You Are In: USINFO > Topics > Global Issues > Visas and Passports
 
 

Temporary Worker Plan Called Aid in Controlling U.S. Borders

President Bush's Temporary Worker Program would allow the United States to gain greater control over its borders, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner.

In April 1 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, Bonner said that the temporary worker proposal reflects the reality that there are millions of undocumented aliens in the United States and thousands more attempting to enter the country to find work.

Bonner noted that the president's proposal would regularize the status of these individuals and "allow U.S. law enforcement to get a better handle on who is in our country, and reduce the numbers of people we don't know about and who could present a terrorist threat."

He explained that in each of the last two years the U.S. Border Patrol has made over 900,000 apprehensions of illegal aliens attempting to enter the United States. Bonner said that despite efforts and successes in securing major segments of the southern border, he is concerned that terrorists or other criminals will seek to enter the United States "by hiding in plain sight within this flood" of illegal immigrants.

If enacted into law, Bonner said, the Temporary Worker Program would undermine illicit alien-smuggling rings and reduce the flood of illegal migrants through which the Border Patrol must sift.

"The Border Patrol could then focus on the real or most serious threats to this country -- the terrorists, the criminals, the drug traffickers, the weapons smugglers," he explained. "We could gain substantial and lasting control of our border, reduce the flood to a trickle, greatly reduce border-related crime, and better secure our homeland."

Following is the text of Bonner's testimony, as prepared for delivery:

Statement of Robert C. Bonner,
Commissioner U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary,
Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship
April 1, 2004 -- 2:30 PM
226 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Chairman Chambliss and distinguished members of the subcommittee, I'm pleased to have this opportunity to testify before you today about our efforts to secure the borders of the United States -- and how the Temporary Worker Program proposed by President Bush earlier this year, if enacted into law, will make our task easier.

This is the first time I have testified before this subcommittee as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and I look forward to working closely with you.

Let me begin my testimony by speaking a bit about U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. CBP is a new agency, within a new Department of Homeland Security. Over a year ago -- on March 1, 2003, for the first time in recent history -- our nation established a single agency responsible for managing and securing the borders of, and all ports of entry into, the United States: CBP. This new agency brings together all of the border inspectors from the legacy Customs Service, INS, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as the entire U.S. Border Patrol, and is focused squarely upon one of the chief priority missions of the Department of Homeland Security: preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States.

The president's Temporary Worker proposal is, without question, a compassionate response to a fundamental reality of American life -- millions of aliens are illegally in the United States, and thousands of illegal migrants attempt to enter the U.S. to work in our country. These people do not pose a terrorist threat to America. They have come to work in our country, and work hard.

The president's proposal is an acceptance of this reality, will regularize the status of these individuals, and bring them out of the shadows of our society. It will allow them to obtain employment legally, with willing employers. It will allow U.S. law enforcement to get a better handle on who is in our country, and reduce the numbers of people we don't know about and who could present a terrorist threat. And it will ensure that our labor laws apply to these temporary workers, and ensure that American workers get a first crack at obtaining any available jobs. The president's proposal is a bold step.

The president's proposal will also make my job easier, and allow us to gain greater control over our borders. This will allow the Department of Homeland Security, and CBP, to be much more effective in carrying out its critical mission of preventing terrorists, terrorist weapons, or other criminals and contraband from entering the United States and harming the American people.

Some simple data points illustrate why this is true. Last year, the United States Border Patrol -- now a part of CBP -- made 931,310 apprehensions of aliens illegally attempting to enter the United States between our ports of entry. The year before, the Border Patrol made 955,310 arrests. The vast majority of those apprehensions took place on our southwest border with Mexico, and the vast majority of the individuals arrested presented absolutely no terrorist or criminal threat to America, and were simply coming here to work. And because most of those arrested individuals were returned right over the border into Mexico, many of them attempted to cross into the United States again -- often within 24 hours of their previous arrest by the Border Patrol. In fact, many of these individuals have been arrested 10, 15, 20 times by the Border Patrol, and never charged with any crime. Each time, they are returned right over the border, only to come right back. Why are they doing this? In most instances, it is because they will seek a job, or already have a job waiting for them in the United States.

Over the past decade, the U.S. government has responded to this phenomenon by significantly strengthening the U.S. Border Patrol. Indeed, since September 11, 2001, the Border Patrol has increased its staffing by almost 1,500 agents. And in the years since the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the Border Patrol has literally tripled in staffing. We have also significantly increased our technological resources, such as sensors, cameras, and aircraft, as well as strengthened our infrastructure along the border -- with better fencing, among other things.

