Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of H.R. 982. the amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act. This bill is a step in the direction of remedying the "illegal alien" problemthe problem of aliens entering this country illegally. or entering the country legally. but working. in violation of their visas. The step which H.R. 982 constitutes. however. is a small one. I want to take a few moments to explain to my colleagues why I support this measure. and where I think their attention should be directed on an important national problem. One to two million aliensour knowledge is so poor that we cannot estimate more preciselyare now living illegally in the United States. Their numbers have grown tremendously since 1965. when the Bracero program was terminated and the Congress enacted legislation which greatly curtailed the number of Western Hemisphere nationals who could enter this country each year. In my home area of southern California. we may have as many as 500.000 illegal aliens. When Raymond Farrell. who recently retired as Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. appeared before my Legal and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee of the Government Operations Committee. I asked him how bad the situation really was. He told me: You can actually throw a rock up In the air in a large city such as Los Angeles. and probably hit an alien who is illegally in the United States. But what is the Immigration and Naturalization Service doing about the problem? From fiscal year 1964 to 1972. its manpower increased by only 9 percent. but more importantly it has failed to keep up with technological advances. The INS does not use helicopters to patrol our borders. it employes airplanes only when funds for gasoline can be spared from its meager budget.
Identified stereotypes
Generalizing that you can throw a rock in Los Angeles and hit an illegal alien.