Sen. John Cornyn from the floor of the Senate this morning:

"I was forwarded a copy of a transcript of an interview with a White House official yesterday commenting on some remarks I made surrounding the immigration bill.

I have argued that the current bill sets DHS up for failure because it requires DHS to grant full work and travel authorization to illegal aliens within 24 hours of their application whether they have completed a background check or not.

That is the text of the current immigration bill.

The White House yesterday told reporters that I was perpetuating “misunderstanding and mythology” about the provision.

First, let me quote from the text of the provision. It reads:

601 (h) (2) Timing of Probationary Benefits.—No probationary benefits shall be issued to an alien until the alien has passed all appropriate background checks or the end of the next business day, whichever is sooner.

That is what the bill says. I know people that draft language believe it is the perfect draft and believe it should attain mythical status, but this is pretty straightforward. If an alien applies, he gets legal status, full travel and work authorization, no later than the next day.

Now, the White House official believes that this provision is workable because, as he says, “Four of the layers of that background check are almost invariably completed within 24 hours.”

Almost always completing a background check within 24 hours is not always completing a background check within 24 hours. Additionally, he acknowledges that one of the checks takes longer than 24 hours. So by his own admission, DHS will be granting full legal rights to nearly every applicant even though they who have NOT completed a background check.

This is not what the American people are hearing when they are selling this bill. The American people are being told that aliens will have to pass a background check before they are granted legal status. This is not true according to the text of the underlying bill and it is not factually possible according to the lead negotiator from the White House.

Not to be deterred by fact, the White House official believes this should be of no concern because if anything comes up in the background check beyond the 24 hours then DHS will declare the person ineligible and deport them.

Certainly that is a concept we all can support, that is if someone is ineligible they should be deported.

My concern is the gulf between the promise being made to the American people and the likelihood that that promise will actually be carried out. The White House negotiator says that this is of no concern because they will just declare them ineligible and deport them. But, the question is will they? If they already have this capability why has nothing been done about criminal aliens already?

Right now there are approximately 600,000 fugitive absconders, including criminal fugitives, in the United States. DHS has created a unit designed solely to track down, apprehend and deport these fugitives. However, there is no appreciable dent in this number. And DHS has information on these people as well.

But let's keep in mind that as the Department of Homeland Security is so diligently tracking down the thousands of criminal aliens that their all-inclusive background checks have uncovered, that there are a myriad of others changes which they will have to affect.

1) hire, train, and deploy up to 20,000 border patrol agents

2) implement a worker verification system to screen over 200 million workers throughout the country

3) build up to 370 miles of fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers.

4) deploy the secure border initiative

5) deploy the exit monitoring system of US Visit

6) process 12 million initial applicants for Z visas

(7) build 105 radar and camera towers

(8) detain all removable aliens caught on the southern border utilizing detention facilities with a capacity of only 31,500 people per day

All this while keeping up with current demand in applications and preparing to re-implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative which clogged our passport process and proved the government's inability to handle such enormous undertakings as the one proposed.

That's a tough sell to say the least, Mr. President. Especially from an Administration that, as of two years ago, was doing absolutely nothing to beef up border security. It was routinely objecting to Congressional requests for more border agents and other border enforcement measures, and doing nothing to increase other infrastructure improvements needed to enforce our laws.

So once again, I fear that like in 1986, we are promising something to the American people that we cannot deliver. We should slow down, read this bill, and make sure it works."