Immigration
As the grandchild of immigrants I strongly believe that immigration is the lifeblood of our nation. Immigrants bring the energy, vitality and initiative which make America such a unique and prosperous nation.
Immigration, however, must be legal. I object to the President’s decision to bypass the legislative process and unilaterally declare administrative amnesty for certain illegal immigrants. It does not make sense to move towards a policy that forgives immigration lawbreakers for their transgressions and rewards them with the ability to work legally in the country and ultimately become citizens. We saw how amnesty backfired in the 1980's by encouraging even more illegals to flood across our borders.
If we do not control our borders, we will not control our future. This is especially true since September 11th. In a very real sense, border security is homeland security. Yet, in the years after 9/11, millions of illegal immigrants continued to come across our border with the total number of illegals exceeding 10 million. That is why I have signed on as an original cosponsor of legislation (H.R. 1299) to implement a 5-year strategy to gain operational control of our borders. In addition, I support National Guard troops along the Southwest border.
More needs to be done, however. The problem of illegal immigration is no longer an issue that can be solved just by securing our borders. The federal government must (a) aggressively go after private companies which hire illegal immigrants and (b) increase support for local police departments which assist in apprehending illegal immigrants. I have cosponsored legislation (H.R. 2885) to require employer use of an electronic employment eligibility verification system (also known as e-verify).
In addition, I have advocated for the designation of certain Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), having cosponsored legislation (H.R. 1270) and urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to support this designation. The violence of these cartels has spilled across our borders, endangering the lives of U.S. citizens. By placing the drug cartels on the FTO list, our law enforcement officers would have additional authorities to limit the cartels’ financial, property, and travel operations.
As Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I will continue to do all that I can to stop illegal immigration and I will never back down to politically correct special interests or their allies in the liberal media.
King on the Issues
NFIP Sandy Accelerated Partial Payment Process - FEMA gives guidance and flexibility on providing accelerated NFIP claims payments - 12/10/2012 - See More.
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Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power (STEP) Program for Hurricane Sandy Victims - The program funds certain necessary and essential measures to help restore power, heat and hot water to primary residences that could regain power through necessary and essential repairs - 11/19/2012 - See More.
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