NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Well, get this, farmers in North Carolina kicking off a campaign today, pushing for the approval of the immigration bill in the Senate. They simply want the workers. Many conservatives still bashing it, calling it outright amnesty. Liberals are complaining, saying that it will shatter families and is simply too expensive for illegals. With me now, U.S. commerce secretary, Carlos Gutierrez.
Secretary, good to have you.
CARLOS GUTIERREZ, COMMERCE SECRETARY: Neil, how are you? CAVUTO: I’m sure you are familiar with the wrath you are getting more from conservative Republicans than anyone else, and that this issue seems to be imploding on the administration. Is it? GUTIERREZ: Well, we think that as the word gets out and as people understand the bill, I think they will see the logic in it. You know, this is a compromise. And as part of the art of compromise, not everyone achieved what they wanted, but everyone got a little bit of something. So by definition, there are imperfections.
And everyone, everyone can find some fault in it. But the bottom line is that it is a bill that moves us forward and it is a lot better than the status quo.
CAVUTO: But here is the thing, Secretary.
GUTIERREZ: But that is.
CAVUTO: The rap against it is it does very little to prevent future illegals from coming here. In other words, going after employers who willfully and knowingly hire illegals, it is little more than a slap on the wrist. What do you say? GUTIERREZ: No. That is not the way it works. In fact, a feature of the bill is that we have a -- what we call triggers that we will not start the temporary workers program or issue the Z visas until we have the border totally secure, we have the fence, we have the towers, we have the surveillance systems, we have got the Border Patrols and until we have an employee verification system in place that will enable us to enforce the law and insure employers are hiring the right people.
We also have some — a lot stiffer fines for employers who hire illegal workers under the new system. So that is absolutely no so.
CAVUTO: Should those — but let me ask you, Secretary, and I don’t even know if it is part of the final measure that will be agreed on by all parties, if it ever comes to that, but do you think, as the commerce secretary of the United States that employers who willfully hire people who are here illegally should go to jail? GUTIERREZ: I think we need put things into perspective and we should have a punishment that is suitable for the crime. And we have.
CAVUTO: So you say a fine is enough? A fine is enough? GUTIERREZ: Well, it depends on the amount of the fine. But we have fines in the bill per worker. You know, if you go back far enough, there were fines for the employer regardless of how many workers.
We have got some stiff fines per worker that will hurt, that you can’t — you know, you can’t just see this as a cost of doing business. Bottom line, Neil, is our economy needs this. We are going to be in trouble if we don’t have a legal form — a legal system for immigration that will provide us with the work force that we need to grow.
CAVUTO: OK. Secretary, thank you very, very much. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, thank you, sir.
GUTIERREZ: Thank you, Neil.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
