Sen. Isakson Weighs in on Immigration Bill

Senator Isakson is in the process of reviewing the bill and did not say how he plans to vote on the measure. But he says his main focus will be on border security.

“Until I’m convinced that it’s border security first as a predicate for any other immigration reform than I have a problem with it, so we’re going through the border security provisions now to make sure we’re doing everything possible to see to it the border to the southwest of the United States is sealed.”

Isakson says one way to help fix the nation’s current system is to match immigrants with identifying characteristics such as fingerprints on documents like work permits and visas.

“If you don’t do that you’re just fooling yourself. Our biggest problem in this country has been after Reagan and Congress passed the immigration law, they didn’t reform our visa laws, they didn’t reform the way in which people could be identified, so paper and pencil documents were forged to show they were somebody other than who they really were.”

The other portion of the current bill would allow the majority of the nation’s undocumented immigrants to apply for temporary legal status. The status would have to be renewed and would allow those who receive it to temporarily live and work in the U.S.  Within a decade, those immigrants could apply for a green card and U.S. citizenship three years later. Isakson would not say whether he supports that part of the bill, but he also didn’t shoot it down. He says the plan would bring people out of the shadows that have in effect broken the law so you can identify them.

“Then they have to be fined, they have to plead to an offense and all those type of things, but the great thing about that is it tells the American people that no longer is our immigration policy going to be a trap that’s bated, because if you weren’t in the country before December 31 of 2011 you can’t apply for that status and nobody in the future ever will again.”

In the meantime, Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid is expressing optimism about passing the legislation. But even if it’s approved by the Senate, some political experts say GOP lawmakers in the House could kill any chance of reform.