Saturday, May 19, 2007
Senator Martinez Addresses Meeting Of The Republican National Committee
“… And we have to talk about how we reform our border security and our immigration laws. And let me touch on that in a little more of a personal way. As you know, yesterday we made news by a compromise that a group of us Senators made in working with the White House. This is a subject that is very personal to me. I’m an immigrant to America. I understand what the American Dream is about. I have an understanding of what it means to become an American, to stand there one day and raise your right hand and abhor and abjure, which is what the oath say, any allegiance to any other foreign land and become an American. I respect what that means. I came to this land at the age of fifteen and I did not know a word of English. But I knew that English was the language of this country and if I was going to succeed in America, then I would have to learn the language. I know the value of not only learning the language of this country but more importantly learning what it is to be an American. And that is an essential part of what we have to have going forward as part of our immigration discussion. This country is a blessed land, a land that has welcomed immigrants to its shores from its very inception. But it’s also a country that respects the rule of law. That’s why it’s so tragic that for more than twenty years we have allowed a broken down immigration system to exist. That has then garnered in twelve million people that are living in this country illegally and living in the shadows. It’s a problem that must be fixed. I was thinking this morning how I might explain to you why we are in the mess that we are as Republicans; because we took on a tough issue. And I have to go back to the first days of this administration, I remember that as a very fresh and new to Washington person I was sitting around the Cabinet table and I remember very distinctly President Bush saying to us, at the very first days of his administration, “we are here for a limited time frame, for a limited period of time, we came here to make a difference we came here to solve problems.” See we were following a Presidency and an administration that had taken one tough problem after another and set them aside. Whether if this fellow Bin Laden was a threat or not, that wasn’t a big problem because it was too controversial and potentially too troubling so we set it aside and didn’t deal with it and like that a multiplicity of other problems. One of those problems that have piled up at our doorstep is the problem of immigration.And this is a President who really believes that we’re there in office, in power, to make a difference. So he has chosen to tackle this issue and I give him great credit. I’ve tried to do my part to make a contribution to something that I would be a little less than honest if I didn’t, as the only immigrant in the Senate, roll up my sleeves and go to work and see what we could get done to solve a problem for this country. A problem that begs for an answer, and it’s not good enough to simply say “what you’ve done is amnesty.” It’s easy to call anything we might do amnesty what it is, is what is your solution to this difficult problem and let me try to explain to you because it’s so important that you understand what the facts are. Already this morning we’re seeing emails saying, “please email us and tell us whether you agree with this new proposal or not.” And I was thinking, “I don’t know what’s in it, how can they be telling, you know, emailing what’s in it and whether they agree with it or not.” So let me try and explain it to you. You’re so important to our party, you’re important to our President, you’re important to me. I need for you to understand what we’re trying to do. Agree or disagree here is what we’ve tried to do. First and foremost, put border enforcement first. Build the fence, it’s being built, it takes time to acquire the land, to buy the supplies, to get the contractors, but it’s being built. Building a fence where it needs to be built across the border, hiring more border agents and doing all the things it takes to secure our border. That will take place before any of the other things that happen with this bill will take place. So border security first, Johnny Isaacson from Georgia last year insisted on some triggers. We made the mistake of not following his advice, this year we’ve taken his advice and the fact is that there will be triggers and those triggers have to be pulled before any of the other portions of the act come into effect.The second thing is, we will have an effective tool for employers to verify whether their employees are here legally or not. There’s a way to do that. Biometrics with tamper-proof I.D. cards every employee will have to show a tamper-proof I.D. to their employer, and the employers will be held accountable and will be prosecuted if they do not adhere to the law.Next, we’re going to create a temporary worker program for two reasons. Number one because our nation needs the temporary workers. And the second one is because if we don’t provide a safe outlet for people to come here and work where work is needed and workers want a job, we’re going to continue to have an illegal system of entry. So we’ve got to provide a relief valve, a safety valve for people to come into the country legally and that’s a temporary worker program. But the temporary worker program actually means temporary. It is not a vehicle for immigration. It is for people to come here for two years, work and return home. They can renew that for a couple more times, but each time has to go home for a year. They have to keep their nose