Washington, D.C. - U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-The Woodlands) issued the following statement after voting against H.R. 3722 The Undocumented Alien Emergency Medical Assistance Amendments of 2004.  This bill failed 88-331. 

 

“Illegal immigration in the United States has reached a critical point.  Congress needs to get serious about shutting the door on illegal immigration. 

 

“Rather than deputize nurses in the hospital emergency room, we need to put more agents on the borders, prosecute employers who willfully hire illegal immigrants, and allow federal and local law enforcement agencies to work together to detain and deport illegal aliens that commit crimes on our streets. 

 

“At times I get so frustrated with how poorly the federal government protects our borders that even a gimmick like this legislation is tempting. But forcing everyone who arrives at the ER without a passport or birth certificate to surrender their finger prints or their DNA isn’t going to stop one illegal immigrant from crossing the border.  That’s one of the many unintended consequences of this bill.”

 

“I know this legislation is well intentioned, but it’s so poorly written it actually creates more problems than it solves. For example, what frightens me as much as rampant illegal immigration is the thought of Washington amassing a permanent, national database complete with fingerprints and DNA of law abiding citizens who go to the emergency room without a passport. That’s intrusive of personal freedom, wasteful and ineffective. Unfortunately, that’s what the bill requires because hospitals must treat all patients equally who have no ready proof of citizenship – which most Americans don’t carry on them.

 

“When it comes to enforcing our immigration laws, we can do much, much better.”

 

 

Here are a few of the real solutions Congressman Brady supports to combat the onslaught of illegal immigration in the United States:

 

CLEAR Act (H.R. 2671):  Allows local law enforcement to detain and deport any illegal immigrant arrested for committing a crime in the U.S. (Rep. Brady a co-sponsor)

 

Anchor Babies (H.R. 1567): Denies automatic citizenship to American born infants of illegal immigrants.  Some illegal immigrants use the birth of their child to “anchor” them in the US – hoping that the baby’s automatic U.S. citizenship will help them stay in the country permanently. (Rep. Brady a co-sponsor)

 

Strengthening Border Security by Use of Military (H.R.277): Authorizes the Secretary of Defense to assign members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps to assist the Department of Homeland Security in the performance of border protection functions. (Rep. Brady is a co-sponsor)

 

Congressman Kevin Brady opposes amnesty and proposed guest worker programs.  Before our nation considers any type of guest worker program, we need to secure our nation’s borders and better enforce the immigration laws we have on the books.  When we throw open the doors to “guest workers” without accountability measures in place, we offer illegal aliens the hope of amnesty.  This is wrong and only encourages more illegal immigration.