Brownback Immigration Principles: No Amnesty, Border Security is National Security, and No Additional Paths to Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants
June 26, 2007 – Brownback Immigration Update
Senator Brownback voted in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed to the immigration bill today. That means he voted to bring the bill back to the floor for debate and for amendments to be offered.
This does NOT mean that Senator Brownback supports the immigration bill itself – he feels the bill needs to be improved.
Brownback opposes amnesty, and believes first and foremost in securing our borders and ending illegal immigration. Brownback voted to debate the bill in the Senate but is withholding support for the bill until the amendment process is complete.
Senator Brownback has not and will not support giving Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants. The bill in its current form denies Social Security benefits for any Social Security credits earned while performing unauthorized work. This provision is actually "tougher" than Senator Ensign's amendment from last year because it denies Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants using fraudulent documents to obtain work as well as work performed on a legitimate, though expired, work permit.
Senator Brownback fully supports securing our border with a fence. He voted for the Secure Fence act in the 109th Congress and voted to fund it as well .
The current bill is imperfect and Senator Brownback looks forward to the amendment process, which he hopes will improve the bill – though efforts to offer amendments to improve the bill have thus far been thwarted by the Democratic majority.
The Senate immigration bill represents a very tenuous compromise, which could significantly change over the course of the debate.
The bill changes significantly every day and for this reason, Senator Brownback is waiting to see what the bill looks like when it comes time for final passage before reaching a conclusion on how he will vote.
That said, Senator Brownback has stated that he will support the bill if it –
1) effectively secures the border through fencing, enhanced electronic surveillance, increased number of border patrol agents, and unmanned aerial vehicles;
2) implements a strong worksite enforcement system that prevents undocumented immigrants from getting jobs; and
3) fixes our immigration system going forward by ending chain migration, creating a legal temporary worker program, and eliminating the national security risk of having 12 million undocumented immigrants in our country.
