PenceBlog: <b>Pence op-ed in <i>USA Today</i>: Amnesty isn't the answer<b> - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence : 6th District Of Indiana

Congressman Mike Pence penned this column in today's USA Today about his Border Integrity and Immigration Reform Act.

Here is the column as it appeared in today's USA Today:

My four-part plan is tough on border security and tough on employers who hire illegal aliens, but it recognizes the need for a guest-worker program that operates without amnesty and without growing into a huge new government bureaucracy.

•Border security.
Before any new guest-worker program can begin, the Pence plan requires the secretary of Homeland Security to certify that all border security measures are substantially completed. The Pence plan embraces the House-passed bill, which adds port-of-entry inspectors, ends catch and release, uses American technology such as unmanned aerial vehicles and requires the building of a security fence across approximately 700 miles of our southern border.

•Reject amnesty.
The Senate passed a bill that would provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Allowing people to get right with the law without leaving the United States, when their first act here was a violation of the law, is amnesty. The Pence plan offers a no-amnesty solution to the problem of 12 million illegal aliens living in our country by insisting that they leave the country and come back legally if they have a job opportunity in the United States.

•Enact a no-amnesty guest-worker program using American private sector firms.
The Pence plan would set up a system of private worker placement agencies, licensed by the federal government, to match willing guest workers with jobs in America that employers cannot fill with American workers. The private agencies also would perform a health screening, fingerprint the guest workers and provide that information for a federal background check. The process would take a week or less. After six years, the guest must decide whether to return home or enter the separate process of seeking citizenship.

•Strict employer enforcement.
All the employer enforcement contained in the House-passed bill is contained in the Pence plan. It sets forth a nationwide electronic employment verification system through which employers confirm the legality of each employee. Employers who operate outside of the system would face tough fines.

Some argue that putting border security first and asking millions of illegal immigrants to leave the country is unrealistic. I submit that it is unrealistic to assume that another round of amnesty will not result in another wave of illegal immigration in the years ahead. We must address illegal immigration, but we must do so in a way that reasserts the principle that the only way to enter the United States is under the law.

posted by Pence Press Office # 6:53 AM