Thread: Chertoff says illegal migration 'threat'

http://washingtontimes.com/national/200 ... -1084r.htm

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 10, 2005


Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday said illegal immigration is a "severe and growing threat" and while it will take time to correct, the government has begun a campaign to secure America's borders.

"Illegal migration ... undercuts the rule of law, it undermines our national security, and it imposes public safety and economic strains on our borders, states and communities," Mr. Chertoff said in a speech during the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) policy summit in Washington.

"The reality is that this problem is 20 years in the making," he said. "It's going to take a little bit of time to dig ourselves out, but we are going to start digging ourselves out, and we have started in the last few months with some very aggressive planning and approaches to the issue of how to control border migration."

Mr. Chertoff outlined what he called a three-pronged plan to get control of the border, including increasing the government's ability to catch people who are illegally crossing into the United States, establishing a "robust" interior enforcement program, and creating a temporary guest-worker program to deal with illegals already in the country.

He said an increase in the number of illegal aliens caught at the border will make it necessary for the government to be able to detain them and then send them back to their home countries.

"That means when we catch them, we can't just release them, we've got to send them back again," Mr. Chertoff said. "Our goal is to achieve such a high rate of success ... that we reduce illegal migration because we deter people with the understanding that they have a very low probability of success in crossing the border."

Mr. Chertoff told the ALEC that more apprehensions and deportations would cut the strength of some of the sophisticated criminal groups that smuggle aliens and contraband into the country.

He said the Border Patrol will deploy 1,700 new agents along the Southwest border next year as part of the government's new initiative.

With regard to interior enforcement, Mr. Chertoff said the department aims to give employers the tools needed to verify the status of employees and to detect fraudulent documents. But he added that through more rigorous interior enforcement, the department will hold employers accountable for noncompliance.

Mr. Chertoff also said that the government cannot build "a great wall along our borders," but that it has the ability to address the "economic engine that is such a powerful lure and that makes it so difficult for us to keep that incredible pressure ... of illegal migrants coming into the country."

He said the president's proposed guest-worker program would make it possible for the government to channel foreign nationals into a legal regulated and temporary way to do work and then go home again.

"The reality is that this problem is 20 years in the making," he said. "It's going to take a little bit of time to dig ourselves out, but we are going to start digging ourselves out, and we have started in the last few months with some very aggressive planning and approaches to the issue of how to control border migration."

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE LAST 5 1/2 YEARS that BUSH HAS BEEN IN OFFICE??

Just more passing of the buck, blaming someone else. Maybe he needs to realize that the blame started back with the FIRST BUSH but THIS ADMINISTRATION has had MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME to do something about this AND it's been OVER FOUR YEARS SINCE 9/11 which SHOULD have been the REAL WAKE-UP CALL. I don't buy their rhetoric any more than I could FLY.

And, he can just file that GUESTWORKER PLAN IN THE GARBAGE because that's where IT belongs.

This guy flip flops more than Kerry did. Will this guy make up his fracking mind. I am getting tired of this way, that way!

P

What a puppet.

and this

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-13404-chertoff.html

Here is what the Barbara Jordan Immigration Reform Commission said about guest worker programs:

"Guestworker programs effectively expand rural poverty. Moreover, guestworker programs are predicated on limitations on the freedom of those who are invited to enter and work. Experience has shown that such limitations are incompatible with the values of democratic societies. For that very reason, "temporary" guestworkers tend to become permanent residents, de facto or even de jure. The inconsistency between the stated intent of guestworker programs and their actual consequences cannot be ignored by policymakers who seek credibility in a reformed system."

It should also be remembered that there are already many guest worker visa programs, resulting in over 1 million guest workers in the US RIGHT NOW!

Also, there is an existing agricultural guest worker program called H2A which HAS NO CAP! In other words, Agribusiness can already get all the foreign labor they need. The reason Agribusiness currently doesn't use it is because of the paperwork involved.

The only reason Bush wants another NEW guest worker program is to allow illegal aliens in the US to participate without having to return home to apply. Not having to return home means their family and US born children can stay; which means they will never be deported.

In other words as I am sure everyone knows, the Bush guestworker plan is a stealth amnesty.

PRO--you took the words RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH!! I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING when I heard what he was saying the other day!!!! I was thinking, "TALK ABOUT FLIP FLOPS". THIS man takes the PRIZE!

TIM--excellent assessment of the situation. You hit the bullseye on that one!