On the recordJanuary 18, 2007
I submitted an amendment that ended up being amendment No. 1. The amendment simply said that before any provision of this act that grants legal status to someone who is in America illegally takes effect, the Secretary of Homeland Security will certify to the Congress that all of the provisions of border security contained in the bill were funded, in place, and operational. It become known as a trigger--and it was a trigger--because the immigration issue is not like when you can never figure what is the chicken, what is the egg, and what came first. There is no way to reform illegal immigration unless you first stop the porous borders we have and the flow of illegal immigrants. But to do only one without the other is a terrible mistake.
Source
govinfo.gov
