Speech #920154984

James R. Hayden. In describing the impact of immigrants on the New Bedford School System. he indicated that in 1965. prior to the enactment of our present immigration statutes. the public school system had 29 immigrant children enrolled. Thereafter and every year since. over 300 children have been enrolled. What has emerged in essence Is a bleak picture of inadequate resources being overtaxed. The people who suffer as a result are not only immigrants but also citizens of the Commonwealth. At the present. we have no accurate measure of the number of illegal aliens in the Commonwealth. We can. however. measure their impact by the burden they add to presently available social services. To this extent. we must begin to supplement existing resources while we continue to search for ways to stem the flow of illegal aliens into the United States. The aliens who are here illegally have been drawn to our land by the freedoms and opportunities which abound. They came not to thwart the law but to live within its promise of justice. Owing to the fact that they have been generally unfamiliar with our complicated immigration statutes. they have all too often fallen victim to employers and attorneys eager to profit from their ignorance of the law. They entered this country not only in the wrong way but at the wrong time--during a recession when unemployment was high and social services were severely overtaxed. Their plight cannot be ignored.