Speech #820170259

Unless the wetback can be found on the property. and strong evidence of the employers willful and knowing action to harbor or conceal him can be produced. the proviso of paragraph (4) of section 1. of this bill exempting employment from definition as "harboring." will permit the employer to laugh at the law. And remember that the law is necessary only because of this same employers activities. The bill would limit authority to issue administrative search warrants to six officials in the three Immigration Service districts between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coastan area of thousands of square miles. and the area now most blighted by the influx of wetbacks. It would limit the search authority to one Immigration officer named therein who. in many cases involving the most flagrant offenders. would have to cover hundreds or thousands of acres. It would limit the use of the warrant to a certain specified time of the day or night. and it places a 30day time limit upon the period in which the warrant could be used. Judge for yourself the hopelessness of making any effective use of such a system with all the opportunities for giving warning in advance to the suspected offenders. The time required to prepare evidence. travel possibly hundreds of miles to a district immigration office to secure a warrant and return to make a search. would give ample time for the offending farm or farms to move their wetbacks out or lend them to a neighboring farm long before the enforcement officer could hope to put the warrant into the limited effect possible. The employer would need to remove his wetbacks only for the hour named in the warrant. and could at any other time put them to work in the fields while he laughed at the officer outside the fences. What a farce. It is a well known fact that the associations of large farmers have more than enough friends in a position to know of warrants. as issued. that they need never fear the effects of such a procedure. Until our law enforcement authorities are given power to act immediately on reasonably sufficient information that illegal aliens are employed on any particular farm. and until we provide enough officers to give effective coverage to the large farming sections of the affected areas. we cannot hope to cure the wetback problem and its attendant evils. No law is any better than its enforcement provisions. S. 1851. without more drastic powers for uncovering evidence of violations. would be hardly better than no law at all. I shall most certainly support any amendment designed to replace the procedures I have outlined. Authorized immigration service officers should not be hamstrung in apprehending illegal aliens whom they have valid reason to believe are in a particular area. They should be provided with the authority to enter farm lands when acting in their official capacities and in the performance of their duty. Without that authority practically the whole of the Southwest becomes a sanctuary within which the authorities are powerless to act effectively.