Western Governors Urge Senate to Pass Comprehensive Bill on Illegal Immigration (3/27/06)

Western Governors Urge Senate to Pass Comprehensive Bill on Illegal Immigration

Border Security, employment-based visas, guest worker program and state reimbursement critical pieces

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2006

CONTACT: Paul Orbuch, 303-623-9378

DENVER -- Western governors today urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass a comprehensive bill on illegal immigration that would improve border security and enforcement, increase employment-based visas, create a temporary guest worker program and ensure states are reimbursed for the enormous amounts they must spend to apprehend and incarcerate illegal immigrants.

Govs. Janet Napolitano (Ariz.), Chair of the Western Governors' Association, and Jon Huntsman, Jr. (Utah), serve as lead governors for immigration issues. In a letter to the Judiciary Committee's leadership - Sens. Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy - the governors thanked them for shepherding a comprehensive reform bill through their committee, which met again today.

As you know, the illegal immigration problem is greatly affecting many of our states. We all share the desire to alleviate the burdens it has placed on our state and local governments, our business and our citizens, the letter stated. We cannot overstate either the importance of this problem to our States or our desire to see Congress act on this pressing problem.

The letter summarized key provisions supported by Western governors:

Border Security and Enforcement - We support your efforts to substantially increase the number of border patrol personnel and to enhance border security and surveillance through technological innovations. We ask you to also consider adding language to authorize the completion of a comprehensive database that will interface with state, national and international criminal and terrorist databases, and includes state-of-the-art privacy safeguards. In addition, we believe that the construction of Western regional federal correctional facilities to house criminal aliens who have been apprehended and convicted in state criminal justice systems should be authorized. To the maximum extent possible, families that are detained should be kept together and kept separate from the general population in detention facilities. 

Reimbursement of Costs Incurred by States - States and localities have incurred enormous costs as a result of the failure to control illegal entries along our international borders. We support your efforts to require the Department of Homeland Security to either assume responsibility for detained individuals or to compensate States for these costs.

Labor Pool and Visa Issues - We support your efforts to more than double the number of employment-based visas, and particularly your efforts to increase them for the high-tech and bio-tech industries as well as for seasonal hospitality workers. 

Enactment of a Guest Worker Program is Essential - A national temporary guest worker program should be established to supplement areas where there are documented shortages of U.S. workers. We heartily support your efforts to include a temporary guest worker program in the bill. We agree that the sanctions that have been under discussion for undocumented individuals already residing in the US such as fines, payment of back taxes, background checks, and demonstrating proficiency in learning English are appropriate and necessary. We would oppose granting blanket amnesty to these individuals.

The Western Governors' Association is an independent, nonprofit organization representing the governors of 18 states and three U.S.-Flag islands in the Pacific. Through their Association, the Western governors identify and address key policy and governance issues in natural resources, the environment, human services, economic development, international relations and public management.

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