Richard Durbin on Immigration Democratic Sr Senator (IL)

Reform will increase coordination & reduce terrorism

DURBIN: Yes. I can tell you what troubles me. The current immigration system in America is broken down. We've got to change it. I've been sitting for more than three months with a bipartisan group of senators talking about making America safer. The immigration reform bill will make this a stronger nation, not just at the border with Mexico, and will strengthen that, but also that we need to track the visas coming into the United States, the visitor visas, the student visas, so that we know not only when they arrive but when they leave. That is not working today.

Q: Why isn't it working?

DURBIN: It's hard to believe 12 years after 9/11 we're having this conversation, but there is not enough coordination between these different agencies so that we know someone should not have been re-admitted to the US. Our bill addresses that directly.

Extend partner immigration rights to gay couples

DURBIN: I believe that it's consistent with the position we should have marriage equality, and therefore, recognize marriages between people from the same gender. Now, this is a hot issue. It's a contentious issue. If we can find a way through this to protect that basic right of an individual and still pass immigration reform, that's what I want to achieve.

Q: What about DOMA?

DURBIN: The Supreme Court has taken up DOMA [overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, which would ensure equal immigration rights for gay couples]. And that decision on DOMA may preclude this whole conversation. They may help us reach the right place in this whole conversation.

Immigration reform bill makes America safer

The worst thing we can do is nothing. If we do nothing, leaving 11 million people in the shadows, not making our border safer, not having the information that comes from employment and these visa holders, we will be less safe in America. Immigration reform will make us safer.

Our border with Mexico is strongest it's been in 40 years

Sen. CORNYN (R-TX): So much of [immigration reform] is regaining the public's confidence that the federal government is actually doing its job. So, until that confidence is restored on the basis of what the legislation provides, I would have difficulty supporting it.

Sen. DURBIN (D-IL): Our border with Mexico is the safest and strongest it's been in 40 years. We have invested billions of dollars into border enforcement. We're putting more money into border enforcement than we're putting into the FBI and the Secret Service and ATF and DEA combined. If we don't meet all the goals that we've set in years to come, we'll put more in more investment there.

Q: Is the 90% border apprehension rate a goal or a trigger?

DURBIN: Well, I think it's both. We're committed to it. Every Republican at the table said we've got to start with border security. I think we've kept the faith on that issue.

Cover child resident aliens under Medicaid and SCHIP.

OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: Grants States the option of covering certain categories of eligible pregnant women and child resident aliens, including targeted low-income children, under the Medicaid and SCHIP programs.

SPONSOR`S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: Sen. CLINTON: This legislation would allow States to use Federal funds to provide critical healthcare services to pregnant women and children. This bill is fundamentally about three things--fairness, fiscal relief, and financial savings.

I will start with fairness. All across America, legal immigrants work hard, pay taxes, and exercise their civic responsibilities. Yet, in 1996, Congress denied safety net services to legal immigrants who had been in the country for less than 5 years.

This legislation is also a matter of good fiscal policy. Today, 19 States use State funds to provide healthcare services to legal immigrants within the 5-year waiting period. At least 155,000 children and 60,000 adults are receiving these benefits. A total of 387,000 recent legal immigrants would be eligible to receive these services if their States opt to take advantage of the program.

And finally, this bill is about long-term healthcare cost savings. Covering uninsured children and pregnant women through Medicaid can reduce unnecessary hospitalization by 22%. Pregnant women who forgo prenatal care are more likely to develop complications during pregnancy, which results in higher costs for postpartum care. And women without access to prenatal care are four times more likely to deliver low birth weight infants and seven times more likely to deliver prematurely than women who receive prenatal care, according to the Institute of Medicine. All of these health outcomes are costly to society and to the individuals involved.

LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME:Referred to Senate Committee on Finance; never came to a vote.

Rated 8% by USBC, indicating an open-border stance.

OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2005-2006 USBC scores as follows:

• 0%-30%: open-border stance (approx. 197 members)
• 30%-70%: mixed record on open borders (approx. 70 members)
• 70%-100%: sealed-border stance (approx. 202 members)

U.S. Border Control, founded in 1988, is a non-profit, tax-exempt, citizen`s lobby. USBC is dedicated to ending illegal immigration by securing our nation`s borders and reforming our immigration policies. USBC [works with] Congressmen to stop amnesty; seal our borders against terrorism and illegal immigration; and, preserve our nation`s language, culture and American way of life for future generations.

Our organization accepts no financial support from any branch of government. All our support comes from concerned citizens who appreciate the work we are doing to seal our borders against drugs, disease, illegal migration and terrorism and wish to preserve our nation`s language, culture and heritage for the next generations.

Provide lawyers and evidence for children being deported.

This bill authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ) to appoint or provide counsel at government expense to aliens in removal proceedings.