Is South Carolina about to pull an Arizona? Illegal immigration has become a hot topic around the nation and there's even discussion that South Carolina may pass a similar law to Arizona.
Senator Graham thinks the best way to solve immigration is for the federal government to "secure our borders and have a national immigration policy". His hope is to sit down with some Democrats and Republicans, and come up with a comprehensive immigration plan that would make people feel like they are secure and immigration system is no longer broken.
But securing the border has been a topic of conversation since the mid 1980s and lacks credibility with voters. How can politicians convince the public otherwise? According to Senator Graham, the key to border immigration reform is confidence. "Why would you give these 12 million a second chance if we are going to have 20 million more in the future? People ask me all the time if we give them a second chance which I'm not opposed to in principle, convince me we won't have 20 million more. And that is the key."
Senator Graham questions the President's commitment to securing our borders saying, "if he would show as much urgency now about securing the border it would help me and other people be able to work with him to solve the other parts of the problem. But this lackadaisical attitude about border security makes it impossible to do a comprehensive bill. The President should go to the border like he's going down to Louisiana, spend a night in Arizona or Texas, understand why people feel so frustrated, take a tour of the southern border and come back to Congress with an agenda to fix it and get 80, 90 votes for strong border security in 2010. In 2011 we'll deal with the other parts of the problem."