Speech #940077952

And most significantly in the area of public assistance. a California court recently held that an alien could not be denied welfare benefits because of his illegal status. In addition to the foregoing. the employment of aliens adversely affects our balance of payments for much of the money they earn is sent home. Further. the apprehension. detention. and deportation process required to remove aliens from this country is extremely costly. If the alien agrees to depart voluntarily. the taxpayer pays for his ticket home. Should the alien resist deportation. not only does the taxpayer get stuck with the transportation fees but also with the interim cost incurred in the detention and deportation proceedings. Recently it cost the Oregon Immigration and Naturalization Service $22.000 just to pick up 285 illegally employed aliens over a 5day period and transport them back to Mexico. The illegal alien is primarily lured to this country by the prospect of lucrative employment and not the availability of social services or the desire to provide his children with a better education. Therefore. If we restrict the possibility of employing the illegal aliens. many of the foregoing problems will likewise be eliminated. The arrival of the alien In this country and his subsequent employment is essentially a problem that only the Government is equipped to handle. It will serve little purpose for us to simply tell employers that they cannot hire illegal aliens as we cannot provide them with definite standards by which they can determine who the illegal are. Likewise. it is facetious for us to expect the alien himself to own up to his illegal status for he has already broken the law. We. in Government. must be the prime movers if we are ever to realistically attempt to solve the problem of illegal alien employment in this country. I am today introducing a bill which would require the Government to take this initiative. The bill would rely on the resources of the Social Security Administration to ascertain the status of persons of suspected illegality.