WASHINGTON – U.S. Congresswoman Candice Miller (MI-10) today made the following statement regarding President Obama’s speech on our nation’s border security and immigration reform:

“The American people understand clearly that our borders are not secure. Violent drug cartels operate with near impunity around our southern border exporting poisons and violence into our nation. Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants continue to steam into our nation each year. While I agree that the federal government should work toward comprehensive immigration reform to fix our broken system, I stand with the American people who are demanding that before any such reform is sought that our border must be secure. I also stand with the American people in opposing an amnesty program that allows those who broke our laws when entering our nation a place at the front of the line.

“As the Ranking Republican on the Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism Sub Committee of the House Homeland Security Committee I stand ready to work with the Administration and my colleagues in Congress toward securing our border. Securing our border means stopping the flow of illegal immigrants. It means strict enforcement against employers who hire illegal immigrants while providing employers with an efficient means of verification of legal status of potential workers so they can more easily comply with the law. It means enforcing our current immigration laws against those who are caught in our nation illegally. And it means supporting states like Arizona who seek only to enforce the law to protect their communities.

“The American people simply will not support any sort of comprehensive immigration reform until our borders are absolutely secure. President Obama admitted today that the border is not secure so let’s get to work on fixing that problem first.”

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