Speech #930121033

Mr. Chairman. regardless of any merit contained in H.R. 981. it seems paradoxical that time be given here today to consider legislation having to do with legal aliens when the country. and particularly southern California and the southwest region. is being overrun with illegal aliens due to an almost total breakdown in the capacity of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to enforce immigration laws. H.R. 981 will: First. extend to the Western Hemisphere the seven category preference system and the 20.000 per country limit on the number of immigrant visas available annually. which is currently in effect for the Eastern Hemisphere. second. expand the present refugee provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act to include conditional entry for political refugees from any country in the world. which has the effect of extending to Western Hemisphere refugees the benefits which present law gives only to the Eastern Hemisphere. and third. amends the labor certification provisions of existing law to exclude certain categories of aliens unless the Secretary of Labor certifies the need for the kind of labor they can perform. INS records show that "more than a million" illegal aliens are pouring into this country each year. This. of course. can be nothing more than an estimate. But. considering its source. it is probably a reliable estimate. This condition is. I am convinced. brought about by failure of the Department of Justice and the Office of Management and Budget to recognize the importance of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the vital need for INS to adequately perform its functions. I happen to be a member of the Legal and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Operations. Two years ago this month our chairman. the Honorable WM. J. RANDALL. asked the General Accounting Office to review the operations of the Immigration and Naturalization Service with a view to determining the economy. efficiency. and effectiveness of that Agencys operations. When I came to Congress this year I was assigned to the Legal and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee and our first order of business was a hearing concerning the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Coming from Orange County. Calif.. I was. of course. well aware of the illegal alien problem. In fact. there are estimates that just about onehalf of the illegal aliens in the United States are located in Southern California. As our hearings progressed it became quite evident to me that the failure of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to effectively cope with the illegal alien problem in the Southwest is a condition that exists to some extent or other at all United States ports of entry as well as in the various INS districts located throughout the interior of the United States. The Legal and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee has now conducted about 10 days of hearings on INS weaknesses which have led to the mushrooming problem of illegal aliens. The General Accounting Office has compiled two well documented reports on this problem. The subcommittee staff is still conducting an extensive investigation of procedures followed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. the Agency charged with enforcing immigration laws. Two onsite investigatory trips have been made to Texas. Arizona. and California.