The American people, and certainly I have seen this with thousands of people in North Carolina, have no confidence that our borders will be secured. Instead we just see more promises.
The 1986 legislation was passed on immigration — at that time the borders were to be made secure. We had three million illegal immigrants in the country at that time; we now have 12 million or more. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 promised again, in fact committed to — and it was authorized — 700 miles of fencing, and only two miles have been completed.
And so the first point is that we need to have proof, not just promises. The American people need to be assured, through proof. In other words, set standards and show that you have met those standards with, for example, a significant decrease in the number of illegal aliens coming across the border, a significant decrease in people overstaying their visas, a high rate of deporting people where courts have clearly said they need to be removed, people convicted of felonies for instance.
I have legislation that would address intoxicated driving by illegals, and they’ve not permitted my amendment to come up. So it’s a matter of rushing something through, something that was done behind closed doors, and not giving people a chance to have a full opportunity to debate the various amendments as we go forward.
But one place where there seems to be unanimity almost is in securing the borders, but not just with promises, with proof — proof that it’s been done, results. That’s what people want to see. Then we can go to other parts, but let’s get that done, and secure our communities in terms of enforcing the laws that are on the books.