PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS December 7, 2007 NAFBPO endorses SAVE Act, HR 4088, now pending in Congress.    Association spokesman Roger P. Brandemuehl, a retired Chief of the Border Patrol, said today, "Our extensive field experience tells us that the only solution to controlling illegal immigration is strong border controls backed up by a workplace verification program that eliminates the economic draw that brings illegal aliens to this country." Brandemuehl went on to say that the endorsement is qualified.  "We support the bill and its overall intent.  We like Sections 201 – 205, which provide for employer verification of employability and enforcement of those provisions.  Enforcing restrictions on illegal employment will provide a systematic means for guaranteeing this nation a legal workforce.  However, we believe that some issues must still be addressed." There must be a secure document used to prove employment eligibility.  Social Security cards are routinely used to prove employability, but they are vulnerable to counterfeiting and fraud.  Improved safeguards against fraudulent use would make the Social Security card the best vehicle by which to demonstrate employment eligibility.  We note that HR 4088 is silent on requiring the Social Security Administration to provide antifraud measures for SS cards.  To have the Social Security card become a secure document should be an integral part of ensuring a legal workforce.  It is critical to the success of HR 4008, for as long as easily counterfeited documents can be used to circumvent the law no amount of legislation will improve the situation. The penalties proposed for employer non-compliance are not strict enough.  If we are to have a meaningful employment verification program, then penalties must be stiff enough that employers will not be willing to risk them—they cannot be set at a level that allows them to be considered a cost of business.  This is particularly true with respect to knowing violations of the law, or violations in reckless disregard of it. Finally, Congress has often passed legislation and authorized programs, but failed to fund them.  A repeat of that pattern will turn this legislation into one more exercise in futility in the long line of failed efforts to secure our nation's borders.  If true immigration reform is to become a reality, if the country is serious about controlling illegal immigration, then all aspects of the proposed bill must be funded and vigorously enforced.  With that in mind, we call upon the Congress to add a preamble to this legislation saying that it is the intent of the Congress that it be vigorously enforced.  NAFBPO is a group of former Border Patrol and Immigration Officers.  From time to time, they offer thoughts based on their collective millennia of experience in dealing with immigration issues.  Their stated mission is to contribute to the security and stability of the United States by being advocates for immigration laws and policies that serve our national interests.   Kent Lundgren Chairman National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (509) 961-7001