FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Senate Passes Isakson Amendment Calling on
U.S. and Mexico to Improve Border Security
Isakson National Security Amendment Added to Homeland Security Funding Bill

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate unanimously passed an amendment by Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) acknowledging that terrorists and other illegal immigrants are taking advantage of inadequate security along the U.S.-Mexico border and calling on both nations to address the urgent need for increased protection and enforcement on the border.

The Senate unanimously adopted Isakson’s “Sense of the Senate” amendment to the Homeland Security funding bill Monday night in which he expressed the following:

• This Nation cannot thoroughly address the security of the United States without recognizing the reality of terrorists taking advantage of inadequacies in border security along the border between United States and Mexico;
  
• Every effort should be made to increase the technology and efficiency in preventing these individuals from entering the United States across the Mexican border;
  
• The Mexican government has an obligation to secure its side of the border between the United States and Mexico; and
  
• The Mexican government must commit to addressing inadequacies in its own domestic and border security policies, which are contributing to the present dilemma in border security.

“My amendment calls on the government of Mexico to assist in helping to secure the border between the United States and Mexico to ensure that those who immigrate into this country are coming in consistent with the laws of the United States of America,” Isakson said on the Senate floor. “We have a great trading partner to the south. We have a great neighbor to the south. We have a country that shares many common interests. We have a country that we enjoy being our neighbor. We also would like for them to be our partner in seeing to it that the border we share is secure so that those who are crossing are crossing legally and consistent with the laws of that nation.”

Two weeks ago, Isakson co-sponsored a bill to give state and local law enforcement officers the authority to help the Department of Homeland Security enforce the nation’s immigration laws, including improving the government’s ability to deport illegal aliens who have been ordered to leave the country.

In April, Isakson of fered an amendment, referred to as the REAL ID Act, to the Senate’s Iraq supplemental spending bill that incorporated several immigration reform measures critical to national security. The REAL ID measures including national standards for driver’s licenses and identification cards, stricter asylum requirements and the completion of a security fence along the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego were included in the final version of the bill that became law.