Speech #910021075

Speaker. I am introducing legislation today to provide a periodic check on the alien commuters who live in Canada or Mexico and commute to jobs in the United States. My bill calls for an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act to assure more effective regulation of the influx of these workers into the labor market on the U.S. side of the border. I have no intention of halting this practice. Rather. my proposal is simply to require that each of these socalled greencard aliens obtain recertification every 6 months by the U.S. Department of Labor. This certification would show that the aliens continued presence in the United States to seek or to continue employment does not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employed. I am informed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service that. at last count. there were 1.488 registered greencard holders who are coming into the Niagara frontier from Canada regularly for fulltime jobs. The total crossing through Canadian and Mexican borders is estimated at about 50.000. of whom 80 percent are crossing from Mexico. 0 The bill also would eliminate the current exemption from criminal statutes for those who knowingly employ aliens who have entered the United States illegally. This is a particular problem on the Mexican border where the U.S. Border Patrol has reported an increase in the number of apprehensions of immigrants illegally entering the United States. many of them lured by U.S. employers who are now exempt from prosecution.