Speech #920109652

Mr. Speaker. at a time when this Nation is battling rising unemployment. illegally entered aliens are taking the jobs of taxpaying Americans. At a time when Congress. and stricken cities and States. are struggling for survival against mushrooming welfare rolls. illegal aliens are going on welfare. adding to our tax burden and bleeding the Nations economy. At a time when the American dollar is fighting for stability and our dollar outflow exceeds the inflow. illegal aliens are taking American jobs and sending their earnings out of the country. At a time when Americans are deploring wages below the poverty level. illegal aliens are undercutting Americans and forcing them onto welfare rolls. Some subversives of various nationalities have unimpeded access to our interior. This is not a border problem. it is a Nation problem. In Dallas. 9.500 illegal aliens were apprehended last year. In Chicago. the apprehensions grew from 1.500 in 1965 to 6.500 last year. In New York City. border patrol officials estimated they could pick up 30.000 known illegal aliens at once if they had the manpower and funds. There are over 100.000 illegal aliens estimated in New York City alone. These conditions exist principally because the directors of the immigration and nautralization service and border patrol have by dereliction of duty or by incredible ignorance of the facts. failed to ask for sufficient funds from Congress. and Congress has not appropriated sufficient money to enable the men in the field to do their duty in protecting America. Morale in the immigration and naturalization service and the border patrol among the dedicated men in the ranks is about the lowest in the history of their services. No one knows accurately how many illegally entered aliens are in this country. Figures presented to the immigration subcommittee. House Judiciary Committee. range from 1 million to 10 million. When you consider the number who have been captured and deported. or released for voluntary departure. a figure of 2 to 3 million seems a reasonable estimate. In the southwest region of the United States. in fiscal 1968. 151.705 aliens were apprehended for violation of the Immigration laws. In 1969. the figure rose to 201.636. In 1970. it was 220.000. Realistic estimates for the number of apprehensions for 1971 are around 350.000. How many are still in the United States? A high immigration service official estimated to me that there are 30.000 illegally entered aliens In New York City that are known to the service. They could be arrested quickly. if the manpower were available to do the job. and the transportation available to return the aliens to their home country. Beyond this. enough employees could go on and on. arresting and deporting thousands and thousands. In Dallas. a detail of 10 officers. in 12 working days. rounded up 1.728 illegal aliens. Apparently they had only scratched the surface. because more aliens were captured on the last day than on the first. Unfortunatley. funds did not permit this sustained effort. but the Dallas office picked up 9.500 persons for violating the immigration laws last year. Because he so often enters the United States by wading. or swimming the Rio Grande. the illegal alien is popularly known as a "wetback." but the day has passed when the "wetback" is content to work on a southwestern farm or ranch. Like many of our own farm and ranch workers. he has heard the lure of the big cities. the promise of more money. He has quickly learned the value of American social security and is working himself into jobs where he can get a social security number. The word spreads fast. John Holland. District Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Antonio. was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor as saying: Nearly every one we get is headed for Chicago. Mrs. L. W. Herney. head of the Chicago Immigration Service. says 1.500 aliens were arrested in that area in 1965. and 3 years later the number had grown to more than 6.500. There were reports of these illegally entered aliens headed by the thousands for steel mills and meatpacking industries. Wherever they go. they take away jobs that should be held by American citizens.