Speech #830055139

That number at most is between 80.000 and 100.000 a year. What is not understood. and. in my opinion. what constitutes a grave danger both to the security and to the economy of the United States. is that nearly 1 million socalled wetbacks enter the United States illegally. merely by walking across the Mexican border into the United States. usually over the Rio Grande River. That unregulated flow of completely illegal immigration is a great menace. yet the effort made to prevent this illegal immigration is only halfhearted. Among that great number of nearly 1 million persons. any number of subversives could enter the United States. and the McCarranWalter Act is very weak. indeed. in its provisions to stop this great and dangerous flood of illegal immigration. These persons are a menace to the security of the United States. because there is no practical control of the subversives who. in that way. can enter the United States in large numbers. Their entry constitutes a danger not only to our security but also to the economy of the Nation because such illegal immigrants compete in the South and in the Southwest with American labor. but they work for wages far lower than the wages paid American labor. Their entry is a threat to the economy of the North as well as the South. Many of these illegal aliens go. northin fact. many of them go as far north as Michigan and Minnesotaand there compete with American labor. for cutthroat wages. They are employed on farms in the South and Southwest at virtually any wages the farmers may determine to pay them. because there is always hanging over these persons a threat that the farmer can report them as illegally in the United States and can compel their return to Mexico. Mr. President. last year. when the appropriation bill was before the Senate. we were faced again with the proposal to appropriate the paltry sum of $6 million for the purpose of detecting and preventing the influx of illegal immigrants. I recall that my distinguished colleague. the Senator from Illinois . and I submitted an amendment to increase the appropriation. But we had no chance of success. and our amendment was defeated. Then we submitted an amendmentI believe that my distinguished colleague. the Senator from Illinois. and I were the two Senators who submitted itproposing to make it a misdemeanor for anyonein the United States to employ immigrants who entered the country illegally. when such employers knew the immigrants were illegally in the United States. but employed them wittingly. with that knowledge at their disposal. That amendment was also rejected. But. Mr. President. that is the only way we are ever going to succeed in detecting and excluding the illegal immigrants who come across the Mexican border into the United States. W3 make a great fuss about the relatively few persons who enter the United States legally if some few of these are later shown to be unworthy. Certainly we should exclude anyone who is unworthy.