mr. speaker , i rise today in support of the rule on h.r. 418 . 
our nation 's immigration policy has been of top concern in recent years , and for good reason . 
with between eight and twelve million illegal aliens in the united states , it is obviously a problem out of control . 
we need to increase border security and fix our immigration laws . 
we need a system that will encourage well-intentioned , contributing aliens out of the shadows and allow them to pay a reasonable penalty so they can come into compliance with the law . 
americans are rightly concerned about the security and the integrity of the nation 's borders because the system is broken . 
some are concerned about the possibility of terrorists crossing our borders and coming into our cities . 
but we can not effectively fight terrorism if we fail to make the distinction between them and busboys and housekeepers . 
from 1990 to 2000 , the number of u.s. border patrol agents nearly tripled , but illegal immigration increased by as much as 5.5 million . 
increasing enforcement resources to keep out willing immigrant workers , as we did throughout the 1990s , has not worked . 
it has failed , and we need enforcement to be much more narrowly focused on criminals and potential terrorists . 
today , we are considering h.r. 418 . 
this legislation begins the debate on the enforcement aspects of immigration and addresses the narrow issue of driver license security . 
i have reservations about the gradual move toward what could become a national id card , but this legislation begins to address issues necessary to focus efforts in enforcement . 
mr. speaker , i intend to vote in favor of h.r. 418 , but while doing so , i suggest that enforcement , border security and immigration reform must be worked on together . 
in fact , fixing the broken system requires a broader strategy that includes both enforcement and the creation of adequate legal channels for immigration that serve the nation 's interests . 
by creating legal channels for those looking for a better life and looking to fill jobs that americans will not fill , we enhance our enforcement efforts . 
the responsible authorities can focus their resources first on the worst actors . 
our immigration laws and policies must reflect the realities we face today . 
our economy demands workers , but our national security demands that we identify those lurking in the shadows . 
enhanced enforcement must be the top priority for immigration policy . 
the american people are not anti-immigrant . 
we are concerned about the lack of coherence in our immigration policy and enforcement . 
as part of today 's debate , we must realize that the congress needs to address the other issues with immigration reform now . 
broader immigration reform has been outlined by president bush . 
i commend him for his act of leadership . 
he has outlined the solution and now congress must act quickly in crafting legislation . 
this bill is our first step in a long journey to restore public confidence in an open , welcoming immigration code . 
let us give thanks to our immigrants when b.c . 
forbes sailed for america from scotland in 1904 , he was following a course well worn by generations of scots . 
i know how the founder of forbes magazine must have felt . 
the murdochs originally hail from the same part of scotland . 
today , we are part of the most recent wave of immigrants attracted by the bright beacon of american liberty . 
these days , it 's not always easy to talk about the benefits of immigration . 
especially since 9/11 , many americans worry about borders and security . 
these are legitimate concerns . 
but surely a nation as great as america has the wit and resources to distinguish between those who come here to destroy the american dream -- and the many millions more who come to live it . 
the evidence of the contributions these immigrants make to our society is all around us -- especially in the critical area of education . 
adam smith , another scotsman , knew that without a decent system of education , a modem capitalist society was committing suicide . 
well , our modern public school systems simply are not producing the talent the american economy needs to compete in the future . 
and it often seems that it is our immigrants who are holding the whole thing up . 
in a study on high school students released this past summer , the national foundation for american policy found 60 percent of the top science students , and 65 percent of the top math students , are children of immigrants . 
the same study found that seven of the top award winners at the 2004 intel science talent search were immigrants or children of immigrants . 
this correlates with other findings that more than half of engineers -- and 45 percent of math and computer scientists -- with ph.d.s now working in the u.s. are foreign born . 
it 's not just the statistics . 
you see it at our most elite college and university campuses , where asian immigrants or their children are disproportionately represented . 
and a recent study of 28 prestigious american universities by researchers from princeton and the university of pennsylvania found something startling : that 41 percent of the black students attending these schools described themselves as either immigrants or children of immigrants . 
the point is that by almost any measure of educational excellence you choose , if you 're in america you 're going to find immigrants or their children at the top . 
i do n't just mean engineers and scientists and technicians . 
in my book , anyone who comes here and gives an honest day 's work for an honest day 's pay is not only putting himself closer to the american dream , he 's helping the rest of us get there too . 
