Q. Senator Robert Byrd said yesterday, "We cannot expect intelligence reform without closing these gaps in illegal immigration," while The Washington Times editorial today said, "Three years after September 11th and still our immigration system is in tatters." And my first question: How many illegals are in the U.S. and how many are arriving in this country every day in the Bush administration's estimate?
MR. McCLELLAN: You can check with the immigration people on the latest statistics, but I think there have been a number of estimates around the 8 million range of people. But the President, what he is working to do is to strengthen our border security and to strengthen our controls along the border to prevent people who should not be entering the country, like terrorists or criminals, from coming into the country, while also making sure that we remain a welcoming society. We are a nation of immigrants, and the President believes in those core principles that we should remain a welcoming society, but we also need to take steps to strengthen our border enforcement.
And this legislation the President will be signing into law takes a number of steps to do that, by increasing the number of border control agents, increasing the number of agents in the immigration and Custom services over the next five years by a certain amount on each of those. And there's more that we can do, and the President talked about how he looked forward to continuing to work with Congress.
The President has also put forward a plan based on some specific principles for moving forward on a temporary worker program that would address some of the economic need in this country, while also addressing the issue of people coming to this country from Mexico and other countries to our south who are seeking a better way of life. Ultimately, what we need to do is continue to expand trade opportunities so that we can raise the standard of living in other countries so that people will be less inclined to want to come here to seek a better way of life. Many of these people are just coming to the United States to seek a better way of life....
Q. All right, turning back to immigration. The question, there seems to be kind of a disconnect between the administration and Chairman Sensenbrenner. At his press conference yesterday, he said that he's in agreement with the White House on asylum, but there are disagreements, or he doesn't know the administration's position on the driver's license issue for illegal immigrants, or extending the fence along the border. Do you think you can clear up those two points that Chairman Sensenbrenner raised?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, what the President has said, he looks forward to talking with members early next year about some of the other ideas. Chairman Sensenbrenner certainly had some ideas. We spelled out some of our views on those issues in letters that we sent to members of Congress -- one this week and one back in October, if I remember correctly. And so the President looks forward to talking with people about those issues.
In terms of driver's license, the President stated that we need to consult closely with states about the standards that we're talking about setting. So that's his view there.
Q. Scott, on the intelligence bill, some of the things that didn't make it are the key issues regarding immigration that Mr. Sensenbrenner and others have raised, including driver's licenses for immigrants. The President has indicated he will cooperate with an effort to address those issues early on next year. Does the White House have a position at this point on driver's licenses? Are there other issues in the immigration area that it thinks need to be addressed?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, the President believes our immigration laws do need to be strengthened. And this legislation takes several steps towards that goal. I would point out that this legislation increases the Border Patrol agents by 2,000 in each of the next five fiscal years. It increases the Immigration and Customs enforcement agents by 800 in each of the coming fiscal years. And it increases criminal penalties for illegal -- for smuggling and harboring of illegal immigrants. And it has some other measures in there that help us strengthen our immigration laws.
The President did previously, in a letter to Congress, express his views on some of those other issues, and you mentioned one. I mean, he talked about how he -- and he talked about in his most recent letter how he looked forward to talking with Congress early next year to look at ways that we can improve our asylum laws, as well as improve standards for issuing driver's licenses, and he felt that that is an issue that needs to be discussed closely with the states as we move forward....
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