Speech #960235105

And we cannot allow our laws. designed to provide for this generous refuge in an evenhanded and fair manner. to be ignored. We cannot allow any group in our society to tell us that we dare not enforce the laws for them because they live above the demands of the law. Our laws are necessary in immigration affairs. because the pressure to immigrate to the United States is so great. By accepting hundreds of thousands of t immigrants. we have stimulated millions of people in their desperate desire to s come to America. There are an esti- 1 mated 14 million refugees worldwide. By the year 2000. 5 billion people will live t in nations with abject poverty. Crushed f by debt and energy costs. less developed I countries cannot expand their econo- a mies fast enough to keep pace with their t growing populations. Droughts and wars continue to displace millions. Congress has responded to this pressure by increasing immigration ceilings. Courts have responded by restricting enforcement of the laws. Special interest groups have responded by insisting that their constituents receive preferential treatment. The result is that annual legal immigration has almost doubled since 1970. Illegal immigration has skyrocketed. and our ability to control it has withered. Once an illegal immigrant enters this country. he is safe. Safe to displace Americans from jobs. safe to take housing. safe to use resources and social services. and safe to bring in his family and friends as future illegal immigrants. And safe to demonstrate in front of government buildings. as happened in Chicago. We all pay for our toleration of such illegality. We pay for the shortage of energy. we pay for the unemployment of displaced U.S. workers. The Secretary of Labor. Ray Marshall. has said that. if only 2 million jobs held by illegal immigrants are freed. unemployment will drop below 4 percent. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that the untaxed income of illegal aliens may be as much as $6 billion. We all pay. also. for refugees. A report done by the Department of State at my request showed that our costs for refugee assistance programs will be $1.7 billion in fiscal year 1980. and more than $2.1 billion in fiscal year 1981. Those figures were prepared before the administration announced plans to bring in thousands of additional refugeesand they were announced before Fidel Castro implemented plans to disrupt our refugee program. On May 6. 1979. the Washington Post estimated that the cost of this new wave of refugees from Cuba "could rise toward $1 billion or more." If this happens. the total cost of refugee assistance to the American taxpayers will be over $3 billion in 1981. Unfortunately. this assistance will not terminate quickly. but will go on for many years. We have reached the point at which millions of foreign nationals are demanding immigration to the United States as a right. We are. deliberately and by inattention. weakening our ability to say "no" to those who break down our doors by force or by fraud. We have lost control of immigration to this country. Our immigration policy is no longer set by Congress. or even set n Washington. Our policy is made in Tehran. in Havana. in Port au Prince. in Hanoi. Foreign governments have been uick to see and to use the opportunity )resented by our loss of control. our lack of will to enforce our laws. Other naions are not willing to help us enforce our immigration laws when we show ourelves unwilling to exercise control. Mexco guards its southern border strictly rnd efficiently against illegal immigra.ion. but leaves its northern border open or those who wish to emigrate to the United States. Canada. with a rational r .nd controlled immigration system itself. r ias become a major waystation for ( South American and Caribbean illegal immigration to the United States. The United States. for all its generosity. cannot accept all the people oppressive regimes want to be rid of. We must understand that the last country to send refugees in massive numbers will not be Vietnam. or Cambodia. or Haiti. or Cubathat the potential immigrants to the United States are beyond counting. But we are not limitless in our resources. or in our ability to accept refugees and immigrants. We must have an enforced limit on immigration. and we must set it quickly. We must regain control of our immigration. Every passing month has shown that we can wait no longer. Some may counsel delay or request special exceptionsand they will all have very good cases. very humane purroses. But we must be firm. We must set a limit. generous though it may be. and stick to it. We can still be flexible and responsive within our immigration ceiling. If an emergency occurs. we can adjust our priorities and allocations within such a ceiling. But we must keep in mind our overall goal. and not become overwhelmed by every individual or group problem.