Thread: Kanjorski Joins 74 Colleagues in Reintroducing Bipartisan Bi

Kanjorski Joins 74 Colleagues in Reintroducing Bipartisan Bill to Halt Illegal Immigration

Targeted News Service
July 23, 2009 Thursday 12:27 AM EST
WASHINGTON, D.C.

Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Pa. (11th CD), issued the following news release:

Today, Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) helped reintroduce the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act, which aims to halt illegal immigration in the United States through stronger worker verification and increased enforcement of America's borders. The bill uses a three-point strategy to combat illegal immigration by securing the borders through an increased number of border patrol agents, mandating that employers verify work authorization before hiring new employees, and enforcing existing laws pertaining to illegal immigration.

"Those who want to live and work in the United States need to abide by our laws," said Congressman Kanjorski. "By requiring employers to verify the legal status of new employees, we can stop the job magnet that attracts illegal immigrants to the U.S. and depresses the wages of American citizens. Enactment of the SAVE Act would provide additional resources to ensure that our existing laws are enforced."

Congressman Kanjorski added, "Had the SAVE Act been in place, we may very well have prevented the case recently uncovered by the Beaver Meadows police chief in which an illegal immigrant not only fraudulently obtained identification documents, but also may have received a federal tax refund.

Clearly, safeguards that should have been in place are inadequate to prevent outrageous abuses of our system."

The SAVE Act would result in the following actions, among others:

* Mandate that within four years, that all employers check the status of potential employees through an online E-Verification system to confirm the potential employee's eligibility to work in the United States,

* Hire 6,000 additional U.S. Border Patrol Agents within 5 years,

* Employ 1,750 additional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents to enhance enforcement efforts over five years,

* Require that the Department of Homeland Security increase its use of aerial technology, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, cameras, and satellites, among others, to ensure that the borders are watched at all times,

* Provide more facilities and resources for the detention, processing, and removal of illegal immigrants,

* Require notification of individuals whose Social Security numbers may have been stolen and are being fraudulently used, and

* Demand information sharing between the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration to reduce fraud and identity theft.

Congressman Kanjorski maintains a strong and consistent record of working to stop illegal immigration, including:

* October 8, 1986 - Voted to create a new system of penalties for employers who knowingly hire or continue to employ illegal immigrants (Recorded Vote No.: 457, 99th Congress);

* October 8, 1986 - Voted for an amendment to strike the language in the previous legislation granting temporary resident status to millions of illegal immigrants (Recorded Vote No: 455, 99th Congress);

* March 21, 1996 & September 25, 1996 - Voted to increase penalties against companies that hire illegal immigrants, expand border patrol, and improve the employment verification system (Roll no. 89 & 432, 104th Congress);

* May 6, 2004 - Opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants and favored an enforcement-only approach (Congressional Record);

* December 7, 2004 - Voted to expand the grounds of inadmissibility and deportation of illegal immigrants and increase penalties for smuggling aliens (Roll no. 544, 108th Congress);

* February 10, 2005 - Voted to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses (Roll no. 31, 109th Congress);

* December 16, 2005 - Voted to mandate that employers confirm the authenticity of employees' Social Security numbers against a national database of legitimate numbers (Roll no. 661, 109th Congress);

* December 16, 2005 - Voted to make it a federal crime for illegal immigrants to be in the U.S. unlawfully (Roll no. 661, 109th Congress);

* December 16, 2005 - Voted to increase systematic surveillance at our borders (Roll no. 661, 109th Congress);

* August 11, 2006 - Supported the establishment of a Northeastern Pennsylvania office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Letter to Julie Myers, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement);

* September 14, 2006 - Voted in favor of constructing a fence along the Mexican border (Roll no. 446, 109th Congress);

* September 21, 2006 - Voted to clarify that state and local law enforcement have the "inherent authority" to apprehend illegal immigrants and transfer them to custody (Roll no. 468, 109th Congress);

* September 21, 2006 - Voted to create new criminal penalties for constructing illegal tunnels under the U.S. border and double penalties for smuggling illegal immigrants, drugs, or weapons of mass destruction through an illegal tunnel (Roll no. 469, 109th Congress);

* June 15, 2007 - Voted to provide $8.9 billion for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency and $4.8 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2008 (Roll no. 491, 110th Congress);

* July 31, 2007 - Demanded excluding illegal immigrants from access to Medicaid, among other actions (Letter to Chairman Dingell, 110th Congress);

* August 2, 2007 - Co-sponsored legislation to pressure the Bush Administration to enforce current immigration laws and improve border security to reduce illegal immigration (H.R. 499, 110th Congress);

* November 7, 2007 - Co-sponsored the bipartisan SAVE Act which aims to secure the borders through recruitment and increasing the number of border patrol agents, mandate that employers verify work authorization before hiring new employees, and enforce existing laws pertaining to illegal immigration;

* February 7, 2008 - Introduced legislation to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving tax rebates through the economic stimulus package (H.R. 5298, 110th Congress). Similar language was adopted into the stimulus package which was enacted on February 13, 2008; and

* July 23, 2009 - Helped reintroduce the bipartisan SAVE Act.

The bipartisan SAVE Act has 74 original co-sponsors, including 32 Democrats and 42 Republicans. Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) introduced similar legislation in the Senate.

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/En ... 5&start=11

God Bless Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski. The American people would feel better about the government if both parties would pass legislation that actually helped us, rather than hurt us.