Important Immigration Amendment from Sen. Jon Kyl

The Senate voted earlier today to return to consideration of the immigration reform bill. Debate will occur throughout the week, with a final vote on the bill to come Friday or Saturday.

I’ve heard loud and clear from constituents that the bill’s enforcement provisions need to be strengthened. I helped secure the addition of $4.4 billion in mandatory spending to the bill to fund the next five years’ worth of critical border enforcement efforts.

The advance appropriation of $4.4 billion is intended to ensure that border security is fully funded, not left to the vagaries of future legislative action. The unprecedented step of including the money up front demonstrates that we have not only learned from the lessons of the past – when promises of increased security went unfulfilled when it came time to actually provide the funding – but also that Congress is serious about implementing the promised border security before any other parts of the bill take effect.

Our immediate task this week will be to continue to try to improve the bill and respond to the concerns that constituents have expressed. A series of other enforcement amendments have been offered, perhaps the most important of which is an amendment that Senator Lindsey Graham and I have offered. A summary of it is available for your review.

Currently, the bill requires that probationary Z status be granted within 24 hours, assuming that the appropriate background checks can be completed within that time. Some have interpreted that to mean that probationary status must be conferred regardless of whether or not the background checks are completed. The amendment Senator Graham and I have offered will eliminate the 24-hour limit, just in case the background checks take longer to complete. Our amendment will ensure that background checks are completed before probationary status is conferred.

Our amendment, which is expected to pass, will also bolster resources at the border and elsewhere in the country, adding 10,000 additional personnel to enforce immigration law. It will make it easier to bar those who pose health and safety risks to Americans, those with gang affiliations, and child molesters, and to deport such people who are already here. It includes a series of changes to crack down on visa overstayers, who account for more than 40 percent of illegal immigrants.

Other amendments that are expected to pass in response to the concerns constituents have expressed include an amendment by Senator Norm Coleman to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities”; an amendment by Senator Domenici to increase the number of judgeships assigned to border states to handle immigration-related caseloads; an amendment by Senator Schumer to strengthen provisions relating to the use of biometric Social Security cards to prevent fraud; and an amendment by Senator Ensign to strengthen a provision in the bill prohibiting Social Security benefits based on illegal earnings.

Of course, we’ll have to fight hard to defeat amendments that would take the bill in the wrong direction. Those include an amendment by Senator Baucus to strike REAL ID driver’s licenses from the list of documents that can be used for identification; an amendment by Senator Menendez to undo the bill’s new merit-based immigration system (one of the most important reforms in the bill); and an amendment by Senator Grassley which, among other things, gives temporary workers more rights than American workers to claim discrimination in hiring.

I’ll continue to fight hard to improve the bill as it continues through the legislative process. But I also believe this bill represents our best opportunity to secure significant new resources to secure the border and enforce the law; to establish an effective electronic employee verification system to prevent the hiring of illegal workers; to craft a temporary worker program that is truly temporary; and to deal with people who are here illegally without providing an automatic pathway to citizenship.

As I said when I wrote last, every day we delay action another 5,000 illegal immigrants cross the border into the United States. It’s imperative that we act. Doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing amounts to a silent amnesty for those illegal immigrants who are already here and assumes the current law will be enforced, when we know it won’t be.

I’ll continue to keep you apprised of developments. In the meantime, please let me know of any comments or questions you might have.

Sincerely,