On the recordSeptember 20, 2010
I say to the Senator, his point is well taken. If the DREAM Act is not considered part of comprehensive immigration reform, it will be a huge mistake. The reason we have 12 million people here illegally in our country is because you can get to America pretty easily illegally, obviously. You can walk across the street in some places. So you have to control the border. Visa overstays are 40 percent of the illegal immigration problem. If you do not do that, then you are never going to stop the third wave of illegal immigration. You have to deal with why they come: to get jobs. We need better employer verification. We need a temporary worker program so employers can hire people in a win-win situation, where people from other countries can come here and work, make some money, and go back home. It helps us; it helps them. That is what you need to do with immigration, comprehensive reform. The DREAM Act is about November politics. It is an emotional topic that if you did it in isolation would be undercutting comprehensive reform. Certainly it has nothing to do with defense authorization. It is trying to check a block. For the people who came to my office last week who were literally praying that I would vote for the DREAM Act in the Defense authorization bill, you are certainly being used and abused, in my view. This is an emotional topic, and at the end of the day, all I can tell you is, this is not a way to change immigration. This is not comprehensive immigration reform.