as ronald reagan said at the statue of liberty , `` while we applaud those immigrants who stand out , whose contributions are easily discerned , we know that america 's heroes are also those whose names are remembered by only a few. '' let me share some of these names with you . 
start with eddie chin , an ethnic chinese marine who was born a week after his family fled burma . 
you 've all seen cpl . 
chin . 
because when baghdad fell , he was the marine we all watched shimmy up the statue of saddam hussein to attach the cable that would pull it down . 
or lance cpl . 
ahmad ibrahim . 
his family came to the u.s. from syria when the first gulf war broke out . 
now cpl . 
ibrahim hopes to be deployed to iraq -- also as a marine -- to put his arabic language skills in the service of corps and country . 
or what about cpl . 
jos gutierrez , who was raised in guatemala and came to america as a boy -- illegally ! 
cpl . 
gutierrez was one of the first marines killed in action in iraq . 
as his family told reporters , this young immigrant enlisted with the marine corps because he wanted to `` give back '' to america . 
so here we have it -- asian marines , arab marines , latino marines -- all united in the mission of protecting the rest of us . 
is n't this what reagan meant when he said that the bond that ties our immigrants together -- what makes us a nation instead of a collection of individuals -- is `` an abiding love of liberty '' ? 
so the next time you hear people whining about what a `` drain '' on america our immigrants are , it might be worth asking if they consider these marines a drain . 
maybe this is more clear to businessmen because of what we see every day . 
my company , news corporation , is a multinational company based in america . 
our diversity is based on talent , cooperation and ability . 
frankly it does n't bother me in the least that millions of people are attracted to our shores . 
what we should worry about is the day they no longer find these shores attractive . 
in an era when too many of our pundits declare that the american dream is a fraud , it is america 's immigrants who remind us -- by dint of their success -- that the dream is alive , and well within reach of anyone willing to work for it . 
we are fortunate to have a president who understands that . 
only a few days ago , the white house indicated that it intended to revive an immigration reform which the president had first offered before 9/11 and tried to revive back in january . 
politically speaking , a guest-worker plan is no easy thing . 
but as president bush realizes , we 'll never fix the problem of illegal immigration simply by throwing up walls and trying to make all of us police them . 
we 've tried that for a decade or so now , and it 's been a flop . 
what we need to do first is to make it easier for those who seek honest work to do so without having to disobey our laws . 
fundamentally that means recognizing that an economy as powerful as ours is always going to have a demand for more workers . 
such a policy would benefit us all : it would help those who want nothing more than to work legally move out of the shadows . 
it would help our security forces stop wasting resources now spent on hunting down mexican waitresses and start devoting them to tracking the terrorists who really threaten us . 
it would help the economy by providing america with the labor and talent it needs . 
given the tremendous pressures on president bush and the considerable opposition from within his own ranks , the politically expedient thing for him to do would be to drop it . 
but he has n't , and i for one am encouraged by his refusal to give in . 
the immigrant editor b.c . 
forbes spent much of the 20th century championing the glories of american opportunity . 
we who have arrived more recently likewise will never forget our debt we owe to this land -- and the obligation to keep that same opportunity alive in the 21st . 
mr. murdoch is chairman and chief executive of news corporation . 
this is adapted from a speech he gave last thursday , in acceptance of the 2004 b.c . 
forbes award . 
immigration reform : a 3-legged stool while not a major theme of last fall 's campaign , a debate on immigration reform will be front and center in the early days of the new bush administration . 
early last year , president bush acknowledged that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed . 
for this he deserves credit . 
recognizing that there is a problem is a critical first step toward finding a solution . 
in the past 10 years , more than $ 20 billion has been spent on adding border patrol agents , building fencing and employing technology to prevent border crossings . 
during roughly the same period , however , estimates on the net number of undocumented entering the country have risen from about 300 , 000 per year to about 500 , 000 per year . 
more disturbing is that , in the past five years , more than 2 , 000 migrants have lost their lives perishing in remote portions of the american southwest . 
and yet those who survive the gauntlet of a dangerous border crossing find work in short order . 
our economy needs their manpower : the labor department projects that , by the year 2008 , there will be 6 million more low-skilled jobs available than americans able to fill them . 
