GOP forum hears results of summer field hearings, call for ending gap between American voters and Washington elites

September 13, 2006

House Republicans returned to work after a month of field hearings on illegal immigration. Their greatest finding was of the huge gap in opinion between American voters and lawmakers and others in Washington.

'The state of our borders is a security crisis,' said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., at the meeting of GOP leaders and committee chairmen. The American people want, he said, 'immediate, targeted legislation specifically designed to secure the border, protect our homeland and vigorously enforce our immigration laws.'

New York Representative Peter King, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, says securing the border now can be seen as a “cornerstone” to national security and the war on terrorism. His recommendation is for more Border Patrol agents, more detention facilities for captured illegals and more unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the border.

Congressman King and others offered testimony during a Republican Policy Committee forum to report their field hearing findings.

Republicans packed the meeting as another rebuke of the Senate immigration reform bill that would grant citizenship rights to about 10 million illegal aliens already in the country. They attacked the Senate bill for granting Social Security benefits to illegals, hampering the ability of local police to detain illegals and requiring the U.S. government to consult with Mexican officials before building a border fence. House Republican leaders said the forum would set the stage for a new slate of border-security proposals they hope to pass in the House before the November elections.

The Senate has refused to approve border-security legislation unless it includes proposals to grant citizenship rights to illegals and create a guest-worker program.

But House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said at a news conference that 'we will send President Bush a series of border initiatives this year.'

He said that areas that must be addressed include more border patrol agents, additional fencing along the border, stricter enforcement of immigration laws and enhanced state and local law enforcement authority.

One day after marking the five-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks, House Republicans said that border security is too important to the war on terror to allow it to wait until agreement can be reached on the other components.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House intelligence committee, said 'We are a nation at war. We face a very dangerous enemy that is intent on attacking us again.'

Kentucky Republican Congressman Harold Rogers, Kentucky Republican, said legislation approved this year to provide “$21.2 billion in new spending for Border Patrol agents, detention beds and other 'border security tools” has already improved the situation on the border