Frist Continues Call for Reform
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader BillFrist, M.D. (R-TN) today appeared on CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer andcontinued the push he began last October for the Senate to act on comprehensiveimmigration reform- which includes border security, interior and worksiteenforcement and a temporary worker program. Additionally, he outlined the needfor the Senate to define a workable temporary worker program. Excerpts follow:
“The onlyway to address an immigration system which is flat out broken -our entireimmigration system, and we see it today- is to have this three-legged stooladdressed. Number one, border security, we’ve got to have that bordertight, strongly enforced. That second leg of the stool has got to bethe interior enforcement, employer enforcement. And third hasto be a guest worker program in the sense of a temporary worker program herethat looks to the future, people coming here to work legally, and, secondly,addresses the real challenge out there and that’s the 12 million illegal immigrantswho are here today.”
“So itstill goes back to the fact that people came to this country illegally andthat, if you give them a privileged path to a Green Card into citizenship thatis ahead of the three million people who are waiting today outside of ourborders in a legal way, that is amnesty.
“Now, what I think will happen is that we’ll address bordersecurity. Right now, a sovereign nation has as its firstresponsibility to a secure border. Everybody agrees. We willhave the interior enforcement, the work site enforcement. We need to give ouremployers the tools they need to enforce the laws that we put on thebook. And then thirdly, with this temporary worker, the 12million workers who are out there — and the debate has matured. Wedon’t have to give them amnesty, but a period of time here.”
“And we’re going to have to compromise and recognize that that 12 millionpeople is not a monolithic group. It’s not a uniform group. Somehave been here ten years; they’re assimilated to our society and they may havea road to a green card. But some of those 12 million people here –in fact, 40 percent — have been here for less than five years, need to bedealt in a different fashion.”
“So it isincumbent upon us in the Senate to compromise in a way that is fair, that isequitable, that recognizes this 12 million is not one monolithic uniformgroup.”
“And I’m very hopeful — and one of the reasonsI’ve driven it as leader, this whole issue is because there are three millionpeople every year coming across our borders illegally, threemillion. We don’t know who they are; we don’t know whattheir intentions are. And it’s growing. That problem isgrowing at a rate of 25 percent a year. So yes, it isincumbent. We absolutely must address it. And the only way toeffectively address it is looking at all three of those legs of thestool. Anything short of that is simply not going to work. We saw that in 1996.”
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