Texans take note: Obama's heart isn't in immigration reform

By Sen. John Cornyn/Special To The Express-News

Published: 12:00 a.m., Saturday, January 29, 2011

What was missing during President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night? I believe one of his biggest omissions was a credible commitment to border security and immigration reform.

Make no mistake: job creation and fiscal discipline are the top priorities of the new Congress. So the president was wise to speak to those issues, and his proposal to freeze some parts of the federal budget could be a small step in the right direction. But we've all heard his promises before and been disappointed. Many Texans have learned to withhold judgment until the administration's real intentions are clear, and to focus our attention on the president's actions rather than his words.

On immigration reform, the president's words and actions amount to very little. Last year, he devoted only 38 words in his State of the Union address to the subject, and never seriously engaged Congress on immigration reform. This year, the president once again mentioned immigration only in passing. It's hard to be optimistic about a credible immigration reform proposal coming from this White House.

Yet immigration reform remains a priority for Texas and the nation. Border violence is unacceptably high. Rivalries among drug cartels have claimed more than 30,000 lives in Mexico during recent years. Many areas across our border are not safe for our citizens nor for our friends in Mexico.

Texans in the Rio Grande Valley can attest that many individuals crossing the border come from much farther away than Mexico. In the last fiscal year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection saw an increase in apprehensions of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Yemen. They detained more than a dozen each from Iran and Iraq. Some of these nations harbor terrorists. Washington's failure to secure our border puts local residents at risk and jeopardizes national security.

The need to secure our border and reform our immigration system is clear, but so are the challenges. The last Congress poisoned the well for comprehensive bills after the failure of the stimulus bill and the debacle over health care reform. A national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent — including 13 percent in the Hispanic community — also makes job creation a higher priority for most Americans. According to a Pew Hispanic Poll conducted before the November elections, immigration reform was the fourth-highest priority for Hispanics, behind education, jobs, and heath care.

Despite the challenges, immigration reform remains a federal responsibility and a national imperative. We must find a credible and compassionate solution to the 12 million illegal immigrants living in this country. We must address the millions who come here legally but overstay their visas. We must honor those who have played by the rules of our broken system.

My commitment to fix our broken system has not wavered. I sponsored several immigration reform bills over the past few years. Some were comprehensive, while others addressed specific challenges like strengthening border security, modernizing visa programs, and upgrading ports of entry. Unlike some of my colleagues, I don't believe it's helpful to introduce an immigration bill that has no chance of passage. A successful bill will depend on restoring Americans' confidence that Washington will live up to its commitments.

Only the president can demonstrate that the executive branch can be trusted to enforce the law and assure the American people that this time comprehensive immigration reform will end illegal immigration once and for all. President Obama did not make that case Tuesday night. Several of us who support immigration reform are wondering if he ever will.