Immigration, Border Security and Deportation in America

The first duty of the American government

is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

Not only in the states most heavily affected,

but in every place in this country

are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country.

The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants.

The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers.

That's why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more,

by hiring a record number of new border guards,

by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before,

by cracking down on illegal hiring,

by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.

In the budget I will present to you,

we will try to do more

to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes,

to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace

as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan.

We are a nation of immigrants.

But we are also a nation of laws.

It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants

to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years

and we must do more to stop it.