Thread: Teddy Weighs in on Immigration, agrees with Bush

Testimony- United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Comprehensive Immigration Reform II October 18, 2005

The Honorable Edward Kennedy - United States Senator (D-MA) ,

Statement of Edward M. Kennedy - Hearing by the Judiciary Committee “Comprehensive Immigration Reform II� - October 18, 2005

Congress needs to deal as soon as possible with the problems and challenges of our broken immigration system, and we need to tackle these problems as a whole. Especially in these troubling times, our national security and economic vitality are too important to pass half-way repairs that look and sound tough, but offer no real solutions or protections.

Yet that is exactly what we will end up with if Congress deals with border security and interior enforcement alone, and fails to reform other huge problems in our immigration laws. As Secretary Chao and Secretary Chertoff both correctly state in their testimony, “the effectiveness of border security and interior enforcement is tied to creating legal avenues for workers our economy needs.�

We need sensible solutions, not feel-good empty gestures. Effective reforms must address these three issues together. If we’re serious about repairing what’s broken, we need to combine increased enforcement and increased legality. Better border control and better treatment of immigrants are consistent with each other, and both are necessary for success.

We’ve tried enforcement alone in the past and it’s failed. In the past 10 years, the government has spent more than $20 billion, tripled the number of border patrol agents, built fences, and adopted other border enforcement laws. Yet, none of our efforts have ever been adequate to halt illegal immigration, for the simple reason that vast numbers of American firms have made a practice of hiring illegal workers to reduce costs and bolster profits. That culture of illegality has become so deeply embedded in our society that to uproot it now would do irreparable damage to our economy.

In fact, as a recent report by Professor Douglas Massey of Princeton finds, our border enforcement strategies have backfired. In 2002, we spent $1700 to make each arrest, compared to $300 in 1992. The probability of being caught fell from 20 percent or higher in the mid-1990s to 5 percent in 2002. We’re catching fewer people, and it’s costing more. Even more perverse, these policies have helped to increase the illegal population. Workers who once came here temporarily and periodically went home are now staying and sending for their families. So those already here are not leaving, and new illegal immigrants keep coming in.

We need to mend our broken system once and for all. We need realistic solutions to the huge problem we face. The American people don’t want open borders – but they don’t want closed borders either. They want fair and effective immigration laws that can actually be enforced, that protect our security, respect our ideals, and honor our heritage as a nation of immigrants.

A poll of Republican voters released yesterday emphasizes this point. Eighty-four percent of them believe that it is impossible to deport the 11 million illegal workers who care for our children and our elderly, harvest our crops, and build and clean our homes and office buildings. These voters soundly reject the “enforcement-only� approach. Seventy-eight percent support an “enforcement-plus� package combining stricter border security, higher penalties on employers, registration for temporary workers, and a path to eventual citizenship for today’s illegal workers.

{so Democrats agree with Bush's phoney poll too}

The only realistic way for us to know who is here and who is coming here is to combine strict enforcement with realistic reforms in admissions. The best way to help all workers is to eliminate the culture of illegality that undermines wages and working conditions for all workers. We can be both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

In February, Senator Craig and I introduced the AgJOBS bill. In May, Senator McCain and I introduced the Secure America Act. Both of these bills are offering practical solutions to the difficult problems we face. We combine tough, targeted enforcement with adequate legal channels and proper screening for workers and family members crossing the border.

Our goals are consistent with the President Bush’s proposal – to bring immigrants out of the shadows, shut down the black markets, and restore the rule of law at our borders, in our workplaces, and in our communities.

Our bills offer a genuine alternative -- not an amnesty, not a free pass, not an automatic pardon. We offer sensible plans to encourage

The poll was actually personally prepared by Celinda Lake of Lake, Snell, Perry & Mermin a Democratic Party Polling and Public Relations firm and signed off on by Ed Goeas at the Tarrance Group a Republican Polling and Public Relations firm. It was commissioned by the American Immgration Lawyers Association and the National Immigration Forum
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Celinda Lake
President

Celinda is one of the Democratic Party's leading political strategists, serving as tactician and senior advisor to the national party committees, dozens of Democratic incumbents and challengers at all levels of the electoral process. Her work also took her to advise fledgling democratic parties in several post-war Eastern European countries, including Bosnia, and South Africa.

Lake and her firm are known for cutting edge research on issues including the economy, health care, the environment and education, and have worked for a number of institutions including the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Governor's Association (DGA), The White House Project, America Coming Together, AFL-CIO, SEIU, CWA, IAFF, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Campaign, Emily's List and the Kaiser Foundation.

Since its formation, LSPMA has become one of the most respected Democratic polling firms in the country, with its Battleground poll widely recognized as one of the leading national issue and election thermometers. The firm's work has moved the progressive agenda forward on a variety of issues. Working against the conservatives, Lake's research showed not to call their side "religious right" but rather "religious political extremists".
In the healthcare arena, her research showed that it was key to include getting healthcare costs down, not just the uninsured, and positioning the uninsured as 8 in 10 of working families. Her interviews and statistics have been quoted in the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal as well as a variety of magazines, including Newsweek, Glamour and Marie Claire, and Lake has appeared on numerous television and radio news programs, including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News and NPR, discussing her work and providing expert commentary.

Lake is one of the nation's foremost experts on electing women candidates and on framing issues to women voters. American Politics calls Lake a "super-strategist or, better yet, the Godmother," and Working Woman says she is "arguably the most influential woman in her field."

She is renowned for her groundbreaking research on single women voters in conjunction with Women's Voices Women Vote and has helped elect numerous female candidates, including Barbara Mikulski, the "Dean" of Women Senators, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Blanche Lincoln, U.S. Senator from Arkansas, Mary Landrieu, the first woman Senator from the South elected in her own right, Patricia Madrid the first Hispanic woman Attorney General in New Mexico, and the historic victory of Carol Moseley-Braun, who was the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Senate. She also works for Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House minority.

In past election cycles, Lake served as pollster for many candidates at all levels of government, including Governor Gary Locke of Washington state, the first Asian-American Governor in the country, and Congressman Robert Menendez, the first Hispanic leader in the House Democratic Caucus.

In 2000 Lake and her firm were the only firm to beat 2 Republican incumbents to elect Debbie Stabenow to the U.S. Senate and Bob Wise as Governor of West Virginia, and in 1992 election cycle, Lake oversaw focus group research for the Clinton/Gore campaign and served as a general consultant throughout the campaign.

An experienced moderator, Lake has conducted focus group research throughout the United States on a large variety of topics including union labor, environmental and immigration issues, and speaking to women on economy. She is also credited with identifying key voter groups, including Reagan seniors, NASCAR dads, waitress moms, the marriage gap and generation D.

Prior to forming Lake Snell Perry and Associates, Lake was partner and vice president at Greenberg-Lake. Her earlier experience includes serving as political director of the Women's Campaign Fund, and as the Research Director at the Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Policy Analyst for the Subcommittee on Select Education.

Lake, a native of Montana and one of the political world's most avid whitewater rafters, holds a Masters degree in Political Science and Survey Research from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and a certificate in political science from the University of Geneva, in Geneva, Switzerland. Lake received her undergraduate degree from Smith College in Massachusetts, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors and was recently awarded the Distinguished Alumna Medal by the College.

E-mail Celinda

Copyright © 2005, Lake Snell Perry Mermin & Associates, Inc

Newsflash; lush agrees with lush, I mean bush......and then HELL froze over!!

Do you need to see anymore to throw the ENTIRE bunch out of office?

Game over, call for GENERAL STRIKE. We have the numbers we need now.

cheers glenn