As a member of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, I took part in a press conference yesterday where I talked about the absolutely essential need to secure our borders today in the country.

You know, I am reminded of several years ago in Cleveland, Tennessee. A young eastern European lady came up to me and said: "I worked so hard and so long and it cost me every penny I could possibly get a hold off -- over $5,000 -- to become a United States citizen though the legal process and it was one of the greatest days of my life."  She had tears in her eyes and she said: "becoming a citizen of this country is so precious." And I would say that if we don't dramatically reform immigration-- so that we enforce immigration laws so that we secure our borders, so that we don't just grant amnesty to the people that are here illegally, we are not honoring the millions of people that have come here legally into the New York harbor, to see the statue of liberty and to be processed at Ellis Island.

The Wamp family is of German decent, they came to America that way and so did so many of us and that is the right way. We believe in that process and what is happening today flies in the face of that and dishonors the people those who strived to come here and make it such a special privilege to be a United States citizen.

As a member of the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee I can tell you that this is not just about our southern border:  it's about both borders - northern and southern. We must recognize that the huge Muslim population in Canada is potentially a threat for aiding and abetting terrorists and the southern border is lawless, crime-ridden, and porous just ripe for terrorists to come across. We know that it is a threat and it is real. Just like the Patriot Act wasn't necessary before September 11 and now it is, securing our borders even with protective barriers, a fence - whatever it takes to slow and cut off this influx of illegal immigration - we need to do that.

 Just this week in Congress I met with the Speaker's Task Force on Illegal Drugs and I heard from one of the international leaders on drug interdiction who said that a protective barrier at our southern border, on the Mexican border, would help us slow the drug traffic coming into this country. I heard first hand from border control agents on the Arizona border that we need more fences, more helicopters, more man-power, more equipment, and resources and we need protective barriers so these people have a more difficult time coming across and are forced to go elsewhere.

I also met with Secretary Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security, to actually brief him on where this information is coming from so that he is keenly aware that we have got to take drastic action. I am heartened that the administration is moving away from a "catch and release" policy, which is a disincentive system. With "catch and release" if you get in here illegally, from South America for instance, and are caught, we will set a court date and basically release you in this country. But only 20 percent of those people ever actually show up in court so the other 80 percent are part of this illegal immigrant population here in this country.

We can't have that policy anymore. Now the Administration says it will "catch and return." That means if you are caught you have to go back to your country of origin, and we have to accelerate implementation of that new policy as much as possible.

I am also a co-sponsor of H.R. 3700, which basically says that even though the 14th Amendment was passed for good reason, that this business of illegal immigrants coming into this country and having babies for no other purpose than having them become instant citizens has to end. If the child is born here today, regardless of whether both parents are illegal aliens, that person is automatically a United States citizen. We cannot have that anymore. H.R. 3700 would change that so at least one of those parents are a U.S. citizen in order for that person to be guaranteed citizenship and full rights and privileges under our Constitution as a citizen.

These are changes that need to be made because we live in a very different world now. And these changes are not because we have anything against any group of people at all, it is just that we want to honor the people that came here legally, and continue to fight hard to come here legally, and also secure our country's future. We have to do this.

Terrorism is a real threat and our borders are way too porous and we've got to get our arms around it. The first thing is to secure out borders. We can't even talk about how to have a guest worker program until our borders are secure. The Congress is taking action on this and we need to move quickly because the American people are way ahead of us on this issue and they are feed up with inaction.