With these efforts, the Border Patrol has gotten significant control over certain key areas of our border with Mexico -- most prominently in southern California and in much of Texas. But some areas of the border -- Arizona especially -- are simply out of control. Indeed, roughly 40 percent of the 931,000 arrests made last year occurred in the Tucson Border Patrol sector of Arizona alone. And, given the massive flow of migrants through that sector, and given the rough desert terrain, it follows that this is where most of the migrant deaths along the border occurred. This is why we launched Operation Desert Safeguard, in conjunction with the government of Mexico, last year. And this is why we have upped the ante this year, with Under Secretary Hutchinson's rollout of the Arizona Border Control (or "ABC") Initiative, and the concomitant significant increase in CBP, ICE, and other agency resources in the area.

The primary reason we are doing this is to better secure our borders against the terrorist threat. But we are also enforcing our immigration laws, and preventing aliens from illegally entering the United States for any reason.

But I will tell you, that number -- 931,310 -- should give you pause. With all of the effort of the last decade, and even with the very real success we have had in controlling major segments of our border, the Border Patrol still is dealing with a literal flood of people on a daily basis -- again, most of whom are attempting to enter this country in order to work. I am concerned, and we all should be concerned, that terrorists or other criminals will seek to enter the United States by hiding in plain sight within this flood.

We should also be concerned about how lucrative now the alien-smuggling business is. Most of the migrants illegally entering our country across the southwest border employ alien-smuggling organizations. This is because, with better staffing, technology, and tactics, the Border Patrol has gotten much, much better in controlling our border. The days are long past when migrants could simply walk across or storm the border. They now have to pay smugglers, who market their skill in evading the Border Patrol, and getting their products -- the migrants -- to market, and to their awaiting employers.

Those alien-smuggling organizations are primarily used by aliens seeking work in the United States, but they clearly could also be used by terrorists seeking to enter our country and do us harm.

If enacted into law, the president's Temporary Worker proposal would go a long way toward driving a stake through the heart of this black-market smuggling enterprise, and reduce the flood of illegal migrants that the Border Patrol must sift through and apprehend in order to protect our borders against terrorist penetration. Imagine if many of those hundreds of thousands of people the Border Patrol currently deals with were regularized, and brought out into the legal open. They would enter legally through U.S. ports of entry, with secure biometrically-encoded crossing cards, enabling us to know each person who enters, and who they work for. They will pay taxes, and be able to -- and, indeed, be encouraged to -- return home after their term of employment was up.

And the Border Patrol could then focus on the real or most serious threats to this country -- the terrorists, the criminals, the drug traffickers, the weapons smugglers. We could gain substantial and lasting control of our border, reduce the flood to a trickle, greatly reduce border-related crime, and better secure our homeland.

The president's Temporary Worker Proposal is the ultimate "smart border" program. Since 9/11, I have focused -- first as commissioner of Customs, and now as commissioner of CBP -- on revolutionizing our border, and making it "smarter." What does that mean? The key piece of it is sorting out the relatively few individuals and small proportion of commerce presenting a potential risk to America, focusing our scrutiny on them, and allowing the vast majority of everybody and everything else, presenting little or no risk, to speed through into our society and economy. This is what motivates signature initiatives like the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, the Free and Secure Trade (or "FAST") program, SENTRI, and NEXUS. It is what motivates our collection of advance information, and guides our National Targeting Center. In a sense, it also guides our "extended border" programs like the Container Security Initiative (CSI) and Air Pre-clearance, and the Immigration Security Initiative (ISI). Not only should we identify and address terrorist threats well before they hit our shores, we should also identify and clear those individuals and items that present no risk as early as possible -- so we don't waste our valuable enforcement resources on them, or disrupt their movement into the United States.

The Temporary Worker Program is a natural extension of this philosophy. We want to identify those individuals who want to work in the United States and have jobs here. We want to let them come into our country unimpeded, and -- importantly -- track who they are, when they entered, and where they are working. But otherwise let them go about their business -- which presents no threat.

And then our law enforcement resources -- most prominently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection -- can go about the business of securing our borders from the terrorists and other threats to the American people.

The president's Temporary Worker Program will not change the mission of CBP. Unauthorized entry into the United States will still be illegal, and CBP will continue to improve its ability to prevent and deter it. The Temporary Worker Program will help us do that job better. And, assuming CBP and its Border Patrol continue to have adequate personnel, infrastructure, equipment, and technology to do the job of securing the border -- and, importantly, preventing people from evading the dictates of the Temporary Worker Program by crossing illegally between our ports of entry -- the strengthened control over our border will in turn increase the chances that the Temporary Worker Program will achieve its goals and make America better and stronger.

Again, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you, and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.