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Jim Pederson on Immigration |
PEDERSON: This has to be the #1 priority for AZ. We have 4,000 illegal entries into Arizona every day. The borders are broken. We used to have a guest worker program; people came across the border to work, and then went back home. Now it's a one-way street. People come in and they don't go back. The impact on AZ is estimated to be hundreds of millions per year. The taxpayers of this state should be outraged about the impact on our hospitals, our schools, our law enforcement, our prisons. Let's get practical. Let's get real.
KYL: The question was, I recall, what's your plan. I didn't hear anything about a plan. I only heard that our borders are broken. I still haven't heard Mr. Pederson's plan. It's one thing to talk tough about securing the border, it's quite another to have a realistic plan for how to do it, without giving citizenship to all of the illegal aliens.
PEDERSON: In Kyl's bill, there's a section called "Mandatory Departure." An undocumented person is supposed to report to Customs, voluntarily, and voluntarily agree to be deported. How does that work? Practical? No. Let's get at this problem and solve it.
KYL: We just passed a bill for $13 billion for better border control. Much of that will go to enhancing our Border Patrol, and building fencing and vehicle barriers.
PEDERSON: You say you voted on bills. How many of your bills got passed for the benefit of the people of Arizona? Not one! I'm going to go back there and solve this problem for the people of Arizona in a practical, aggressive way.
KYL: My opponent said "Not one." The bill I just mentioned is now law. My amendment to double the number of border agents is also now law.
Some in Washington are more concerned about playing election-year politics than actually getting things done. That is the motivation behind an unrealistic plan circulating in Congress that would require illegal immigrants to voluntarily turn themselves to be deported.