White House Questioned on Immigration Reform

By Bobby Eberle
Talon News
December 10, 2004

Despite social security being the primary focus of Thursday's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Scott McClellan was peppered with questions regarding the newly passed intelligence reform bill and the issues of immigration and border security.

A reporter began by quoting Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), who said, ""We cannot expect intelligence reform without closing these gaps in illegal immigration."

The reporter also quoted an editorial in The Washington Times which said, "Three years after September 11th and still our immigration system is in tatters."

"[What the president] is working to do is to strengthen our border security and to strengthen our controls along the border to prevent people who should not be entering the country, like terrorists or criminals, from coming into the country, while also making sure that we remain a welcoming society," McClellan responded. "We are a nation of immigrants, and the president believes in those core principles that we should remain a welcoming society, but we also need to take steps to strengthen our border enforcement."

The White House press secretary noted that the intelligence reform legislation President Bush will sign into law "takes a number of steps" to address border security by "increasing the number of border control agents, increasing the number of agents in the immigration and Custom services over the next five years by a certain amount on each of those."

McClellan also brought up the topic of a "temporary worker" program, saying the president's plan would "address some of the economic need in this country, while also addressing the issue of people coming to this country from Mexico and other countries to our south who are seeking a better way of life."

"Ultimately, what we need to do is continue to expand trade opportunities so that we can raise the standard of living in other countries so that people will be less inclined to want to come here to seek a better way of life," McClellan said. "Many of these people are just coming to the United States to seek a better way of life."

The press secretary was also asked to comment on remarks by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who was a vocal critic of the intelligence reform legislation because he says it does not sufficiently address border security issues. It particular, Sensenbrenner has noted that the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks had 63 valid driver's licenses.

"[T]he president has said he looks forward to talking with members early next year about some of the other ideas," McClellan replied. "Chairman Sensenbrenner certainly had some ideas.  We spelled out some of our views on those issues in letters that we sent to members of Congress -- one this week and one back in October, if I remember correctly.  And so the president looks forward to talking with people about those issues."

"In terms of driver's license, the president stated that we need to consult closely with states about the standards that we're talking about setting," McClellan added.