Speech #920283019

The provisions of H.R. 16188 provide no meaningful safeguards for the American worker and certainly will not expand employment opportunities. Finally. I find it difficult to believe that an immigration measure will help to improve domestic labor standards. Although I am very much opposed to this legislation. I do so with some regret as H.R. 16188 contains a provision whereby qualified Western Hemisphere aliens may adjust their immigration status to that of permanent resident without having to leave the United States. This provision is long overdue as the current requirement that a Western Hemisphere alien leave in order to administratively adjust his status has worked an undue personal and financial hardship on hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans. I am hopeful that the committee will pursue this issue and favorably report a separate measure to effect this necessary change in our immigration laws. Mr. Chairman. I am fearful that the unfounded charges which this legislation perpetuates will serve only to fan the flames of prejudice and misunderstanding and that it will discriminate against many citizens and bona fide permanent residents. regardless of the supposed safeguards. By enacting this measure the House will be avoiding one of the root causes of the illegal alien situationthe highly discriminatory limitation on the number of persons who can annually emigrate to the United States from Western Hemisphere countries. This is the issue to which we must address ourselves and not to some imagined problem which H.R. 16188 hopes to solve. I urge the defeat of the measure before us which represents nothing more than a return to the days of harsher. more inhumane immigration policies and the grossly discriminatory features of the WalterMcCarran Act. Finally. I would warn the members of the committee that there are many areas of this country where the illegal aliens are not Latin Americans but Europeans from Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece. My own district in New York City is one such example. Although at present the term. "illegal alien" is a code word which applies primarily to Spanishspeaking people. the effect of the legislation would inevitably and ultimately be to set up a double standard with respect to anyone with a foreign accent as the safest way to avoid inquiries by the Attorney General. The effect of this act therefore is to reduce employment opportunities for all who have a foreign name or accent and as such it represents precisely the kind of legislation that should be repudiated.