The ability to openly disagree with, and within, our government without fear of persecution is one of the many rights enacted by our forefathers that has kept America strong for more than 200 years. Consequently, President Bush's recently proposed "Fair and Secure Immigration Reform," is a proposal that I must respectfully, but adamantly, disagree with. And although this proposal attempts to match "willing workers with willing U.S. employers" and encourage border control efforts to be coordinated with countries willing to work with the United States, it falls short in those areas and also grants temporary, legal work status to illegal aliens currently working in the United States.

Immigration is arguably one of the largest security and social issues facing our nation today. I have been informed that more than one million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the United States each year, impacting our education, health care, government budgets, employment, crime and countless other areas of American life. There is strong evidence in Georgia's 10th Congressional District to support this claim.

And while I applaud the President's efforts to bring immigration reform to the forefront of Congressional debate, I strongly disagree with the way in which he proposes to approach the problem. I support a reformed guest worker program. However, I am dismayed by the President's claim that he is against amnesty, when, in fact, he proposes exactly that.

While the plan he has outlined does not include a blanket amnesty, the President has instead proposed an earned amnesty to grant temporary status to those illegal immigrants currently employed in the United States. Additionally, the three-year guest worker program would be renewable for a yet-to-be-determined number of times, and the worker's years as a guest worker could count towards his/her naturalization. We are a nation of laws. To reward immigrants who are in this country illegally, and to pardon employers who hire undocumented aliens, undermines our country's immigration law.

To make matters worse, the President's proposal allows guest workers to bring their immediate families with them to the United States. While the proposal includes financial "incentives" for guest workers to return to their home country, families who have children while in the United States will have a child who is a U.S. citizen. Thus, the minimal financial incentive to return home is weakened.

To demonstrate my concern with the multifaceted problems created by this so-called birthright citizenship, I introduced in this Congress H.R. 1567, the Citizenship Reform Act. Specifically, my proposed legislation would do away with the practice of granting such citizenship by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to limit automatic citizenship at birth to a child born in the United States to a parent who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The President fails to address this important issue of birthright citizenship in his immigration reform proposal.

Additionally, the President has proposed allowance for the guest worker, along with his/her family, to travel freely back and forth across the border during their stay here, yet the plan calls for no additional border security. My cosponsorship of H.R. 277, to put troops on the U.S. borders, underscores my feelings about border security. The security breach created by the President's proposal simply cannot be controlled without additional enforcement. Consider the increase in the flow of traffic across the border once the 9 million illegal immigrants are given temporary status with the ability to freely travel back and forth across the border.

Our limited number of border patrol agents already face a nearly impossible challenge to patrol the 6,000 miles of Mexican and Canadian international land borders, plus the 2,000 miles of coastal waters surrounding the Florida Peninsula and the island of Puerto Rico. To increase the flow of traffic and maintain the same expectation of security by the same limited number of agents jeopardizes our homeland security at a time when homeland security clearly needs to be a top priority.

Again, I welcome the opportunity to work with the Administration and other Members of Congress toward comprehensive immigration reform. However, I have grave reservations about the President's proposal. I will not support amnesty, nor will I support any proposal that does not incorporate additional interior and border enforcement. Granting temporary status to workers who are already in this country not only rewards those who have broken our laws, but also makes room for more illegal immigrants.