Speech #930336099

Mr. Speaker. I have introduced legislation today which I hope can begin to control the cataclysmic illegal alien problem in this Nation. It is reliably estimated that there are between 7 and 8 million illegal aliens in the United States. Not only are these individuals in violation of the Immigration and Naturalization Act. they are also contributing heavily to a number of acute social and economic problems. My legislation is twofold in purpose. It is designed to both curb the influx of illegal aliens by increasing immigration and naturalization enforcement personnel by 2.500. and return more than 1 million jobs which are occupied by illegal aliens back to American workers by making it a felony for an employer to knowingly hire illegal aliens. If we are to control this grave national problem our first step must be to concentrate our efforts at preventing the initial entrance of these individuals onto our soil. The present numbers of INS personnel stationed at our borders and alien inspection stations is totally inadequate to deal with the problem and helps to explain why only 800.000 illegal immigrants were able to be apprehended last year. According to Attorney General William Saxbe the shortage of personnel at the 2.000mile Mexican border where more than 88 percent of all illegal aliens come from is so acute that. and I quote. .We are barely able to respond to one third of the alarms set off by illegal aliens going past electronic sensors. Further examples of the problem are seen in the fact that almost 30 percent of all illegal aliens apprehended are repeaters. By beefing up the INS enforcement branch by 2.500 personnel we may at long last be able to muster an effective battle plan to buck the tide of illegal aliens. We must slap new and harsher fines on the employer who continues to insist on filling his jobs from the ranks of the illegitimate. We. in this Nation. are enduring a very high rate of unemployment. and if we can effectively prevent future employment of illegal aliens. we could free as many as 1 million new jobs which are desperately needed by American workers. The advantages to passing this legislation are obvious. We will be protecting the American worker and his rights to employment. We can also reduce our public assistance rolls by removing not only hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens but certain Americans who through unemployment were forced to seek such assistance. The concept of America being the great melting pot is today being abused. Our Nation grew strong and owes a great deal to the millions of immigrants who came over in a time of need and worked for the betterment of our Nation. Today we are dealing with a new and entirely different entity. the alien who has illegally entered this country has weakened rather than strengthened it.