress on, a comprehensive immigration bill. And now is the year to
 get it done. The first element, of course, is to secure this border. That's
 what I'm down here for, to remind the American people that we're spending
 their taxpayer -- their money, taxpayers' money, on securing the border.
 And we're making progress. This border should be open to trade and lawful
 immigration, and shut down to criminals and drug dealers and terrorists and
 coyotes and smugglers, people who prey on innocent life.
     We more than doubled the funding for border security since I've been
 the President. In other words, it's one thing to hear people come down here
 and talk; it's another thing for people to come down and do what they say
 they're going to do. And I want to thank Congress for working on this
 issue. The funding is increasing manpower. The additional funding is
 increasing infrastructure, and it's increasing technology.
     When I landed here at the airport, the first thing I saw was an
 unmanned aerial vehicle. It's a sophisticated piece of equipment. You can
 fly it from inside a truck, and you can look at people moving at night.
 It's the most sophisticated technology we have, and it's down here on the
 border to help the Border Patrol agents do their job. We've expanded the
 number of Border Patrol agents from about 9,000 to 13,000, and by the end
 of 2008, we're going to have a total of more than 18,000 agents.
     I had the privilege of going to Artesia, New Mexico, to the training
 center. It was a fantastic experience to see the young cadets getting ready
 to come and wear the green of the Border Patrol. By the time we're through,
 we will have doubled the size of the Border Patrol. In other words, you
 can't do the job the American people expect unless you got enough manpower,
 and we're increasing the manpower down here.
     This new technology is really important to basically leverage the
 manpower. Whether it be the technology of surveillance and communication,
 we're going to make sure the agents have got what is necessary to be able
 to establish a common picture and get information out to the field as
 quickly as possible so that those 18,000 agents, when they're finally on
 station, can do the job the American people expect.
     But manpower can't do it alone. In other words, there has to be some
 infrastructure along the border to be able to let these agents do their
 job. And so I appreciate the fact that we've got double fencing,
 all-weather roads, new lighting, mobile cameras. The American people have
 no earthly idea what's going on down here. One of the reasons I've come is
 to let you know, let the taxpayers know, the good folks down here are
 making progress.
     We've worked with our nation's governors to deploy 6,000 National Guard
 members to provide the Border Patrol with immediate reinforcements. In
 other words, it takes time to train the Border Patrol, and until they're
 fully trained, we've asked the Guard to come down. It's called Operation
 Jump Start, and the Guard down here is serving nobly.
     I had the chance to visit with some of the Guard, and Mr. Mayor, you'll
 be pleased to hear they like being down here in Yuma, Arizona. They like
 the people, and they like the mission. More than 600 members of the Guard
 are serving here in the Yuma Sector. And I thank the Guard, and, equally
 importantly, I thank their families for standing by the men and women who
 wear the uniform during this particular mission. You email them back home
 and tell them how much I appreciate the fact they're standing by you.
     I appreciate very much the fact that illegal border crossings in this
 area are down. In the months before Operation Jump Start, an average of
 more than 400 people a day were apprehended trying to cross here. The
 number has dropped to fewer than 140 a day. In other words, one way that
 the Border Patrol can tell whether or not we're making progress is the
 number of apprehensions. When you're apprehending fewer people, it means
 fewer are trying to come across. And fewer are trying to come across
 because we're deterring people from attempting illegal border crossings in
 the first place.
     I appreciate what Colburn said -- he puts it this way, they're watching
 -- "They see us watching them," that's what he said, "and they have decided
 they just can't get across." And that's part of the effort we're doing.
 We're saying we're going to make it harder for you, so don't try in the
 first place.
     We're seeing similar results all across the southern border. The number
 of people apprehended for illegally crossing our southern border is down by
 nearly 30 percent this year. We're making progress. And thanks for your
 hard work. It's hard work, but necessary work.
     Another important deterrent to illegal immigration is to end what was
 called catch and release. I know how this discouraged some of our Border
 Patrol agents. I talked to them personally. They worked hard to find
 somebody sneaking in the country, they apprehended them; the next thing
 they know, they're back in society on our side of the border. There's
 nothing more discouraging than have somebody risk their life or work hard
 and have the fruits of their labor undermined. And that's what was
 happening with catch and release. In other words, we'd catch people, and
 we'd say, show up for your court date, and they wouldn't show up for their
 court date. That shouldn't surprise anybody. But that's what was happening.
 And the reason why that was happening is because we didn't have enough beds
 to detain people.
     Now, most of the people we apprehend down here are from Mexico. About
 85 percent of the illegal immigrants caught crossing into -- crossing this
 border are Mexicans -- crossing the southern border are Mexicans. And
 they're sent home within 24 hours. It's the illegal immigrants from other
 countries that are not that easy to send home.
     For many years, the government didn't have enough space, and so Michael
 and I worked with Congress to increase the number of beds available. So
 that excuse was eliminated. The practice has been effectively ended. Catch
 and release for every non-Mexican has been effectively ended. And I want to
 thank the Border Patrol and the leaders of the Border Patrol for allowing
 me to stand up and say that's the case.
