Rep. Barrow: Enforcement before Considering Legalization
In an interview with Breitbart.com, Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) made it clear that the federal government should enforce existing immigration laws, secure the border, and mandate E-Verify before even considering an amnesty for the nation's 11 million illegal aliens. Earlier this year, Rep. Barrow introduced the Keeping the Promise of IRCA Act, H.R. 2124, that would fulfill the enforcement provisions in the 1986 amnesty that were never completed. The bill would provide needed resources at the border, allow ICE agents to enforce existing immigration laws, and mandate the use of E-Verify.
Among all Democrats in Congress, Rep. Barrow has the highest immigration-reduction grade and is the only Democratic Member to have an A-grade.
"Well what I think we need to do is secure the border and secure the jobs and secure the benefits," Rep. Barrow said. "We need to do that before we do anything else about the humanitarian and economic problems of having 11 million people in this country who are here illegally. We need take care of first things first. A preacher I know of used to say 'the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.' And the main thing we got to do as the government is to secure the border first and secure the jobs in this country."
"What they [those pushing amnesty efforts] don't realize is we must take care of the problem at its source or we'll be in the same spot 25 years from now, if not worse, that we are in right now 25 years after the last time this effort was made. Back in 1986, we were promised border security in exchange for amnesty. We got the amnesty but no border security."
To read the full interview, see Breitbart.com.