clean and they have to be readmitted. And it has to be for a job that no American would want to take. Now there are liberals who are touting this as a terrible thing because they want this to be a vehicle for immigration. We’re going to have another way of immigrating; I’ll touch on that in a minute. There will be no amnesty for illegal immigrants. Those that are here now, the twelve million, will get a probationary card if they come out of the shadows. We need to know who they are, we need to register them, we need to check their backgrounds, we need to do a criminal background check, they need to pay a fine. If they do that, they get a probationary card. They have broken the law, they go on probation, they pay a fine. They then keep their job if they continue to do the things we ask of them, like learn English, like learn about our culture, and like continue to be employed and be a contributing part, then they can apply for what we are calling a Z visa and they can then stay here until they can renew that visa again in four years. If they want to become a citizen, there is no automatic path to citizenship. They have to return to their home country, they have to apply the legal way. If they apply legally then they will also go to the back of the line. And all those that have legally applied will be cleared out of the backlog before we let anyone who came illegally take advantage of that precious privilege of becoming an American citizen. So they will go to the back of the line. They will have an opportunity but only if they leave the country, apply outside the country by legal means and wait their turn in line in addition to fulfilling their fines and all the other requirements.But we’re also going to strengthen the assimilation of the immigrants. I get excited about this because this is what my life has been about. It’s about becoming assimilated as an American. I did this as a fifteen-sixteen year old on the baseball field in Orlando, FL with kids that taught me how to be an American. Who would make fun of me when they would teach me some words that I later would find out from my foster mother that they weren’t what they were telling me they were. And it’s a true story, they told me bastard was a real compliment, so I went home to my foster mother and with a very sweet face I said to her, “you’re such a bastard”. And, it wasn’t a good day. Anyway, we assimilate we become Americans, we learn your humor, we know what you’re about. And we at the end of the day become a part of the American dream, and apart of this great melting pot that so many have done in so many different ways through different generations, from different parts of the world. And then you know one other thing that is so important that I have not heard one single word about on the TV’s since I came here last night, and that is we are changing the paradigm of immigration to America, which has been a family based deal. A family is important. No one knows that better than I. I spent four years separated from my family when I first came to this country. Family unification is a big deal. It’s important. But the system today is all about family. What we’re going to do is have more of a merit based system. Now you will still have a nuclear family if you come together, if they immigrate to America. Husband and wife, minor children, but today you have a no good brother-in-law who, because he’s your brother in law can come. We want to start having people come that have something to contribute to this country, that will be able to come on the merit system. The engineering minds, the people that are going to help us maintain our competitiveness in the world. We are also going to ask for people that are going to make a contribution. People will get points if they learn English. People will get points if their employer says they are doing a great job. So there will be opportunities, but it will be a merit system. It will have some points for family, but it will not be the ultimate end all. And it will end chain migration. You see one of the problems that we face is, the twelve million that are here, if they can then become citizens, they can then chain migrate four, five, six, seven members of their family. So all of a sudden the twelve million become fifty million. We couldn’t do that, so we’ve ended in this bill, chain migration. And no longer can people chain migrate and you can become a citizen and then maybe your minor child can join you, but it’s not going to be every other member of your family. That’s tough, a lot of liberals don’t like that, it’s part of what we have to do to achieve a compromise that’s going to work for America and be good for our country. I hope that gives you some information on one of the most challenging issues that we face in our Congress and in our nation today, and one that begs for a solution. Before you’re too quick to dismiss it, think what the alternative is, because there has to be another plan on the table. If we don’t pass this bill no one that is in the shadows today will come out of the shadows and be accounted for. No one that is today helping to secure the border, the economy of our country and my state of Florida, the hotels like this will require guest workers to come and do a lot of the work. So there is a lot of needs and a lot of reasons why we have to tackle this problem. It is really tearing our country apart. It is one of the ugliest moments, I mean it is really a difficult time. We as a political party have an obligation to step up and do the right thing. I support our president on this. I hope that we can have your support and I hope at least we’ll have your understanding of what the bill is about.”
