http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=217429

Hastert discusses immigration reform: 'Virtually every state is a border state'
BY TARA MALONE
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Conversations on immigration: First in a weekly series.

As the person guiding immigration reform through Congress, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert plays a key role in determining changes to laws governing who comes into this country and how long they stay.

This puts the Plano Republican at the heart of a fierce debate embroiling the nation and the suburbs.

The cause took an emotional turn this week when illegal immigrant-turned-activist Elvira Arellano and her young soon dodged deportation by seeking refuge in a Chicago church. The stalemate continued Wednesday, seized by many as evidence of the desperate need for immigration reform. That hotly contested congressional elections loom in November ratchets the stakes even higher.

In the midst of the uproar sits Hastert. His doorstep is a Mecca for activists divided by ideology but bound by residence in Illinois' 14th Congressional District. In an interview at his Batavia office, Hastert recently discussed the need for tightened border security, the odds of reform before November - unlikely, at best - and the suburbs' growing diversity.

Excerpts of the discussion follow.

On immigration today: This country's always been a nation of immigrants. My great-grandparents came here from Luxembourg and Germany in the 1850s and 1860s. We understand the impact immigration has on this country. Most immigration has been under the law. People came and checked in and were registered. ... With the immigration now, we have literally millions of people coming across the Southwest border, being undocumented and coming into this country illegally.

On the swelling ranks of suburban immigrants, particularly in the Fox Valley: I've grown up here. I've seen this town change. I've seen towns like West Chicago change. I've seen towns like Elgin change. And I've seen towns like my hometown of Plano, Ill., change. A lot of it for the good. A lot of these people who have come here legally have become part of the community and made really great contributions, and I want to stress that.

On the timeline for immigration reform: It's possible we could maybe do this before the election, but I don't want to say we have an artificial timeline where we have to get this thing done. The timeline is when we get it right.

On the fundamentals of immigration reform: If we're going to pass legislation on immigration, we want something that No. 1, protects the American people, No. 2, protects immigrants coming into this country and No. 3, protects the economic integrity of the future of this country.

On the effects of illegal immigration: Virtually every state is a border state today, and every town is a border town. Virtually every town in this country has problems dealing with illegal immigration. ...

In the Southwest and here in Illinois, it has impacts on schools and law enforcement, health care and so many social aspects, but it also has an economic aspect. Plus, we have an element of people who came here in an illegal way and create illegal acts when they are here with no way to trace who they are, what their backgrounds are or where they came from.

On the recent wave of immigrant marches, counter-marches and rallies: One thing you can't be consumed with is people screaming back and forth, and trying to make policy out of screaming back and forth. You have to look at the problem historically. You have to look at what the obvious - and sometimes the less obvious - answers are and try to bring people together to find solutions to make those problems disappear.

On comprehensive immigration reform: One of the things I learned a long time ago in politics is how you take a word like "comprehensive." What does that mean? For me, "comprehensive" is find a way to bring people into this country in a legal way and to fix what's broken. That's pretty comprehensive.

On the Senate-approved immigration bill, broader than the measure approved by the House last year: It is a tremendously flawed bill. It is, in a sense, an amnesty bill, and I don't think this country is ready for another amnesty. We went through it in 1986 and found it was just an incentive for more people to come over here because they knew they were eventually going to get amnesty.

The Senate bill also has things in it like if you're here illegally, we'll forgive three years of your income taxes. Well, I'll tell you, any American citizen who would not pay three years of federal income taxes would head to federal prison. ... This is just an example, but the Senate bill is just rife with these kinds of things that I don't think the American people will tolerate.

On reconciling the House and Senate immigration bills: To come together with a border control bill like we have and a Senate bill that's inherently flawed, and try to make law out of the two of them, you're going to have some problems. What we need is to take a fresh look at this. That's why I have all of my committee chairmen out looking at what people are saying and doing to investigate things along the border.

On the likelihood of a congressional immigration hearing in Illinois; 19 hearings in a dozen states are scheduled: I don't know if there are any plans for one in Illinois or not. I didn't direct anybody to hold one in Illinois. They may hold one here because Illinois is the fourth-largest state with illegal immigration, with a huge city that harbors a lot of illegal immigrants.

On border security: We've had hundreds of people who've died along the southwest border. We need to control the border and make sure people can't walk across the middle of the desert. ... Some places we're going to have to put fences or pedestrian-control devices. Some places we have to use electronics. Some places we have to use a combination of more border patrol and more National Guard. But the fact is eventually, we can effectively control the border. We ought to then focus all people coming across into control points, so we know who's coming into this country and where they are coming from.

On his recent trip to border hotspots in Arizona and Texas: I've been working on this border issue for a long time. ... I think the problem is even more dire. The larger areas have been better at securing their border crossing areas, in other words, building fences and making more secure X-ray technology so when these big semi-trucks come across, they make sure they are bringing watermelons and not people. As they do that, they are literally pushing thousands of people out to the more remote areas. You need to make sure you can protect those lives and bring those people over here within the bounds of American law, in a safe and legally focused way.

On a temporary worker program: I know there's an economic need for people to have temporary work permits in this country and in this area because of the type of farm industry and agricultural needs. That's a big part of our commerce. ... We need two kinds of immigrant workers: people who want to come here permanently and go through the process to do that, and also people who want to be here on a temporary basis, do their work and eventually go back home to their families.

On creating a legal path to citizenship: We have 11, 12, 15 - we don't know how many - million people who are here without legal passports, without legal papers. Some of them have been here 60 years doing the tough and dirty work that basically no one else wanted to do. Then we have people who've been here 40 years, 20 years, 20 days. So you have to say "look it, those people who've been here for a long, long time, who've had families here, you need to find a way to be a normal citizen, where you come out of hiding and don't have to worry about that." You know, there are legal ways to become a citizen. There are also ways for people to stay here if they don't want to become citizens, but they will at least be able to do some work. We haven't investigated all those issues out there yet. ...

We need to have a long debate about how you do that, and I don't think you want to do it with just one wave of the arm and say everyone is legal. You don't know who's here.

On a four-day immigrant workers justice walk bound for his Batavia office during the Labor Day holiday: We've listened to their voices. We know what their issues are. We know what their problems are. I think you have a group of people who are well-intended but believe the louder they scream, that's how you make legislation happen, and that's not necessarily fact. They certainly have their issues they feel strongly about, but there are other people around here who have issues they feel strongly about, too.

Coming next week, a 27-year-old Hoffman Estates man on the front lines of the effort to transform immigrant marchers into immigrant voters.