Speech #960255081

Mr. President. the fact that 114.000 Cuban immigrants have entered the United States outside of our immigration laws dramatically illustrates that neither the Congress nor the President has firm control over U.S. immigration. Neither do we have control over the amount of taxpayer money that will have to be spent to screen. process. and resettle these new immigrants. The result is that we have a runaway immigration policy which permits more immigrants to enter this country than the rest of the free world combined. Our legal immigration now stands at the highest level in 50 years. And if we count the millions of illegal aliens. our immigration is at its highest in our history as a nation. This countrys tradition of opening its doors to oppressed people from throughout the world is well established and has played a significant role in the development and strength of our Nation. However. even the most ardent supporters of our opendoor policy concede that there are limits to the number of immigrants and refugees we can accommodate. without imposing serious and unacceptable burdens on our citizens. The present Cuban refugee crisis and the plight of tens of thousands of Haitians who entered illegally point up the problems uncontrolled immigration creates. Even though we have declared the admission of 114.000 Cuban refugees a "disaster." we still face the possibility of more arrivals. The Coast Guard has stopped the flow of boats from the United States toward Cuba. but this does not prevent the use of other boats to once again revive the massive exodus. This threat is real because we know that facilities at Mariel Harbor have been improved and some experts conclude that Castro is willing to let as many as an additional 500.000 people leave his island kingdom. A lesser but more persistent problem is the continued flow of Haitians into this country. Our laws are necessary in immigration affairs because the pressure to emigrate to the United States is so great. By accepting hundreds of thousands of immigrants. we have stimulated millions of people in their desperate desire to come to America. There are an estimated 14 million refugees worldwide. By the year 2000. 5 billion people will live in nations with abject poverty. Crushed by debt and energy -costs. less developed countries cannot expand their economies fast enough to keep pace with their growing populations. Droughts and wars continue to displace millions. In the face of these mounting pressures. we can no longer afford the luxury of an openended immigration policy. It would be good if we could invite the poor of the world to come to the United States and if we could provide them with a decent standard of living. But it is not possible. We have seen from experience that there are millions of people who are willing to become illegal aliens or refugees if they perceive that there is a chance they can get into this country. I recognize that immigrants to this country have made a substantial contribution to the economy and society as a whole.. However. these contributions must be placed in the proper perspective. Many people assume that. because some immigration has been good for this country. unlimited immigration would be even better. Further. we are constantly reminded that the inscription on the Statue of Liberty says. "Give me your tired. your poor. your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." The philosophy underlying this inscription still has significant meaning to us as a nation. However. it must be applied in accordance with the realities of the world we live in today and not as it was in 1885. In that year. the population of the United States was approximately 50 million instead of the 220 million of today. The immigrants who reached our shores in that era did not find 8 million people out of work and were not privy to welfare programs which cost the taxpayers billions of dollars. I believe that we must reconcile the humanitarian needs of millions of people throughout the world with similar types of needs which exist in this country. There are needy refugees. yet we must place these in perspective with the 17 million American children the U.S. National Commission on the International Year of the Child found to be living in "debilitating poverty." We can admire the immigrant who is willing to work long and hard to get ahead financially. yet his desires for a better life must be balanced with the tremendous economic and social costs associated with our own millions of unemployed. Poverty still exists in this country and we have a long way to go before this problem is solved. We have seen from the recent Miami riot that we only make matters worse when we admit large numbers of oppressed people before fulfilling our commitment to improve the lives of our own citizens.