Shelbyville, TN- The Senate voted to pass changes to the U.S. immigration law on Thursday. Jim Tracy, a candidate for Congress in the 4th Congressional District in Tennessee, urged Congress to take a hard look at border security and gain input from the border states.
“It is my hope that the House will reject this bill and focus instead on the most pressing problem in immigration and that is securing the border while rejecting amnesty. The attempts in this bill to deal with border security don’t pass muster because they leave certification of border security up to Congress or a Congressionally appointed group. That’s asking the fox to guard the henhouse and it’s bound to fail,” said Tracy.
The bill passed with a 68-32 vote and is now headed to the House of Representatives.
Jim Tracy stated, “Certification of border security has to come from outside of Washington to have any credibility. This means including the border states in the process, whether it is the border state governors, or legislatures, or both, but it definitely needs to come from outside Washington and the federal government. As I’ve already indicated, we should not grant the illegals currently here a new legal status until we secure the border. There is no point in bailing out the boat until you put the plug in. I believe the current bill needs to be broken up. We should first pass a border security bill with real, border state certification. The voters across the 4th district tell me they are downright angry that this bill is being loaded up with pork, and rightfully so. Most voters are sick of pork in general but they especially hate it when Congress loads up critically important legislation like this.”
Jim Tracy was the prime sponsor of E-Verify legislation in the Tennessee State Senate in 2011. Senate Bill 1669 became Public Chapter 436 passing the Tennessee House and Senate by overwhelming majorities.
