Speech #940055069

Mr. President. that I cast no aspersions against any particular individuals or groups. many of whom are highly respectable and useful. This country has always welcomed some immigrants and will continue to do so. We normally allow some 400.000 aliens into our country annually under our immigration laws. But. I am especially concerned about these illegal aliens because of the vast number. conditions of our economy. the soundness of our fiscal affairs and the needs of our people who have devoted their lives to strengthening our Nation. but are now unemployed and unable to find a job even though they are qualified. Congress recently passed a tax bill to provide rebates to taxpayers in order to stimulate the economy. Yet. several billions of dollars are sent out of the country annually by these illegal aliens. thereby worsening our balance of payments. We have passed several pieces of legislation in the past few months costing the Treasury billions of dollars in an attempt to ease the effects of the recession. There is no doubt that the amounts involved would have been much lower had we not had this illegal alien problem. I think we need to take a long. hard look at this entire problem. I think that first we must get the facts. and that is what I am doing here today. or at least making a start on getting the facts. because it is from the facts that some plan or some remedy can be evolved. I have in mind that we will go into this matter at least some. to every extent reasonably possible. in the Committee on Appropriations and I shall present this matter to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee and ask that this be gone into the extent possible under the committees jurisdiction. As a member of that committee I intend to review this matter when the Immigration and Naturalization Service comes before our committee. I do not charge any intentional neglect. of course not. I think these are facts that are not generally known. I think they are facts that are rather hard to deal with. but I also think they are facts that we must deal with. and that the people are expecting us to review the entire matter and find some kind of a remedy or some kind of an answer. Certainly. some consideration must be given to amending our current immigration laws. I believe that consideration should be given to special hardship cases that have merit. But. we owe it to our people to stop this heavy influx of illegal aliens. stop as much of it as we can. We could consider placing more of a burden on the employer. I do not favor any extreme penalty. but the employer could at least make inquiry of the potential employee so as to determine whether or not he is an alien without legal status. and if the employer knowingly hires an illegal alien he should be held accountable in some way. If we fall to stop this influx of illegal aliens into our Nation. our economy will definitely continue to suffer seriously therefrom. We cannot afford to neglect this matter further. I want to say that I know we. from time to time. pass special bills. and I have introduced a few of those bills myself. to take up the case of some desirable alien who is here illegally. and I would not try to stop some procedures in this field in cases where there is merit. But it is this wholesale. overflowing influx year after year of thousands and thousands and it even runt into millions of illegal aliens who are occupying jobs that would otherwise be open and could and would be filled by our own citizens. It not only denies them the privilege of seeking a job. but. in turn. it runs up on the taxpayer. These tremendous amounts from year to year are increasing.