Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your holding this hearing on a timely subject of immense importance to our homeland security, our economy, and the future of our nation.

The United States shares a border of about 1,950 miles in length with our closest southern neighbor. Mexico is our second-largest trading partner. By some counts, the second largest component of Mexico's gross domestic product is receipts sent home from workers in the United States. Mexico provides a majority of our immigrant farm worker population and, by all estimates, a majority of undocumented workers in the United States, economy-wide.

A nation that fails to manage its borders cannot be secure at home. It begins to lose control over the safety of its people, the order and legality of its commerce, and even its very identity. On the other hand, with approximately 7,500 miles of land borders and 95,000 miles of shoreline and navigable rivers, we cannot seal off our country. Our only alternative is to manage our borders and ports of entry effectively. This fact is true of our border with Mexico and demands a manageable, forward-looking, national immigration policy, as well.

For many years before this President came into office, the federal government led the way as our nation remained in denial, ignoring both the rapidly growing number of undocumented persons in this country and the increasing dependence of critical sectors of our economy on undocumented workers.

Then, a real wake-up call came on September 11, 2001.

In the last 2 1/2 years, we have made progress. With the hard work of the Administration, our men and women in uniform, and the Congress, our country and our borders are more secure and our homeland is safer.

However, a lot of work remains to be done.

With an estimated 8 to 12 million undocumented persons in the country, we need to identify them, treat them humanely and reasonably, and bring them out of the underground economy. We need to face facts and realize that entire sectors of our economy are dependent on the labor of these workers — the vast majority of whom want nothing more than to work under decent conditions at jobs that, quite frankly, American citizens often do not want.

We need to restore the confidence of the American people that their government can do its job. We need to ensure respect for the law, from all parties.

We also need to realize that putting more locks on the border works both ways. As our borders have been tightened, many undocumented workers now are trapped here, because getting smuggled home has become as dangerous as coming here in the first place.

We also need to consider the humanitarian side of this issue. Every year, more than 300 human beings die in the desert, in boxcars, in trunks, or otherwise, being smuggled into this country. That is intolerable.

We need to consider the economic impact of future demographics for our country. Japan, for example, has suffered a prolonged period of recession in part because it has a closed society and, now, an aging population.

These are not easy or popular issues. I commend and agree with the President, and with my colleagues who also have come here today to talk about their bills, on many of the broad principles necessary for a lasting solution.

Increased enforcement is part of the solution — but only part.

Those who say, "Just round 'em up, just enforce the law," are only proposing an excuse, not a solution, while the status quo just gets worse.

Robust, expanded, guest worker reforms are part of the solution — but only part. Guest worker programs take substantial time to stand up.

Amnesty is not the solution. It has been tried and it has failed.

An effective federal partnership with state and local law enforcement should be part of the answer. In Canyon County, Idaho, it's been reported that 1,200 undocumented aliens were arrested last year — by local law enforcement. In many cases creating partnerships — not unfunded mandates, but true partnerships — would be, by far, the most efficient allocation of resources.

Finally, a key part of any solution will be the fair, humane treatment of those undocumented workers already here, already contributing to our economy and paying taxes.

Mr. Chairman, one bill already introduced in Congress is ready to move. We have a vehicle ready to road-test key principles in the President's framework and in other bills being discussed today.

That bill is AgJOBS — the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act, introduced as S. 1645 and HR 3142. The principal difference from other bills is that AgJOBS deals with one industry — agriculture.

AgJOBS is a mature, thoroughly-developed product.

AgJOBS represents more than seven years of work on these issues, and four years of tough, bipartisan negotiations. Today, 54 Senators, including a majority of this Committee, are cosponsors.

I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, as well as the Ranking Member of this Committee, Senator Biden, for being cosponsors of AgJOBS.

Moving forward with AgJOBS as the pilot program for economy-wide reforms is practical. It is going to be easier and faster to set up a program involving one industry and about 500,000 eligible workers than to wait and debate the design of a program for 8 to 12 million workers.

Agriculture is also the industry most impacted by dependence on undocumented workers. Responsible private estimates claim as many as 75 percent or more of ag workers are undocumented. Farmers are going out of business today because they cannot find legal workers at the times they are needed.

With AgJOBS, we could begin immediately to improve our homeland security — and especially ensure the safety and security of our food supply — by knowing who is planting and harvesting our crops, where those workers came from, and where they are working.

AgJOBS takes the same long-term approach consistent with the President's framework and other bills — an improved guest worker program. It also addresses the need for a transition program in the immediate term, by creating allowing workers the earned adjustment to legal status.

This is not amnesty. Conditioning the right to stay here on a worker's commitment to 3 to 6 more years of physically challenging agricultural work is not a reward — it is an opportunity for the worker to rehabilitate his or her status under the law and earn the right to stay.

Mr. Chairman, I've just received a letter from Clayton Yeutter, former Secretary of Agriculture under the first President Bush, and former U.S. Trade Representative under President Reagan, in support of AgJOBS. I ask permission to make that letter part of the record.

Secretary Yeutter points to the startling, official government statistic that, "In the northeastern U.S. — far from the border . . . 99 percent of new entrants into the farm labor force admit to lacking legal status." He also points out, correctly, "Agricultural employers do not want to hire illegal immigrants. What they want is a stable, viable program with integrity that will meet their labor force needs in a timely, effective way."

I also ask to insert into the record some background and explanatory materials that discuss the bill in greater detail.

Finally, our AgJOBS bill has something no other proposal has: A historic, nationwide, broad bipartisan coalition of grass roots support. I ask to insert into the record a letter of support that we recently received from more than 400 organizations — national, state, and local organizations — asking Congress to enact AgJOBS into law expeditiously.

This letter is somewhat historic in its own right. In support of AgJOBS, it brings together employers and workers —

• from the American Farm Bureau to the United Farm Workers;
• from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the AFL-CIO;
• from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture to national organizations;
• from legal-service advocates to large and small employers, Latino groups, and others.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee.

# # #