Senate Gives Nod to Immigration Guest Workers; Bush Rhetoric Defies First Term Statistics

Updated: 3.10 pm Pacific
The Senate cast four votes on immigration Tuesday, with the first vote providing tacit support to President Bush's call for a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for anyone currently living here illegally.

And although President Bush talks tough on enforcement today -- his first term record is at odds with the rhetoric. For example, Border Patrol apprehensions dropped 44 percent from 2000 to 2003, despite a 16 percent increase in manpower.

Tuesday's Senate vote (40-55) was on an amendment, proposed by Sen. Jimmy Isakson (R-GA), which would have delayed "the granting of legal status, or adjustment of current status, to any individual who enters or entered the United States in violation of Federal law unless the border security measures authorized under Title I and section 233 are fully completed and fully operational." Last month, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed one of the toughest immigration laws in the nation.

However, the vote -- and the President's remarks Monday night -- ignores what has been going on at our borders during the Bush Administration. US Liberals Guide Deborah White reports firsthand:

Last Saturday, my husband, daughter and I were in San Diego, about 80 miles south of our home, attending a college graduation. We returned early that evening via highway 5 (the Santa Ana freeway, in SoCal lingo).

Halfway on our drive home is Homeland Security's US Customs & Border Protection station in San Clemente. To our astonishment, the sizable checkpoint station, holding areas and office complex were closed. Entirely closed, with nary a light flickering in a window, nor a single car in a parking lot.

Should you question her claim, here's a January 2005 article from the San Francisco Chronicle: Bush budget scraps 9,790 border patrol agents.

Is the Border Patrol Effective?
There are serious questions about border patrol effectiveness that have not been raised by the Senate or acknowledged by the President. Throwing another few thousand National Guard troops at the border is questionable, given current performance, but certainly panders to the southern border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

First, the numbers. A report from Syracuse University -- reflected in the graphic above -- analyzes the growth and distribution of border patrol agents over time:

In the four years proceeding 9/11, the data show that full-time Border Patrol agents increased from 6,817 in 1997 to 9,651 in 2001, a 42% jump. By comparison, in the four years following the attacks, they increased from 9,902 in 2002 to 11,106 in 2005, an increase of only 15%.

In addition, to slowing the rate of growth, under the Bush Administration agents have been shifted from the southern border with Mexico (concerns over immigation) to the northern border with Canada (concerns over terrorism). In 2001, 93.9 percent of Border Patrol agents were assigned to the southern border with Mexico. Today that number has declined to 88.8 percent.

It appears that the INS has suffered the same fate as FEMA after being swallowed by the Department of Homeland Security. Second fiddle.

It's clear we have more agents -- even if the growth is at a lower rate than directed by. But how effective are they?

If we measure effectiveness by arrests, then they are less effective. In 1995, the Border Patrol arrested more than 1.3 illegal immigrants. In 2005, with more than twice as many agents, the agency arrested less than 1.2 million illegal immigrants.

However, those numbers mask what happened in the first term of the Bush Administration. Apprehensions dropped 44 percent from 2000 to 2003 ... 30 percent from 2000 to 2004. These data turn the rhetoric from the White House on securing borders into a claim unsupported by evidence.

What's happening? Critics of current government policy say that most illegal immigrants have a job waiting. But law enforcement is turning a blind eye to federal statutes requiring that employers vet employees for citizenship. About 300 agents investigate businesses for illegal hiring practices.

Data back up the critics. From today's New York Daily News:

In 1998, 14,000 illegal immigrants were arrested at jobs; by 2003, the number had fallen to 445. In 1999, 417 employers were notified of the government's intent to fine them for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. In 2004, the number was three.

Someone please remind Congress that demanding enforcement of existing laws is a better tactic than passing new ones that will also be ignored by the Executive Branch.

Vote on Isakson Amendment
S.Amdt. 3961 to S. 2611. Did not pass (40-55) :
Republicans voting against Isakson: Chafee (R-RI) , Coleman (R-MN) ,Collins (R-ME) , Craig (R-ID) , DeWine (R-OH) , Graham (R-SC) , Hagel (R-NE) , Lugar (R-IN) , Martinez (R-FL) , Murkowski (R-AK), Shelby (R-AL) , Snowe (R-ME) , Specter (R-PA) , Stevens (R-AK) , Voinovich (R-OH) and Warner (R-VA).

Democrats voting with Isakson: Byrd (D-WV) , Conrad (D-ND), Dorgan (D-ND), Landrieu (D-LA), Nelson (D-NE), Stabenow (D-MI) and Wyden (D-OR).

Jeffords (I-VT) voted no. Not voting: Cochran (R-MS) , Gregg (R-NH) , Lott (R-MS) , McCain (R-AZ) and Rockefeller (D-WV).

^{Category: Immigration}

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Edited to clarify the Isakson Amendment failed. Added NYDN quote in the afternoon.