     The reason why is not only do we have beds, we've expedited the legal
 process to cut the average deportation time. Now, these are non-Mexican
 illegal aliens that we've caught trying to sneak into our country. We're
 making it clear to foreign governments that they must accept back their
 citizens who violate our immigration laws. I said we're going to
 effectively end catch and release, and we have. And I appreciate your hard
 work in doing that.
     The second element of a comprehensive immigration reform is a temporary
 worker program. You cannot fully secure the border until we take pressure
 off the border. And that requires a temporary worker program. It seems to
 make sense to me that if you've got people coming here to do jobs Americans
 aren't doing, we need to figure out a way that they can do so in a legal
 basis for a temporary period of time. And that way our Border Patrol can
 chase the criminals and the drug runners, potential terrorists, and not
 have to try to chase people who are coming here to do work Americans are
 not doing.
     If you want to take the pressure off your border, have a temporary
 worker program. It will help not only reduce the number of people coming
 across the border, but it will do something about the inhumane treatment
 that these people are subjected to. There's a whole smuggling operation.
 You know this better than I do. There's a bunch of smugglers that use the
 individual as a piece of -- as a commodity. And they make money off these
 poor people. And they stuff them in the back of 18-wheelers. And they find
 hovels for them to hide in. And there's a whole industry that has sprung
 up. And it seems like to me that since this country respects human rights
 and the human condition, that it be a great contribution to eliminate this
 thuggery, to free these people from this kind of extortion that they go
 through. And one way to do so is to say you can come and work in our
 country for jobs Americans aren't doing for a temporary period of time.
     The third element of a comprehensive reform is to hold employers
 accountable for the workers they hire. In other words, if you want to make
 sure that we've got a system in which people are not violating the law,
 then you've got to make sure we hold people to account, like employers.
 Enforcing immigration is a vital part of any successful reform. And so
 Chertoff and his department are cracking down on employers who knowingly
 violate the law.
     But not only are there coyotes smuggling people in, there are document
 forgers that are making a living off these people. So, in other words,
 people may want to comply with the law, but it's very difficult at times to
 verify the legal status of their employees. And so to make the work site
 enforcement practical on a larger scale, we have got to issue a
 tamper-proof identification card for legal foreign workers.
     We must create a better system for employers to verify the he legality
 of the workers. In other words, we got work to do. And part of a
 comprehensive bill is to make sure work site enforcement is effective.
     Fourth, we've got to resolve the status of millions of illegal
 immigrants already here in the country. People who entered our country
 illegally should not be given amnesty. Amnesty is the forgiveness of an
 offense without penalty. I oppose amnesty, and I think most people in the
 United States Congress oppose amnesty. People say, why not have amnesty?
 Well, the reason why is because 10 years from now you don't want to have a
 President having to address the next 11 million people who might be here
 illegally. That's why you don't want amnesty. And, secondly, we're a nation
 of law, and we expect people to uphold the law.
     So we're working closely with Republicans and Democrats to find a
 practical answer that lies between granting automatic citizenship to every
 illegal immigrant and deporting every illegal immigrant.
     It is impractical to take the position that, oh, we'll just find the 11
 million or 12 million people and send them home. It's just an impractical
 position; it's not going to work. It may sound good. It may make nice sound
 bite news. It won't happen.
     And, therefore, we need to work together to come up with a practical
 solution to this problem, and I know people in Congress are working hard on
 this issue. Illegal immigrants who have roots in our country and want to
 stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law, and pay
 their taxes, and learn the English language, and show work -- show that
 they've worked in a job for a number of years. People who meet a reasonable
 number of conditions and pay a penalty of time and money should be able to
 apply for citizenship. But approval would not be automatic, and they would
 have to wait in line behind those who played by the rules and followed the
 law.
     What I've described is a way for those who've broken the law to pay
 their debt to society and demonstrate the character that makes a good
 citizen.
     Finally, we have got to honor the tradition of the melting pot, and
 help people assimilate into our society by learning our history, our values
 and our language. Last June I created a new task force to look for ways to
 help newcomers assimilate and succeed in our country. Many organizations,
 from churches to businesses to civic associations, are working to answer
 this call, and I'm grateful for their service.
     And so here are the outlines for a comprehensive immigration reform
 bill. It's an emotional issue, as I'm sure you can imagine. People have got
 deep convictions. And my hope is that we can have a serious and civil and
 conclusive debate. And so we'll continue to work with members of both
 political parties. I think the atmosphere up there is good right now. I
 think people generally want to come together and put a good bill together
 -- one, by the way, that will make your job a lot easier.
     It's important that we address this issue in good faith. And it's
 important for people to listen to everybody's positions. It's important for
 people not to give up, no matter how hard it looks from a legislative
 perspective. It's important that we get a bill done. We deserve a system
 that secures our borders, and honors our proud history as a nation of
 immigrants.
     And so I can't think of a better place to come and to talk about the
 good work that's being done and the important work that needs to be done in
 Washington, D.C., and that's right here in Yuma, Arizona, a place full of
 decent, hardworking, honorable people. May God bless you all. (Applause.)
     END                 10:45 A.M. MST
 
 

SOURCE White House Press Office