Q&A: Chertoff's Immigration Odyssey
For months, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff and Commerce Department Secretary Carlos Gutierrez have worked behind the scenes to craft the immigration proposal being heatedly debated by the Senate this week. Working with a group led by conservative Sen. Jon Kyl and liberal Sen. Ted Kennedy, the two crafted a grand bargain, a proposal that allows the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country to legalize their status. The bill pleases many Democrats but also plays to Republican aims by limiting the role of family ties in future immigration decisions in favor of focusing on crucial skills and education.
This week the fragile compromise could be derailed by amendments offered by dissatisfied former members of the negotiating team. As the Senate heads back into the debate, Chertoff sat down with U.S. Newsto outline the week ahead and explain why he decided to donate so many months to the legislation.
Do you think your department can fully secure the U.S. borders if the immigration compromise falls apart and a guest-worker bill doesn't pass this year?
[In the last year,] I think we have made a huge stride forward [towards securing the border], but at the end of the day, I really do believe that to close the deal you've got to have a temporary worker program. Because right now, in a sense, when we catch people and we deport them there is no deterrent to them trying to get in again. The one thing the temporary worker program does is it gives people on the outside who want to work here something to lose because if they get caught crossing the border illegally right now, that's it— they're never going to be eligible for the [guest worker] program. It's going to give us a leverage we haven't had before and we need to have that carrot as well as a stick.
What will you do this week to try to keep the deal you've crafted together?
You know, it's very fluid— I've left a lot of it open because my experience the last time around is that there will be a lot of meetings, a lot of questions about what is the administration's position on this, that, or the other thing. I'm basically ready to spend a lot of time on Capitol Hill. And there's also going to be a lot of media outreach because a huge part of this is educating the public because I think the facts are on the side of this bill, notwithstanding the fact that you can always criticize at the margins. I think the fundamental structure of the bill is sound and is the kind of the sweet spot between the different groups.
My observation has been the more you talk about it, the more people understand it, so for me, particularly this week, a huge part of what we're doing is making sure people hear the full story of what we're doing at the border, so they don't just hear a sound bite here and a sound bite there, and it generates into a finger-pointing and hurling of epithets.
What do you think of the intensity of the anti amnesty rhetoric this year? Does it make it hard for you to continue pushing so hard for this bill?
I respect the strong views on different sides of the issue, and I respect my friends who strongly disagree with the bill because they don't like any possibility of regularizing the 12 million [illegal immigrants already in the country], but I have to say I respectfully think that they're wrong. I have not heard another solution. I guess nobody's claiming anymore that they really want to deport them all, what I'm hearing is what I saw [Washington Post columnist] George Will say, which is benign neglect of illegal immigrants in the hope they leave on their own. Well, what is that but silent amnesty? What does that really mean, you're going to just ignore them? Is that a cure for the problem? If it was a problem a year ago, it's still a problem today. I'd rather put these people in a visible system and then focus on the ones that aren't going to be legalized because they're criminals and have committed crimes in the U.S.
You've worked on this for months. Did you realize it was going to be such a giant commitment when you began working on this?
I've spent much more time on this piece of legislation than I ever dreamed I would spend on a piece of legislation. It's taken much more time than we ever expected.
What motivated you to get so involved?
The president asked Secretary Gutierrez and me to get involved and be much more active this year than was the case last year. I was particularly interested in making sure that whatever came out of Congress was workable—that it wasn't just an accumulation of compromises that scratched a lot of political itches but at the end of the day couldn't be made to work.
Many commentators have said President Bush wants to make reforming the immigration system a hallmark of his legacy. Is this legislative effort something you hope will be a key part of your legacy as well?
I'm always hesitant to talk about legacy. I hope that my legacy is defined by a well - functioning department. I would like to think that there would be a lot of satisfaction in accomplishing something [on the immigration issue]. Fixing a big problem in a way that maybe is not perfect but is sensible and really moves the ball forward. That seems to me to be a reward in its own self, and that's why you do these jobs. It's certainly not for the pay.