Speech #930276531

Speaker. in recent weeks attention has once again been focused on those aliens who have entered the United States by other than legal means and who are attempting to eke out an existence while fearing apprehension by the authorities. Most of the stories focus on the Governments efforts to apprehend and deport these hapless men. women. and children and on the allegations that they are taking jobs which could be performed by American citizens or that they are swelling the welfare rolls. Tragically. these accounts fail to report the fact that the vast majority of socalled illegal aliens perform jobs which most citizens would not even consider doing and that they perform this work at substandard wages and often under hazardous or undesirable conditions. Seldom is any consideration given to the constant misery and fear which these people are forced to endure. the conditions in their native lands which have precipitated their departure. or their victimization by unscrupulous employers. landlords. and creditors. One does not often read that. in the course of dragnets conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and other Federal agencies. the illegals are frequently degraded and are subjected to demeaning procedures. many of which violate those basic rights which we in this body have sworn to protect and defend. Frequently these operations to apprehend illegal aliens result in any person who may speak with an accent or who may present a "foreign" appearance being confronted by a Federal agent and forced to prove their citizenship. Basic civil liberties and simple human dignity are many times ignored in the course of these investigations. Particularly distasteful is the fact that the term "illegal alien" has become a code word for the Spanish speaking and all too often Puerto Ricans. Mexican Americans. Cubans. and other Spanishspeaking citizens are needlessly embarrassed. inconvenienced. and intimidated. either directly or indirectly.