Speech #930044318

Section 2 of H.R. 982 proposes procedures under which penalties can be assessed against employers or their agents who knowingly hire aliens who have entered the country illegally. or who have entered legally but do not have the necessary clearance for entering the work force. As a member of the Legal and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Operations. I have participated in hearings that seek to identify managerial and operational weaknesses in the Immigration and Naturalization Service that might have contributed to the vastly increased numbers of aliens who have entered or remained in the United States in an illegal status in the past 10 years. The statistics are overwhelming. The jurisdiction of our committee is. of course. limited under the rules of the House. to matters relating to the economy and efficiency of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. We cannot legislate in the area of controlling the influx of aliens. we can only make recommendations relating to management and operational problems of the Service. However. in fulfilling our specific responsibilities. our subcommittee has been made abundantly aware of what has come to be known as the illegal alien problem. The illegal alien problem can take many forms. We know for a fact that aliens have. without legal documents and required examinations. slipped over the borders from Mexico and Canada. and through ports on the Atlantic. Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. and through international airports. Once here. they have entered the labor market without right to do so. all too often they have been hired at substandard wages and worked excessively long hours by unprincipled employers who quickly learn of their illegal status. If these workers are accounted for at all under Internal Revenue laws. they make excessive dependency claims and underpay their taxes. We have reports of employers who. on the day before payday. report the presence of such aliens. who are removed by enforcement authorities and put through deportation procedures before they can collect their pay. If H.R. 982 does anything to halt these deplorable practices. then it is good legislation and worthy of my vote. Suppose the alien cannot find employment.