Thread: Immigration post-mortem by U.S. Senator Trent Lott

Immigration post-mortem
By U.S. Senator Trent Lott


— The debate on bringing an immigration reform bill to the floor of the U.S. Senate was the most passionate and the most volatile since I’ve been your Senator. Now that the dust has settled, I wanted to step back and explain to Mississippians why I worked to help find a solution to the problem of illegal immigration that has impacted our country now for decades.
The problem is a daunting one. The status quo of having 12 to 20 million illegal aliens in our country and more coming across our borders every day is unacceptable, both on national security and economic grounds. The Senate, which as a part of the legislative branch has jurisdiction solely for enacting laws, but not administering them, spent years trying to find out why current laws were not being enforced and what further tools the Department of Homeland Security and its enforcement divisions needed to do the job.
The result was the immigration reform bill draft which would have:
• Put border enforcement first by hiring thousands more border patrol agents and building hundreds of miles of physical and high technology surveillance barriers. This, in conjunction with last year’s border security bill, addressed our porous borders.
• Created an employee verification system based on a new, tamper-resistant, encrypted identification procedure that for the first time would have provided a means for employers to know if they were hiring illegal aliens.
• Halted the abuse of chain family immigration, permitting only the spouse and minor children to be united with an immigrant who registered and followed U.S. laws. Currently, extended family members can enter the country.
• Established a truly temporary worker program that used the employee verification system, tied all temporary workers to one specific job, and sent them home after two years. This would have responded to the seasonal and regional needs of some occupations while ending the abuse that over decades has enabled illegal immigrants to overstay their visas.
Most divisive and difficult were the illegal immigrants already in our country. Mass deportation is not a workable solution. Locating and rounding up the millions of illegal immigrants scattered throughout the country would be an impossible task.
The proposal in this bill was to bring them out of the shadows and into a regulated system. This would have allowed law enforcement to know who is in the country and allow immigration enforcement to focus on finding and apprehending violent criminals and terrorists who want to stay hidden from the law.
The bill wasn’t perfect. It was a work in progress. In response to contacts from Mississippians, I was pushing amendments with even more stringent border security provisions and tighter monitoring of those already in the country.
There has not been a significant reform of immigration laws in more than 20 years. That neglect made the challenge more daunting, but it also made the case for why we should try.
I don’t regret trying to find a solution. In the end, I might not have supported this bill, but trying was better than doing nothing, which is what the Senate voted to do on June 28. The illegal immigration status quo remains, and the Senate will not have an opportunity to address it again until 2009.

Senator Lott welcomes any questions or comments about this column. Write to: U.S. Senator Trent Lott, 487 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510 (Attn: Press Office)

http://www.leadercall.com/opinion/local ... printstory

Makes you wonder what he smokes.

Senate Lott, you don't have enforcement authority but you do have oversight which you have not done. You can add earmarks to build the fence, earmarks are added for everything else. Manpower for the border patrol can be add by earmarks, it was done for EPA enforcement group. Why not for the border patrol? Don't try to justify your enaction!

Arrogant, out of touch, and clueless ....

Thank's for sharing, Trent.

He's still trying the sell that dang thing!!!

What really gets me about this whole thing is this.

WHY would we embrace or accept NEW laws when the government has FAILED to enforce CURRENT LAWS? I will accept NO new laws on immigration until they ENFORCE CURRENT LAWS.

Established a truly temporary worker program that used the employee verification system, tied all temporary workers to one specific job, and sent them home after two years. This would have responded to the seasonal and regional needs of some occupations while ending the abuse that over decades has enabled illegal immigrants to overstay their visas.

Two years is plenty of time to pop out at least two anchor babies. Are you going to send them "home" too, Trent?

Rot in hell, Lott!