Dear Dr. Dale:
Thank you for contacting me to share your views regarding border security and immigration reform. I appreciate knowing your views and for the opportunity to explain my position.
Our current immigration system is broken. It fails to serve the nation’s economic interest or adequately protect our borders from illegal entry. This failure requires a legislative solution which is why I am an original co-sponsor of S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. The Senate approved S. 744 by a vote of 68 to 32 on June 27, 2013.
This legislation secures the border, provides additional channels for legal immigration, and addresses the current system of “de facto” amnesty for the 11 million people who are living here illegally by proposing a lengthy path to citizenship that is contingent on securing our borders and discouraging future waves of illegal immigration.
S. 744 requires $4.5 billion of new border security technology, the completion of 700-miles of total fencing along the Southern border, and an additional 20,000 Border Patrol agents. In addition, the deployment and operation of a nation-wide employment verification and entry-exit system at our nation’s ports must be completed. If after ten years the above criteria have been satisfied, immigrants in temporary legal status will have the opportunity to apply for a green card if they can show that they have maintained gainful employment, pass an additional background check, pass a civics exam, pay all fines and fees and taxes, and learned English. It is a lengthy path that doesn’t precede securing our borders or the enforcement of our laws or supplant the privileges of legal immigrants.
Further, S. 744 would reduce immigration backlogs by reforming many aspects of the legal immigration process, including expanding permanent visas for foreign graduates of U.S. universities in STEM fields, increase the number of temporary high-skilled visas, and expand opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to come to the United States.
Thank you for taking the time to share your views. Please feel free to contact me on this or any other matter of concern.
Sincerely,
John McCain
United States Senator
JM/ds
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