Interview with Sen. Jon Kyl

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. met with The Republic’s Editorial Board on Friday. Kyl, who is seeking a third term, serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees, and is chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. Here are excerpts from the meeting:

On prospects for immigration reform:

(The November elections) will make it very hard to do anything that is really comprehensive, but we’ve got to try. The problem is complex and in certain areas there are no right or wrong answers; you just have to try to work things out. You throw the political element in there and it’s going to be very difficult.

One element of good news is that we have finally broken through the barrier of people not understanding that this requires a lot of funding. And we’re now beginning to get the funding for the personnel, the infrastructure . . .

We have barely started to tackle interior enforcement, the idea that once you get 60 miles north of the border you’re basically home free. Nor have we done anything but begin to think about the problem of workplace enforcement and how that would tie into temporary-worker programs.

On many states, including Arizona, looking at cracking down on illegal immigration:

To the extent there is criticism that the federal government hasn’t done a good enough job of doing its job, that’s a fair criticism. But I would also say that the state of Arizona could do a lot more in its area of jurisdiction.

Counties are political subdivisions of the states. Our four border counties are hurting. They get their money mostly from the state, and their criminal justice systems are not being adequately funded. Talk to any county prosecutor, defender, sheriff, judge, and they will tell you they are not being adequately funded because of the overwhelming number of cases that relate to illegal immigration. A lot of them are drug cases. 

Source: Arizona Republic, Jan. 30, 2006

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