at the same time , these workers contribute billions to the tax and social security systems . 
truth be told , our current system , instead of discouraging undocumented migration , makes it inevitable because adequate provisions in law do not exist to match up willing workers from other countries with unfilled jobs here . 
work visas for unskilled workers are absurdly small compared to the demand -- 5 , 000 in the permanent system and up to 66 , 000 in the temporary one . 
family-unity visas can be even scarcer , with waiting times as long as 10 years for mexican families to be reunited with a relative who is a u.s. citizen or legal resident . 
we need immigration reform legislation with three major components , akin to a three-legged stool . 
the administration plan proposed last january addresses only one leg -- employment -- which is insufficient to support the weight on the system . 
first , any new proposal should feature means for undocumented long-term residents to access permanent residency . 
legalization does not necessarily mean amnesty . 
it can be conditioned on any number of criteria including -- for example , `` sweat equity '' the undocumented have already accrued through their work in the united states . 
such a legal remedy would stabilize both immigrant families and the labor force . 
second , it should reform the employment-based legal immigration system in a way that increases legal avenues to work while protecting the rights of both foreign-born and u.s. workers . 
this would permit future flows of workers to enter safely and legally and reduce deaths at the border . 
third , the plan should shorten waiting times under the family reunification system . 
too often , our current system separates husbands from wives and parents from children , a morally unacceptable outcome in a nation built upon the strength of the family . 
anti-immigrant polemicists ignore the human tragedy and familial dislocation enabled by the status quo , while discounting the invaluable contributions immigrants make to our nation . 
americans are , as a whole , fair-minded people . 
we can not continue to accept the benefits of undocumented laborers but be unwilling to extend to them the protection of the law . 
the undocumented are not `` breaking '' the law as much as they are being `` broken '' by the law . 
after our country 's unhappy experience with jim crow `` laws '' that resulted in the creation of a large black underc1ass , we should not repeat the same mistake in tolerating the creation of a large immigrant underc1ass by not affording legal remedies that would afford them the protection of law and the opportunity for upward mobility . 
we applaud the president for recognizing how the present immigration regime hurts both americans and undocumented immigrants in america . 
the new congress should work with president bush to enact a comprehensive solution to our immigration crisis . 
only such a `` three-legged '' comprehensive approach will protect human rights and prepare our nation for the challenges of the future . 
for doable policy resolving the dilemma posed by many millions of `` undocumented '' workers in america requires compromise that few will find completely satisfying . 
temporary work permits will please neither those who want all illegal immigrants deported nor those who want another round of amnesty . 
amnesty is politically untenable , and deporting millions of people is not doable . 
it would require enormous amounts of money and manpower from a government that is already strapped to meet current social obligations and international commitments . 
president bush told reporters recently that he wants u.s. border patrol agents chasing `` crooks and thieves and drug-runners and terrorists , not good-hearted people who are coming here to work. '' the president is seeking levelheaded immigration legislation that could improve domestic security and put policy in line with the needs of the globalized american economy . 
the most sensible approach would offer legitimacy to those who have worked diligently in america , while imposing and enforcing tough employer sanctions against companies that continue to employ undocumented workers . 
this would weaken the so-called magnet effect that lures otherwise law-abiding people to jump the border . 
such a policy requires several key provisions . 
one would obligate illegal immigrants to come out of the shadows to prove their identities in return for some form of legitimate status . 
this type of trade-off serves u.s. interests by identifying those who are here `` to work , '' as the president has said . 
bringing them out of the woodwork would allow law enforcement agents to focus more sharply on catching those who are here to do harm . 
a reform bill should take into account the brainpower needs of the u.s. economy . 
there are untold numbers of people around the world who are standing in line to legally enter the united states , and many of these would-be immigrants possess skills that american employers need . 
since the sept . 
11 attacks , this process has become cumbersome and counterproductive . 
immigration reform should streamline the process for granting skilled foreigners access to the united states , particularly those well-suited for workplaces that have a tough time finding qualified hands . 
there 's no reason the united states ca n't have a policy that promotes safety while meeting the needs of the workplace . 
congress and the white house can find suitable resolutions to the security , social and labor quandaries posed by immigration if prejudices and stigmas are shoved aside in favor of rational proposals that bolster u.s. security and global competitiveness . 
