September
10, 2006
Immigration
and Security
By TOM RIDGE
The Washington Times
At a
young age, I learned all work has dignity. My father taught me that invaluable
lesson, and I understood it clearly after working several different
labor-intensive jobs as a young man. Like most fathers and sons, mothers and
daughters, we are blessed with the birthright of citizenship because our
ancestors saw
Over the last several months, the immigration debate has shown a spotlight on
people who have come to this country illegally or refused to leave as they
promised. The majority of these people work hard at jobs that many Americans
prefer not to do. The construction laborers, the health-care assistants, the
cleaning crews, the hospitality workers -- these individuals contribute daily
to the economy and continuity of the American way of life. Their work has
value; it has dignity; their work ethic is commendable. Yet they are here by
unlawful means in a country that asks its citizens to respect and uphold the
rule of law. There is no getting around that notion, so the debate we are
engaged in presently is a good and necessary one. However, a solution based
solely on enforcement is not.
Without question, enforcement is an important and vital component of the
immigration piece. During my tenure at Homeland Security, we moved aggressively
to mend decades of lax border control. Overall border enforcement spending rose
nearly 60 percent. We increased the number of Border Patrol agents by 40
percent. We deployed sophisticated detection equipment, including unmanned
aerial vehicles and sensors. We created a single agency, U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP), that could devote its primary mission to securing our
borders and another, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), that
devoted its people to enforcing our immigration laws within our country.
We deployed a pivotal entry-exit immigration enforcement system, US-VISIT, that
has enrolled more than 50 million travelers and identified more than 1,000
criminals and inadmissible aliens. We began using Expedited Removal to deter
illegal entry by non-Mexicans and to maximize use of available detention beds.
We achieved a record number of deportations. We integrated legacy databases to
identify tens of thousands of persons arrested or wanted by federal or local
law enforcement. And we reduced the backlog of benefit applications by more
than two-thirds to encourage people to use legal channels to come to the
Here's the rub: All these accomplishments have been made by swimming upstream
against the tide of illegal migrants and visa overstayers who have had few if
any legal options to work in the United States. Trying to gain operational
control of the borders is impossible unless our enhanced enforcement efforts
are coupled with a robust Temporary Guest Worker program and a means to entice
those now working illegally out of the shadows into some type of legal status.
Yes, we need to continue to do more at the border. We need to continue
deploying US-VISIT to track the entry and exit of foreign guests legally
entering the country, since at least 40 percent of our illegal population
arrived legally to start. Additionally, much-needed budgetary enhancements will
allow CBP and Border Patrol to hire more inspectors and agents and provide the
technological support those dedicated individuals need.
These proposals would bring our enforcement capabilities to the level Americans
deserve. However, even a well-designed, generously funded enforcement regimen
will not work if we don't change the immigration and labor laws that regulate
how would-be workers can come to the
With each passing year, our country's shifting demographics leaves a shrinking
number of workers, especially at the less-skilled end of the economy. Entire
industries in a growing number of urban and rural areas depend on large illegal
populations. Existing law allows only a fraction of these workers to enter the
country legally, though our unemployment rate has fallen below 5 percent.
This labor market entices thousands of individuals, most from
Thus, border enforcement will continue to fail so long as we refuse to allow
willing workers a chance to work legally for a willing employer. The current
flow of illegal immigrants and visa overstayers has made it extremely difficult
for our border and interior enforcement agencies to focus on terrorists,
organized criminals and violent felons who use the cloak of anonymity offered
by the current chaos.
That chaos has left us with a mass of illegal workers, most of whom have
committed no serious crime other than their illegal entry. Despite a record performance
on deportations from ICE the past two years, at current rates it would take
nearly 70 years to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living here
illegally, even if not a single new illegal alien entered our territory.
Attempting to deport everybody is neither feasible nor wise. Instead, we need
to prioritize our enforcement against the small percentage of illegal residents
who have established criminal enterprises, committed violent crimes or are
associated with terrorism. The overwhelming majority of long-term residents who
have maintained employment in the
To those who call this amnesty, each day we fail to bring these people out of
the shadows is another day of amnesty by default. Each day that passes calls
for a comprehensive approach to immigration reform. Each day calls for a
long-term plan to legally fill the jobs our economy is creating. Each day calls
for us to give our enforcement agencies a fighting chance to detect and deport
those who would use our welcoming nature to do us harm.
All work has dignity. So let us seek a solution with dignity -- as well as
practicality and in complement to the character of a nation that brought so
many of our citizens and our families here these last 230 years.