Thread: Sen. Hatch: Strengthening our commitment to legal immigratio

Strengthening our commitment to legal immigration

By Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) - 02/11/11 03:12 PM ET

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) gave these remarks to members of the Heritage Foundation Friday on the bill he will be introducing in the Senate early next week on immigration.

It’s a pleasure to be with you today. I’m honored that the Heritage Foundation has invited me to speak about my soon-to-be introduced bill, the Strengthening Our Commitment to Legal Immigration and America’s Security Act.

We know that the immigration-related efforts by the Obama administration and the Democrats have focused more on building support from their political base, knowing full well that the more mainstream members of their party are opposed to amnesty-focused immigration reform. In the meantime, our immigration system continues to be woefully inadequate in preventing the types of immigration abuses we are experiencing across the nation.


Throughout my service, I have spent considerable time with my constituents and, quite frankly, have anguished with them on how to best address the strain the illegal alien population is having on my state and others across the nation.

As many of you know, last Congress, legislation was enacted to enhance border security. I was pleased that this was a bipartisan effort. Some argue that the bill is sufficient to secure our border, but I disagree. There is much work to be done before the border is properly sealed.

Let me underscore this point: I continue to believe that we must do everything to properly and finally secure our border. Many of our nation’s problems result from a residual effect of a porous border and a breakdown of our immigration enforcement system. I continue to work with and support my colleagues whose states are located along the Southwest border. Of all people, they know what resources we need to deploy to accomplish the job.

I’d like to use this brief time we have together to outline the key provisions of my bill, which will address critical issues that have been overlooked in the immigration debate. But, before doing so, I want to stress that my legislation is not meant to be comprehensive in nature. It won’t fix everything that’s wrong with our immigration system. But, it will provide solutions to many problems that have been acknowledged on both sides of the aisle.

The first thing my bill would do is address the over-reaching of the Administration with regard to parole and deferral.

As many of you know, immigration law allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to defer action on individuals in the United States for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. Normally this is done on a case-by-case basis. Last year, memoranda drafted by senior staff at the Department of Homeland Security surfaced detailing ways to use the deferred action and parole process to circumvent Congress in order to legalize those who are in the United States illegally.

As you can imagine, using these administrative actions would be a tremendous abuse of power by unelected bureaucrats. They were designed for very specific and individual cases, not as a backdoor to keep millions of illegal immigrants in the United States. For this reason, my bill specifies that an alien may only be paroled or granted deferred action on a case-by-case basis — the way these laws were intended to be used.

Next, my bill focuses on existing law enforcement programs, the 287(g) and Secure Communities programs. These programs have been valuable tools to our law enforcement officials, giving state and local law departments more authority in detaining and deporting criminal aliens. For example, in Fiscal Year 2010, the 287(g) program was responsible for identifying 32,457 criminal aliens. What I don’t understand is why some cities would choose not to participate in these effective programs. That is why my proposed legislation requires law enforcement agencies that are selected and enrolled in the 287(g) and Secure Communities programs to fully comply with the requirements of such programs or risk losing federal reimbursement for incarceration expenses. Turning a blind eye to these law enforcement programs poses a serious risk to the public and creates sanctuary cities.

When I meet with my constituents, another one of their top concerns is how we fix our visa system. Many are concerned, and with good cause, about how some of these folks are getting into the country. Disturbingly, some visa holders are active participants in organized crime or gangs. They come to this country and infiltrate our communities; wreaking havoc in our neighborhoods.

In an effort to address this problem, my bill would provide our State Department consular officers the necessary legal authority to deny members of known gangs from coming into our country. It’s not acceptable to allow these thugs to slip through the cracks.

After 9/11, many areas of our immigration system came under scrutiny. One of the recommendations for reform to our system was to create a visa exit program for foreign visitors to the United States. Departure information is vital for determining whether foreign visitors are leaving the U.S., maintaining their visa status, and evaluating future visa eligibility for these visitors. Not to mention, the ability to track departures goes to the heart of keeping America safe.

Without such exit procedures, however, the task of determining whether aliens have overstayed their visas in the United States is nearly impossible. Since 2004, the Department of Homeland Security has been testing exit programs and departure controls at U.S. airports for visa holders leaving the United States. As recently as July 2009, another pilot program was concluded by the Department of Homeland Security. Believe it or not, to date, we still haven’t seen any implementation of exit procedures for our country’s visitors, nor have we seen any final conclusions made by the Department. It has been seven years since the first pilot program was completed. How much more time needs to be wasted before we act? Thus, my bill would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to create a mandatory exit procedure for foreign visitors to the United States.

Another problem within the visa system is the fraud-laden visa lottery known as the Diversity Visa program. After careful consultation with State Department officials, I have been advised that the Diversity Visa program needs serious reform, and some have even called for complete elimination of the program. In light of this guidance, I propose to terminate the Diversity Visa program, unless the State Department recommends how to eliminate the fraud and abuse that currently exist in the program.

At present, applicants of the visa lottery program are open to being defrauded by so-called service providers who offer to assist them in obtaining Diversity Visa status. Unlike other immigrant visa categories, the Diversity Visa allows people to immigrate to the United States without having any connection to the country. In other words, the applicants may not have any family, employment, or even an economic tie to the United States. And because of limited availability of verification, the program presents serious national security concerns.

In a recent blog post by Janice Kephart from the Center for Immigration Studies, she brings attention to the national security implications of the abuses within the Diversity Visa program. She states: “At least one terrorist incident was benefited by the DV program . . . an Egyptian who had entered the United States in 1992 . . . eventually obtained full legal permanent resident status when his wife won a [Diversity Visa] in 1996. On July 4, 2002, he drove to the L.A. Airport with two guns and a hunting knife, approached the Israeli Airline El Al ticket counter, and killed an employee and man waiting in line.â€

Its a start and one not to heavy that should gain a few moderate dem votes in the house and senate hopefully. Still a lot more needs to be done to fix the issue.

Now lets just hope he can get his bill out soon enough.